Read about It. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 6 стр.

                                TEXT II                                        become a Buddha, an Enlightened One, and he was sad because he would
                                                                               not be able to benefit from the superior wisdom of the Enlightened One
      Read the text and do all the tasks given below.                          owing to his prior death and rebirth in a Formless Plane.
                                                                                      After seven days Queen Maya died, and her place as mother was
                      THE LIFE OF BUDDHA                                       taken by her sister, whose devotion and love became legendary.
                                                                                      When the young prince was in his twelfth year, the king called
       Gautama Buddha, the historical Buddha, lived in northeast India         the wise Brahmans in council. They revealed that Siddhartha would de-
between 563 and 483 BC. As a bodhisattva he had passed through thou-           vote himself to asceticism if he cast his eyes on age, sickness, or death–
sands of existences before coming to Earth for his ultimate transmigra-        and, if he were to meet a hermit.
tion. This last lifetime he began as a son of the King of the Sakya,                  Wanting his son to be a universal monarch instead, the king sur-
Suddhodana, who ruled at Kapilavastu on the border of Nepal, and was           rounded the palace with a triple enclosure and guard and proclaimed
born in a village called Lumbini into the warrior tribe called the Sakyas      that the use of the words «death» and «grief» were forbidden. The most
(from where he derived the title Sakyamuni, meaning «Sage of the               beautiful princess in the land, Yasodhara, was found for his bride, and
Sakyas»).                                                                      after Siddhartha proved himself in many tournaments calling for
       According to ancient tradition, Queen Maya, his mother, first had       strength and prowess, when he was 16, the two were wed.
a dream of a beautiful white elephant coming down into her womb, and                  Siddhartha was kept amused and entertained for some time by
this was interpreted as a sign that the Buddha, or a universal emperor,        this privileged life behind the palace walls until one day his divine vo-
was about to be born. When her time came, Queen Maya went into the             cation awoke in him, and he decided to visit the nearby town. The king
garden and gave painless birth to the bodhisattva. He immediately              called for everything to be swept and decorated, and any ugly or sad
walked, spoke, and was received by Brahma.                                     sight to be removed. But these precautions were in vain for while
       Five days after his birth, the young prince received the name of        Siddhartha was traveling through the streets, an old wrinkled man ap-
Siddhartha. When his parents took him to the temple, the statues of the        peared before him. In astonishment the young prince learned that de-
gods prostrated themselves before him, great were the rejoicings of the        crepitude is the fate of those who live life through. Still later he met an
people over the birth of this illustrious prince. Also at this time a devout   incurable invalid and then a funeral procession. Finally heaven placed
old man named Asita came down from the Himalayas to meet the new-              in his path an ascetic, a beggar, who told Siddhartha that he had left the
born prince. An ascetic of high spiritual attainments, Asita was particu-      world to pass beyond suffering and joy, to attain peace at heart.
larly pleased to hear this happy news. Having been a tutor to the King,               Confirmed in his meditation, all these experiences awakened in
he visited the palace to see the royal baby. The king, who felt honoured       Siddhartha the idea of abandoning his present life and embracing asceti-
by his unexpected visit, carried the child up to him in order to make the      cism. He opened his heart to his father and said, «Everything in the world
child pay him due reverence. To the surprise of all, the child’s legs          is changing and transitory. Let me go off alone like the religious beggar.»
turned and rested on the matted locks of the ascetic.                                 Grief-stricken at the idea of losing his son, the king doubled the
       Instantly, the ascetic rose from his seat and recognizing in the        guard around the walls and increased the pleasures and distractions
young child the 80 signs that are pledges to a highly religious vocation,      within. And at this point, Yasodhara bore him a son whom he called
and foreseeing with his supernormal vision the child’s future greatness,       Rahula (meaning «chain» or «fetter»), a name that indicated Gautama’s
saluted him with clasped hands. The Royal father did likewise. The great       sense of dissatisfaction with his life of luxury, while the birth of his son
ascetic smiled at first and then was sad. Questioned regarding his mingled     evoked in him much tenderness. His apparent sense of dissatisfaction
feelings, he answered that he smiled because the prince would eventually       turned to disillusion when he saw three things from the window of his

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