Something Understood

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Religion & Ethics

Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life

Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life, taking a spiritual theme and exploring it through music, prose and poetry

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Something Understood: The prince who walked out of his fairy tale

The prince who walked out of his fairy tale

BBC Radio 4 - Something Understood, The prince who walked out of his fairy tale

Samira Ahmed explores the story of Siddhartha, the prince who became the Buddha.

Samira Ahmed looks at the life of Siddhartha, the prince who exchanged his comfortable life for a troubled journey of self-discovery. His goal was to become the Buddha.

 Siddhartha is the name of a prince who became the Buddha.
 
He was born in present day Nepal, sometime around 563 BC, and he grew up as a prince enjoying a comfortable existence for the first 29 years of his life. It was then, as a married man with an infant son, Siddhartha abandoned his palace and set off for a wandering life with a band of ascetics seeking spiritual fulfillment.
 
In 'The prince who walked out of his fairy tale', Samira Ahmed pieces together the story of Siddhartha - the Sanskrit name meaning 'He who achieves his goal'. She tells the story of how Siddhartha abandoned future kingship after the shocking discovery of old age, sickness and death. She tells of how he took up and then discarded extreme asceticism and how, after six years of penance, he sat unmoving under a tree until he gained Nirvana or perfect enlightenment and became known as the Buddha.
 
Samira Ahmed looks at the appeal of the image of the seated Buddha and the spread of Buddhist ideas into the West. She considers how writers and thinkers have imagined the experience of enlightenment, and explores how others have interpreted the relevance of the Buddha's key ideas for today's fast moving materialistic life. With readings, poetry and music – including Tibetan chant, Herbie Hancock, Bengali film soundtrack, and Wagner.
 
 
Producer: Anthony Denselow
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

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