Buddhism
Emily and Zoha
Our Claim
• Prince Siddhartha was very
curious about his community,
and the outside world. He
looked through to the world with
widened eyes and an open
mind.
The prince looked at the world
beyond him self, and he cared
about the health and welfare of
others.
Our Three Opinions
• Prince Siddhartha was a very curious man. He looked through to the world
with widened eyes and an open mind.
• Until he was 16, Prince Siddhartha was kept inside his palace, hidden by his
father from the outside world. This is why the young Prince was so shocked
when he saw three ways of suffering for the first time.
• Prince Siddhartha started his way towards enlightenment
wrong way, but soon found himself taking the right
middle way.
the
of the
You, might ask, “If the
Buddha was so skinny, why
in statues is it so fat?”
• Well, we were asking the same thing. Then we came
down to one answer: There are lots of theories. Some
think the Buddha represents Prince Siddartha himself.
But the true meaning of the Buddha just means “one
who has achieved a state of perfect enlightenment”
and there have been several people who have been
given the title. Some people believe that being
overweight was associated with prosperity.
• The last theory is a theory held by most Buddhist
scholars. The theory claims there was a monk that
called himself “Knowing This”, (850 A.D. to 916 A.D.)
He carried a fat pack, and was famous for his big
belly. No one knew where he came from. When asked
how to obtain nirvana he would simply set his pack
down and not say a word. When asked what happens
after nirvana, he would pick his pack up and leave. He
is probably the inspiration for Fat Buddha, as the
statues started appearing in the late 800’S, 1200
years after Prince Siddhartha died.
How Buddhism Relates to Modern Day
• We believe that Buddhism relates to modern day through many ways. Across
the globe, there are many people practicing buddhism. But, as we researched,
we found stories of adults and children both making religious sacrifices and
choices. For example, we found the story of a young adult who was meditating
for six months straight, not moving, not eating, and not drinking. This boy had
been bitten by a very very poisonous snake, and had made the statement that
medicine would not save him, but six straight years of meditation would.
This is a Buddha meditating, possibly finding
his enlightenment.
This is a picture of Prince Siddhartha
enjoying his royalty before he became an ascetic.
Other pictures of Buddhas meditating. The first statue is made of cherry wood, the second statue is made of gold. We believe
that this represents that you can take two different paths. One path is royalty and wealthiness. The other is giving up some
wealth to help others around you.
This picture shows Prince Siddhartha
seeing one of the three forms of suffering: sickness.
We believe that this picture represents how happy and
peaceful Prince Siddhartha felt after reaching enlightenment.
Bibliography
Website Sources
WEBSITES:
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/5minbud.htm
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/boy-hailed-as-a-modern-buddha-hasbeen-fasting-for-six-months-517774.html
http://www.aboutbuddha.org/english/buddhism-today.htm/
http://www.shambhala.org/buddhism.php
Our real world expert is Robert Thurman.