12 CHAPTER ONE1.3.2 The Great Renunciation
(Strong EB, sec. 1.3)The Pali Suttas (=Sutras) describe Prince Siddhartha's youth and renunciation
in simple terms. He lived a life of extreme luxury, with a separate palace for
each of the three Indian seasons. On gaining maturity, however-and realiz-
ing that he, as other beings, was subject to aging, illness, and death-he lost all
intoxication with youth, health, and life. Shaving off his hair and beard while
his parents watched on with tearful faces, I:J_e left home for the life of an ascetic
wanderer in order to seek the "unaging, unailing, deathless, sorrowless, unde-
filed, unexcelled security from bondage, nirvZi!Ja" (A.III.38; M.26-see Ab-
breviations, p. xviii).
Later accounts provide a more dramatic rendition of the events. Asvaghop
relates how King Suddhodana, from the very beginning, had tried to prevent
his son from leaving the palace by tying him down with sensual pleasures, not
only by arranging his marriage but also by surrounding him with young song-
and-dance women and every other delight a man might desire. One day the
young prince, longing to see the outside world, went out for a chariot ride
through the capital city. There, for the first time, he saw a decrepit old man.
Shocked, he asked his charioteer about the man's condition; the charioteer
replied that such is the destiny of all human beings. The prince turned back to
the palace and brooded in melancholy, taking no relish in the gaiety around
him. On a second ride, he saw his first diseased man and reflected that people
are foolish to revel under the constant shadow of illness. On the third trip, he
saw his first corpse. Dismayed, he marveled that people could live heedlessly,
forgetting the certainty of death.
Employing the conventions of Sanskrit drama, Asvagho~a's poem exploits
Siddhartha's life of princely pleasure to provide an effective counterpoint to
the traumatic encounters with impermanence and suffering. In an artfully
composed dialogue, the king's counselor advises the yo).lng prince to disregard
his disturbing encounters and to follow the example ofbygone heroes and
sages in pursuing the pleasures of erotic love. The Bodhisattva's reply is an elo-
quent statement of the ascetic case against the sensual life. Sensual joys are
fleeting; death always casts its long shadow over life and blights all such tran.,.-
sient happiness. The only true happiness would be one not subject to change.
The pursuit of any lesser pleasure cannot be held up as a fulfilling or noble
ideal.
The brooding prince rode out again, observed the peasants plowing, and-
unlike the ordinary patrician-was moved to grief at the suffering of the toil-
ers and oxen, and even at the slaughter of worms and insects by the plow.
While meditating on the truth of suffering, he saw a religious mendicant and
made up his mind to leave the household life, for only as a renunciate would
he have the chance to follow rigorously the Path of mental training to see if it
led to the impeccable happiness-beyond the reach of aging, illness, and
death-that he sought.
The legend poignantly describes how, in the depth of night, the prince
took a last look at his sleeping wife and infant son, mounted his horse, and