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The life of Buddha
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When Siddharta Gautama for the first time left his palace he saw four people that made him reevaluate his life. Who were they?
Look at that cute little prince. It's Buddha. Though... right now he is still called Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha lives in a palace in Nepal.
His parents believe that this little guy will become something extraordinary. To know this for sure, they ask an astrologer to consult the stars about the future. He will either become a very powerful ruler like his father... ... or he becomes a holy man and your family will loose all power in the kingdom. Oh, my...
Don't worry. As long as you keep him away from sickness, aging, poverty, and death, it will be alright. They decide to protect the prince from all such experiences. Siddhartha grows up, gets married and has kids without having met ordinary people outside the palace. But one day... ...
Siddhartha drives his cart outside the palace area. There he witnesses how ordinary people live. He sees an old man, a sick man and a beggar monk in the street. He also drives by a dead man. What?!
People get sick! And are poor. And die! Life is just endless suffering. Siddhartha doesn't want to suffer and he doesn't want anyone else to do so either.
This must be solved. He leaves his wife and child and goes away. Siddhartha asks a lot of wise men for advice on how to live; but doesn't get any good answers. So he decides to try not eating. He will starve himself like a beggar monk: an ascetic.
Look how thin he has become. This clearly doesn't work. It won't make one happier. No, Siddhartha realises this. He gives up the idea of starving himself and sits down beneath a Bodhi tree to meditate.
Here he decides to stay until he has found the solution. Nothing will make him move. An evil demon called Mara appears, to tempt him. Mara offers him lots of great things, but Siddhartha just stays put. And finally, after having meditated for 49 days, Siddharta realises what's wrong.
Humans are never satisfied. They always want more. And this wanting to have more never ends. And then the suffering never ends either. So now Siddhartha has realised how it is: he has become enlightened.
And that is what the word Buddha means. Now he is no longer Siddharta Gautama, but... : Buddha. Buddha wants more people to realise this. Some of his friends listen to him and start to follow him. They become his disciples.
Buddha preaches to them and to other people. At this time in India everyone is Hindu. The Hindus believe in re-birth: reincarnation. You are born, live, die, are born, live, die and so on in an endless cycle: Samsara. Stop, I want to get off.
Buddha preaches the importance of getting free from Samsara. Getting re-born makes it impossible to avoid suffering. Buddha had tried both being rich, and starving. These are two exaggerated ways of living, and neither are good. He believes it to be better to choose a middle way.
But hey Buddha, if you are not born again, where do you end up after death? You don't get to a place but to a condition where you don't want anything - Nirvana. Why do you call it Nirvana? Nirvana means blown out. All your desires are blown out and you have reached a kind of peace.
Buddha wanders around preaching how to reach Nirvana. When Buddha dies there have become many disciples. Now it's time for them to pass on his teachings.