Siddhatta Gotama — Karen Armstrong on Ego, Envy, and Enlightenment

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Siddhatta Gotama — Karen Armstrong on Ego, Envy, and Enlightenment

In the Himalayas

Among the most tectonic movements in history occurred during the Axial Age between 800 and 200 BCE. From true coinage to papermaking, it was indeed a period of great advance in commerce, knowledge, and urbanization.

It was also an era of intense cultural development, which included the rise of Taoism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Greek rationalism. Yet despite their great diversity, many of these flourishing systems “shared a common impulse”, writes the historian Karen Armstrong. “They placed faith increasingly on the individual who was to seek inner depth rather than magical control.”

It was also in the sixth century BCE when Siddhatta Gotama, at the age of twenty nine, left the comforts of his palace, wife and child on the foothills of the Himalayas to find his own salvation—a decision that would lead him someday to the founding of Buddhism.

You see, as the son of Suddhodana, a leader of the Shakya clan, the young Siddhatta had lived a sheltered life, cloistered from the hardships and horrors of humanity. And it was only when he witnessed firsthand the cycles of aging, illness, death, and corruption, outside the safe harbors of his home, that he grew disenchanted.

A life of luxury, tradition, duty and domesticity was suddenly of little value to him. As Armstrong writes, he was now “yearning for an existence that was ‘wide open’”. And just like that, he “walked away from [his] insulated pleasure palace… and joined a growing force of wandering monks searching for spiritual enlightenment during an age of upheaval.”

The Middle Way

Indeed, Gotama was not the only traveller on a voyage of self discovery. At the time, many “yogins, ascetics and forest-monks had all realized”, Armstrong notes, “that the self-conscious and eternally greedy ego was at the root of the [human] problem.” The monks of Magadha, for example, attributed human suffering to desire, craving, and want; while the Upanisads warned of the dangers of ignorance and of failing to reflect on oneself. The householder’s life, Armstrong adds, became a symbol of this “treadmill”. Their ambitions, attachments, desires and heedlessness tethered them to a cycle of sorrow and drudgery.

To live a more transcendental life, Gotama believed that people could “extinguish” their vices through cultivation and discipline. He proposed a “Middle Way”—a philosophy that avoids unbridled self-indulgence and fanatical asceticism. Both extremes, he realized during his time as an ascetic wanderer, would result only in harm to the mind and body. Instead, “in his system, meditation would take the place of sacrifice… [while] compassion would take the place of punitive asceticism”, Armstrong writes.

Moreover, his method, the Noble Eightfold Path, emphasized the cultivation of moral virtue through the right speech, action, and livelihood; meditation through effort, mindfulness and concentration; and insight or wisdom via the right view and resolve. He intended all of this as a means to find and wrest the attachments and delusions that coursed inside him.

Six years after leaving his home, as the legend retells, Gotama sat under a sacred tree and separated his mind from the deleterious facets of our material world. Today, many people make the same pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya in eastern India, the place where this tree once stood. The place where Gotama is said to have finally achieved his enlightenment.

“Just as the ocean slopes gradually, falls away gradually, and shelves gradually with no sudden incline… so in this method, training, discipline and practice take effect by slow degrees, with no sudden perception of the ultimate truth.”

Siddhata Gotama in Karen Armstrong. (2001). Buddha. 

Brahma’s intervention

Of course, spiritual liberation is not something for us to manufacture or buy like widgets in a marketplace. While teachers and communities can help, individuals on a quest to betterment are ultimately responsible for their own cultivation.

Interestingly, it is said that Gotama was initially apprehensive about sharing his newfound wisdom and methods with the world. Other townsmen and townswomen, he believed, were either too ill-disciplined, illusioned, or attached to make the effort to change. 

It is at this point, however, that Gotama was struck by realization. The scriptures say that the deity Brahma appeared before him, encouraging him to teach and participate in society, and to give others the chance to lead a better life.

As Armstrong explains, “the story of Brahma’s intervention may indicate that there was a conflict within [Gotama’s] mind, and that while one part of him wanted to retire into solitude and enjoy the peace of Nibbana undisturbed, there was another part of him that realized that he simply could not neglect his fellow creatures in this way.”

This crossroad is significant. Many of us choose to live on impulse and denial, blocking out the wrongs and sorrows of the world because it is emotionally convenient. Modern notions of ‘positive thinking’ are popular in part for this reason. But enlightenment requires us to not only improve upon ourselves, but to accept our reality holistically, to recognize the plight of others, and to be compassionate where possible. As Armstrong writes, Gotama “could not remain locked away safely in his private Nibbana [because] he would thus be entering a new kind of pleasure-palace.” He would otherwise be no different to his younger sheltered self.

Ethical alchemy

This epiphany led Gotama back to the heavings of society. “He would spend the next forty-five years of his life”, Armstrong recounts, “tramping tirelessly through the cities and towns of the Ganges plain, bringing his [teachings] to gods, animals, men and women… Buddhist art usually depicts [him] sitting alone, lost in solitary meditation, but in fact the greater part of his life… was spent surrounded by large, noisy crowds of people.”

I should note, however, as Armstrong writes, that scholars “have no means of distinguishing which of the stories and sermons are authentic and which are invented.” We just do not have a preponderance of evidence for this. Many surviving texts, for instance, were transcribed by ancient monks from their memories, many of which arrived years and decades after the life and death of Gotama himself. Clearly this leaves room for omissions, misinterpretation and personal projection.

“It is also true”, Armstrong adds, that past scholars were “more concerned about the meaning of historical events” than the events themselves. Symbolism, analogy, mythology, and storytelling inevitably enters to strengthen the legend and messages. In the end, perhaps “religion is not about believing things”, Armstrong writes. “It is ethical alchemy. It is about behaving in a way that changes you.” 

Decay and diligence

Still, the life and story of Siddhatta Gotama remains relevant to this day because it characterizes the human condition so well. Yet despite the centuries of social development since, many of us will fail to acquire the moral virtue and wisdom that he spoke about. And while most would agree, for instance, that excessive ambition and desire is unhealthy, many of us will return to our lives, families and workplaces to perpetuate this very cycle. Even more insidious are the false institutions and religions that exist only to feed the power and egos of its leaders inside the core.

Where philosophers like Descartes emphasized the sense of self (“I think, therefore I am”), Gotama likened the human mind to a mercurial monkey that swings and vaults through the forest tops—forever in flux, unrest, and transition. This symbolic difference is also a reminder, Armstrong notes, that egotism is sometimes a myopic and limiting concept. Our transient and murky selves are ultimately moored to a web of relations and the fabric of nature.

So we must remind ourselves of our insignificance and impermanence. And while life is fleeting, it can still be personally meaningful and enriching if we are attentive and careful. As Gotama said: “All compounded things are subject to decay and disintegration. Work out your own salvation with diligence.”

Sources and further reading