To help you understand the principles of Zen thinking it is helpful to know a bit about the Buddhist culture. Call it what you like, a religion or philosophy, Buddhism began with the teachings of a prince called Siddhartha Gautama who was born and raised in India, somewhere around 500BC, he was brought up in a palace, in extreme luxury, and knew nothing of suffering in any way. However, around about the age of 30, on an outing one day it is said that he saw an old man, someone sick, and a dead body. So shocked and shaken was the prince at these sights, images he had never seen before that he decided to turn his back on luxury in a bid to see the world as it really was, and to see if he could do anything to ease suffering in the world. In so doing, he came to realise that the world is in a constant state of change, enveloping sickness, sorrow, pain, discomfort as well as joy. Just the same as it is today. Prince Siddhartha had given up all he had, all his riches and privileges, just to try to understand the world and make some sense of it. He would meditate for hours, he would fast for long periods of time, which made him so frail and sick, yet, no matter what he did he still didn’t understand why he couldn’t change people’s suffering, he had tried to live a simple life, trying to find out why there was so much suffering in the world and if there was any way in which he could change it but he found he couldn’t change the way life was. One day in a final bid to find serenity he sat meditating under a Bodhi Tree, for 49 days fighting off his demons, and in so doing, he became ‘Enlightened’ meaning that when he eventually died, his cycle of suffering would cease, and he would finally live in peace.
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