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Siddhartha Gautama was raised into royalty; he was born in Nepal in a tribe called the Shakyas. At the time he was the king's son and prophesied to be a spiritual leader. Shielding his son from seeing the atrocities of the outside world. His father kept him in his own constructed palace, one day when he was older he finally went outside the gates and saw the world for what it was. It was then, fraught with pain that he decided to leave his fortune to take on the prayer life. One day as he was given a bowl of rice while fasting and meditating, it was then that he released that you didn't have to go to lengths to be as holy as those who do. He decided to meditate under a tree until he found inner peace, remaining there for seven days while he was doing this he “saw his entire life” and “eventually he saw the solutions to all the world's sufferings.” While at first reluctant to explain what he had learned because he could not put into words. The king of gods convinced him to spread the word of salvation and that is what he did for the rest of his life. He spread the word of dharma which gives people a way to be enlightened and people still follow his lessons today.

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Why is Siddhartha Gautama a Truly Radical Person

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Why is Siddhartha Gautama a Truly Radical Person

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Truly radical people are people who promote out of box thinking and open-mindedness, question presumptions about how the world should be, work to improve their circumstances for the well-being of others, and turn old worldviews into better and more developed view. Siddhartha Gautama fits these definitions, he promoted thinking out of the box by offering people an alternative to self-tormented religion. Before Gautama, there was the belief that only by extreme measures could one get close to God, which is a closed-minded view, Gautama and his teachings showed the world that there are a lot of ways to achieve inner peace, introducing the world to an open-minded thought. Gautama questioned the status quo of religion because people had such a closed-minded view of their religion. While he didn't change the world overtly through political or physical ways, he changed it indirectly through religion, Gautama said: "I teach only two things, O disciples, the nature of suffering and the cessation of suffering.". I believe the way Gautama worked for a change of society instead of seeking obedience is through the fact that he was a pacifist. He did not spread lies against Hinduism, by allowing your own set of rules when teaching the word of salvation and how to live your life normally. He did not force people to listen to his teachings, he went out in public and began talking to those who would listen. With every new idea in the world, there are sceptics and those who try to shut them down, and it's no different for Gautama and the teachings he used since he "fought" his former Hindu religion. Gautama was bound to have people who mocked his ways and beliefs and tried to stop him from preaching what they felt was lies. He fought this by just ignoring allowing other people to have their own decisions.

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Gautama said "Buddhism does not prevent anyone from learning the teachings of other religions" this signifies that Buddhism is not your regular religion. To clarify Gautama once said "religion is not a law, but a disciplinary code which should be followed with understanding, if there are reasonable teachings in other religions, His followers are free to respect such teachings. While Gautama himself didn't follow his religion as to speak he did follow the lessons that later formed the pillars of Buddhism and by following these lessons he helped others but ultimately helped himself. Because Gautama followed the pillars of Buddhism, this influenced him by making choices that don’t affect other people, he respected every aspect of a person’s opinion but still challenged it.

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Through my investigation, I found that the life of Gautama and his teachings are inspiring to those he taught directly and me. Before completing this task, I thought that religion was a set of lifelong rules of conduct and when you changed, you left the old ones behind and took on the new ones. Adding to my research, I found that Gautama believed that religion was a loose set of rules, I discovered that I now have a more open mind to religion and what it is and the idea of religion to me is no longer the fixed rules of life. A religion gives someone the purpose of life and a goal to strive for, Gautama and his teachings still inspire people today even though the Buddhism religion started 2600 years ago.

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Fields, R. (2018). Who Is The Buddha? - The Story of Siddhartha Gautama. [online] Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Available at: https://tricycle.org/magazine/who-was-buddha-2/ [Accessed 29 Mar. 2020].

Violatti, C. and Violatti, C. (2017). Siddhartha Gautama. [online] Ancient History Encyclopedia. Available at: https://www.ancient.eu/Siddhartha_Gautama/ [Accessed 29 Mar. 2020].

Biography. (2019). Buddha. [online] Available at: https://www.biography.com/religious-figure/buddha [Accessed 5 Mar. 2020].