The Buddha and his father, who was right?

The newborn prince

Son, I will be reborn a monk in the Pure Abodes

When the Buddha-to-be (the Bodhisatta) was born, his father, King Suddhodana, and all the other Scythian (Shakyian) princes were educated by a very wise and virtuous Brahmin named Asita.

Asita was a sage who lived in the jungles close to the Himalayan foothills. He spent his days meditating in a hut there, when one morning he saw and heard the woodland fairies (devas) rejoicing by singing and dancing. 

Inquiring, he learned that a baby boy had been born to King Suddhodana and Queen Maya and that this prince would one day become a supremely enlightened teacher surpassing all other beings. Hearing this, the sage Asita was delighted and hurried to Kapilavatthu to see the king.

When King Suddhodana saw Asita, he was very happy that his old teacher had come to see his baby, even before a message was sent informing him of the birth of his firstborn son. The king brought the prince to show him to the wise old sage so the sage could examine him and make a prediction about the little one’s future.

However, when he held the baby, his little feet touched the Brahmin’s head dress (jathah). Surprised at this, the sage took hold of his tiny feet and saw by the lines of his soles that this baby will definitely become a supremely enlightened one.

I am sure he will choose his Quest.

He was so happy at this that he got up from his seat and, holding his hands in front of his heart (anjali mudra), he paid respects to the baby. When the king saw this teacher venerating the baby, he too held his hands together and venerated his son. (This was the first time the king, the father of the Buddha-to-be, paid homage to his son).

However, Asita’s delight quickly changed into sadness when he realized that by the time this baby would become fully awakened, he himself would have passed away from the human realm to an Immaterial Sphere world known as the “realm of neither perception nor perception” or neva-sagna na-sagna yathana.*

• *The mind is so subtle at this stage of absorption (jhana) that the karma of attaining it leads to rebirth in this realm. See the 31 Planes of Existence. Consciousness here is so subtle that it can hardly be said to be perception at all, but it is certainly not non-perception. The meditative practice of jhana, later classified by the Buddha as "right concentration" or samma-samadhi (extreme stillness of mind) brings this rebirth about. However long lasting such a rebirth is, it is not permanent and is not nirvana.

Nevertheless, the prediction was made that this baby would one day become a supremely enlightened teacher, a buddha. The prince was named Siddhattha (Sanskrit Siddhartha, which literally means “Doing good to the world” or “Wish fulfilled”).

On the seventh day after Prince Siddhattha’s birth, his mother Queen Maya passed away.

• Thereafter, her younger sister and second wife of the king, Queen Pajapati, adopted the prince and looked after him like her own son. (She eventually had two children of her own, Nanda and Sundari Nanda, but always gave Prince Siddhattha the most attention over his siblings).

What happened 29 years later?

After 29 years of living in luxury, spoiled rotten, carefree, Prince Siddhartha sees Death.

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The Bodhisatta was on a mission to awaken

Other soothsayers told the king that his son might become a world monarch (cakkhavati), but if he saw the downside of life, he would likely turn away and renounce the world.

So to ensure that he went on to exercise rule over the whole known world (at least Jambudipa), it was advisable to protect the prince from hardship.

The father so loved his son and so wanted him to be a great king that he decided to shelter him and dote on him and give him everything he could want, spoiling him for 29 years.

At 29, Prince Siddhartha left it all behind.

But all of this had the reverse effect because, eventually, when the prince saw how the world really was -- beset by old age, sickness, and death -- it made such an impact that he had to go in search of a solution. This led him on spiritual quest. He abandoned the good life and went in search of the pure life of yoga (with first one yogi named Alara Kalama then another named Uddaka Ramaputta), meditation, and yogic austerities (tapas) to win complete enlightenment. These all failed him to win him the ultimate goal.

• IMAGES of The Great Renunciation (รูปภาพ - พระพุทธศาสนา :: Dhammajak.net)

Letting go into absorption, he practiced insight

So he settled down, cared for his body, and undertook the Middle Way, avoiding extremes of hedonism as he had pursued in the palace and self-mortification as he had pursued on his own in the forest. Instead of rejecting the pleasure and rapture of the initial meditative absorptions, he pursued them to ever more refined states of stillness, practicing all eight jhanas.

Now his mind was temporarily released from the defilement, purified, and ready to practice clear seeing (vipassana) through mindfulness of the body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects. He took of his initial question that led him on this quest, "Why is the cause of suffering?" Practicing Dependent Origination, he traced back present suffering to its causes and conditions in previous lives, on account of karma and its results, all the way back to ignorance.

Forward and back, he went until he made a breakthrough in understanding, in knowledge and vision, directly knowing-and-seeing for himself. He awakened to the utmost under his bodhi ("enlightenment") tree and eventually agreed to teach after doubting if anyone would understand or put in the effort to purify their knowledge and vision and thereby gain the same liberation he had won.

• Dhammajak.net; Gotama the Buddha | Vipassana Research Institute; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly