Days of Prince Siddharta: A Buddha's Life in Quatrains

By John Ross Jr.

What we understand today as Buddhism, actually began as an off spring of Hinduism in the great Indus Valley. The founder of this great religion is of course our insightful prince, Gautama Siddhartha, He is the focus of this brief poetic biography. An epic saga of persistence, inspiration and mysticism.

By no means is it a simple task to provide a precise historical account of the life of Prince Siddhartha, since no actual journalistic account has been accurately documented. As such, there is no definite history of Siddharthaonly time trusted biography. Exact details and all precise accounts are moot. He was simply born! He simply lived. He simply transformed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 21, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503581869

John Ross Jr.

John Ross, Jr. holds graduate degrees from Boston University and Harvard; and also holds a Graduate degree in Theatre from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of four previous poetry collections including the popular: Genes, Germs, Geodes and God (2016) along with Where the designer came from: Evolution, Creation, Hominids and the Skirmish of the Double Helix (2011). He teaches communications and theatre at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago.

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Copyright © 2015 by John Ross, Jr.

ISBN:   Softcover     978-1-5035-8185-2

              eBook             978-1-5035-8186-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 07/13/2015

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image003.jpg

"There

is

properly

no

history;

Only biography"

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

FOUR  image003.jpg  terse Buddha cites…

We must first consider:

I.>>>> "THREE things cannot

Be long hidden:

The sun, the moon,

And…the truth…"

II.>>>> "YOU will not be

Punished for your anger,

You will be punished

By…your anger…"

III.>>>>"WHEN you realize how

Perfect everything is

You will tilt your head back

And laugh at the sky…"

IV.>>> "NO one saves us but ourselves

No one can and no one may,

We ourselves must walk…the path.

PREFACE

A Biography in American Quatrains

What we understand today as Buddhism, actually began as an offspring of Hinduism in the great Indus Valley. The founder of this great religion is of course our insightful prince, Gautama Siddhartha, He is the focus of this brief poetic biography. A saga of persistence, inspiration and mysticism.

By no means is it a simple task to provide a precise historical account of the life of Prince Siddhartha, since no actual journalistic account has been accurately documented. As such, there is no definite history of Siddhartha…only time-trusted ‘biography.’ Exact details and all precise accounts are moot. He was simply born! He simply lived. He simply transformed.

Siddhartha’s life began roughly about 560 B.C.E. in the northern part of India, what is at present the great nation of Nepal. It is important to note that many literary accounts have been made from the well-known Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, to this epic poem entitled: The Days of Prince Siddhartha: A Life of the Buddha in Quatrains. To be sure, many more will follow.

Traditionally speaking, a good deal of Siddhartha’s life story is masked within imaginative mythology, folklore and even sacred legends. This theological-literary tradition began to rise soon after his passing away in the 6th century B.C.E.

Like the gospel accounts of Jesus, the biographical descriptions of Siddhartha are best received when viewed as sacred myths which reveal profound truths. As with Jesus, even the best religious historians of our day have more than a few different and often conflicting accounts of Siddhartha’s remarkable life. A life full of courage, insight and compassion. A mystical life of endless seeking and personal sacrifice.

Not unlike the four Gospels, which account for the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, many have attempted to document the life and times of Prince Siddhartha. His life is both inspiring and yet purely, ever a fully human life. One shrouded in allegory and parable, yet mystically imbued with truth, revelation and spiritual imminence. For many such as myself, it has its very own theological allure. A biography of biographies if you will. A truly human life.

I am convinced that an examination of Siddhartha’s days on earth will forever remain a sacred undertaking, one which has an original genesis each time it is refashioned. Each new literary incarnation will always become a fresh sacred text. A new insightful life history. A new epic poem.

Many such as myself, are mystified that such a judicious and magnificent individual did not live beyond us in the realms of a Mount Olympus, a Hades or any once sacred realm of the starry-celestial, Siddhartha lived his life solely in our human world. He was not a deity, nor a demigod, nor even a child of a divinity, and undoubtedly not even a savior nor any variety of a redeemer.

Siddhartha was merely an fervent prince on a quest. One who reminds each of us by his days on this planet that: No one saves us but ourselves, No one can and no one may, we ourselves must walk the path.

A Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous

This epic poem begins with Siddhartha’s father, King Suddhodana, who was ruler over a region near the great Himalayas, which today is known as the country of Nepal. King Suddhodana greatly protected his son from the exterior world and restrained him to the royal palace