If you try to experience an original landscape of Buddhism, I believe that you must know Buddha’s state of mind before he became a monk.
He who was named “Gautama Siddhartha” was a prince of Kapila Castle, Sakya which was a small tribal nation in the foot of the Himalayas 2500 years ago. Although he was a prince of a country, he became a monk.
The reason is not from the theme of the solution of human’s birth, aging, sickness, and death as it is commonly referred to. In his childhood, he had conflict about his own future and in his youth he had despair to the world of humans. Despair makes us lose sight of our places.
He had learned “The Vedas” since about the age of eight. This sacred book was considered the Revelation of the deity Brahman of the universal principle and the war to guard a country against royal families was considered an ethics standard.
India at that time was in the midst of a period of warfare that more than 300 tribal nations were invaded by a large country. The small country of Sakya was subordinate to a large neighboring country called Kosala for security reasons.
Since Sakya often sent its troops, he may have seen tragic scenes of dead and wounded soldiers in Kapila Castle. I can easily imagine that he who had a character that valued even life of birds and insects was shocked by the scene intensely.
-To be continued-