REL 110 Lecture 3: Buddha's Hagiography
2 Oct 2018
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Prompt: what episode in the buddha"s hagiography do you think is the more pivotal / important. A hagiography is the mythologized story of a holy person. I think that the most pivotal episode of buddha"s hagiography was the one in which he had four encounters that represent the human condition. After encountering an old man, an ill man, a corpse and an ascetic, he was convinced that suffering lay at the end of all existence. Following these encounters, he renounced his princely title and became a monk. He began depriving himself of worldly possessions in the hope of comprehending the truth of the world around him. The culmination of his search came while meditating beneath a tree, where he finally understood how to be free from suffering, and ultimately, to achieve salvation. Following this epiphany, he was known as the buddha, meaning the "enlightened one. "
