Buddhist Romanticism

conclusions based on their actions—in particular, concerning how much
freedom human beings have in choosing their actions, and how much
freedom human action can bring about.
A few brief sketches of their lives will indicate what these differences
were.
THE BUDDHA
The version of the Buddha’s life most widely known in the West was
first composed many centuries after his passing, when Buddhists in India
wanted a complete biography of the founder of their religion. This was to
fill in what they perceived as a lack in their tradition, because the earliest
records—such as those in the Pāli Canon—contained glimpses of the
Buddha’s life story only in fragmentary form.
However, the various biographies composed to meet this felt need didn’t
simply fill in the blanks left by the fragments. Sometimes they introduced
incidents that contradicted what the fragments had to say. A prime
example is the story of the Buddha’s childhood. The later biographies
presented a somewhat fairy-tale like story of a young prince, heir to a king,
kept captive in the palace until after he is married, and who leaves the
palace secretly in the darkness of night—after seeing for his very first time a
sick person, an old person, a corpse, and a wilderness ascetic—in hopes that
the life of an ascetic might lead to freedom from the facts of aging, illness,
and death.
As told in the Pāli Canon, however, the events surrounding the
Buddha’s decision to leave home and take up the life of a wilderness ascetic
were much simpler and more realistic. In addition, they give greater insight
into his character and the values that drove his quest.
These accounts carry a sense of immediacy in that they are told from the
first person. In fact, they constitute one of the earliest spiritual
autobiographies in recorded history. Because the Buddha’s central teaching
was on the power of skillful kamma, or action, and the role of intention in
shaping kamma, this is appropriate. In telling his listeners of what he did to
attain awakening, and how this involved training his intentions to become
more and more skillful, he was giving an object lesson in how they could
develop the skills needed to reach awakening themselves.
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