Essay: The Life of Buddha

                                                              Siddhartha's Exposure

This essay if over the life of Buddha: http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-life-of-buddha.html

This unit was actually quite interesting for me. I did not know a great deal about the life of the man who would become Buddha, so this was all new information. Initially, I expected that the unit would be centered around Buddha and Buddhism; however, much to my surprise, it was largely about the boy’s experiences and what led him to become the man he was.

I did not necessarily have a favorite or least favorite story with this unit. As I mentioned, I found all of them to be quite informative as well as entertaining.

The background information did do a thorough job of describing what to expect. I can’t say that anything should be changed there.

I don’t believe that there were notes for any of the stories in the unit. However, I enjoyed this because I was allowed to explore the stories and make connections on my own. The one section I thought could have been improved was the section over the Fair Maidens and Gopa’s dream: http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/life-of-buddha-gopas-dream.html  I wasn’t aware of the events surrounding Gopa’s marriage to Siddhartha or the events surrounding the birth of their child. Although this information was included as an additional link, I felt as if this was pertinent information about Prince Siddhartha.

This reading unit served its purpose for me in that it provided a detailed account of the life of prince Siddhartha. I took this class hoping to be able to take something away about other cultures, and this certainly fit the bill.

I saw several connections between this unit and much of the two other epics that we read about. Primarily, some of the same characters present in this unit were in the Ramayana. I did not expect to have these stories overlap like they did – but it was a pleasant surprise.