Reading Notes: Life of Buddha, Part A


This week I chose to read The Life of Buddha. I chose to read this unit because this is a topic I am very unfamiliar with, and I would like to learn more about it.

For my reading notes this week I am going to focus on Maya's Dream. I chose to focus on this story in particular because I like how it is written, and it introduces Buddha to the world. Maya is the Queen and the King is Suddhodana. This story details a symbolic dream Queen Maya had about having a child. The Queen described this dream... this feeling as knowing she would never hate or become angry again. Once she awakes happily, she summons the King. A sentence that stood out to me was, "He [Buddha] has chosen your family to be his family because of its fame, good fortune and virtue..." I think this is an interesting comparison to Christianity in that Jesus became the lowest of the low; compared to how Buddha chose a life of wealth and fame (from what I understand from this unit).

This story is written in a narrative style, and flows very smoothly. One of the main things I noticed was the amount of descriptive detail that has been added to this story. I believe this gives the story and extra depth and appreciation. Also, there is a relatively seamless transition to the next story in this unit The Birth of Siddhartha, which describes the birth of the King and Queen's child. I hope to be able to incorporate this type of narrative style and seamless transitions into my own storybook.

Buddha Statue 
Source: Pixabay


Bibliography: The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold (1922).

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