How did the childhood experiences of Siddharta Gautama (the Buddha) lead to his questioning of the spiritual p

Question

How did the childhood experiences of Siddharta Gautama (the Buddha) lead to his questioning of the spiritual practices of his time?

Answer 1

The spiritual practices of his time were aimed at a variety of ways of dividing people or separating one aspect of self from another (bad and good).
He tried them. He tested them for their ability to free him from disease, old age, and death.

None survived the test.

This left a problem. If there is no way to avoid disease, old age and death, perhaps there is something that is already not subject to it?

Was it the self, the soul?

If you understand Buddhism at all, this was a question that led him to an understanding of what the "self" was and WAS NOT.

Does this help?

Answer 2

Based on prophecies at his birth, Siddharta Gautama (the historical Buddha) would either be a great philosopher/religous leader or a great king. His father, who was a king, wanted the latter, so set about keeping his son insulated from the world and training him only in kingship. It wasn't until sometime after he was married, had fathered a child, that Siddharta actually went out into the world and saw things previously kept from him. He saw:
*birth
*old age
*sickness
*death
This experience led him to question everything that he had previously been taught; so he left his father's palace and everything precious to him to seek a greater truth. In so doing, through various paths and practices, he eventually became "enlightened" - he became a buddha (enlightened one) by seeing and experiencing absolute reality (the actual is-ness of all things), beyond what we generally experience as "relative reality".

At this point, he began to teach so that others too could reach the same understanding from their own side. He taught the path of the Four Noble Truths, the Six Perfections and the Eight-Fold Path for another fifty years.

Answer 3

The buddha was held in the palace (he was a prince) because of a prophecy his father believed in. The buddha snuck out during his youth and saw the real world and how much it differed from the "palace dreamworld" he was brough up in. He was cut off from death, age and disease in the palace.

So upon seeing these suffering people outside the palace he made the vow to find an end to suffering for all people. A noble mission, but which he failed. He found something else instead though. What he found was that nothing could "cure" people of suffering. He found a psychological method that people could practise for them to "cure" suffering within themselves AND even avoid suffering in the future.

All suffering starts within ourselves. Suffering may be triggered from outside of us, but we are always responsible for the suffering to make roots and develop more suffering.

The practise is failsafe - however... The system has proven to be very difficult to explain, and many people wont accept that they have to work themselves. Those usually turn to a religion of some kind, where they spend their lifetime hoping to get a solution brought to them on a silver plate.

You can learn more from this monk: [e-mail]
He is an excellent teacher and explains the practise in very simple terms.

Answer 4

He was completely sheltered from the world when he was a child. When he wanted to tour the kingdom, His father, the King, would have everything cleaned and the poverty and disease hidden, while he made his rounds. When he was a teen he finally saw disease and poverty and from that point knew he was bound for death and vowed to find the solution!

Answer 5

He was born into royalty and realized the suffering that his attachments caused so sought to enlighten himself by casting off his wealthy trappings and finding happiness without attachment. Me: Buddhist