[MUSIC PLAYING] In the year 563 BC, a prince was born in a town near the Himalayas in northern India. That town, Lumibini, is now in the country of Nepal. According to legend, the birth of this prince known as Siddhartha Gautama was accompanied by miracles. A seer predicted that a parting of the ways lay ahead. Siddharta would either become a world ruler. Or if he ever saw, together or separately, a decrepit old person, a deceased person, a corpse, and a monk, he would become a homeless seeker of the truth and a Buddha, an enlightened one.

His father, the Raja, did not want his son to become a religious leader. So the prince was brought up in palatial luxury and protected from knowledge of the outside world. He married young and had a child. Finally, however, he went out into the streets among the people and for the first time looked upon old age, illness, and death.

He sought out the nature of old age, of sickness, of sorrow, and of death. Siddharta then came upon a Hindu holy man and was deeply impressed by the Sadhu's calm and peaceful nature. As a result of this encounter, at the age of 29, Siddharta left his home, his wife, and child and the promise of earthly power and glory. He took to the roads of India in search of the truth about human existence.

The prevailing religion in India at that time was Hinduism, a religion that worshipped many deportees and believed that living a life of extreme hardship was the way to gain spiritual merit. As he wandered dressed in rags and penniless, Siddharta encountered more Hindu holy men, or Sadhus, who deeply impressed him with their simple lives of prayer and meditation. They lived as ascetics, having devoted their lives totally to God.

He spent five years practicing extreme austerities, sometimes eating only a single grain of rice in a day and living without shelter. At the end of this time, he realized that he was no nearer to his goal of attaining knowledge and wisdom. He abandoned the austere path of the ascetic and sat down in the shade of a bow tree to meditate. He said, "let my skin wither, my hands grow numb, my bones dissolve. Until I have attained understanding, I will not rise from here."

It was his 35th birthday. And for 7 weeks, he sat in meditation until at last his plea was answered. This is the story that is told of the beginnings of one person's spiritual journey, a journey that gave rise to the religion of Buddhism, the Middle Way-- a path rejecting self-denial on the one hand and self-indulgence on the other.

While meditating, Siddhartha had a vision. He saw beings passing away and being reborn, some into happy and others into miserable circumstances according to the universal law of karma by which it is believed every act of good or evil will be rewarded or punished in this life or in some other reincarnation.

Karma is energy, the law of conservation of energy, conservation of energy, which means no energy will be lost. So no karma will be erased. No karma will be disappeared. What I say now is eternally recorded, what I think now eternally recorded. What I do now will be eternally recorded. This determines our tomorrow, as that of next year, as next life.

Because he grew up as a Hindu, Siddharta accepted the doctrine of reincarnation. He saw this cycle of rebirth as a source of human suffering. He saw that all is suffering. Birth is suffering, death is suffering, life itself is suffering.

The end of this suffering then was nirvana-- that is escape from rebirth. To be sure, nirvana could not be achieved in this world. But by attaining a state of bliss, the contentment of no longer worrying about oneself, a person could escape the pain of life.

I think the fundamental wisdom of the Buddha has to do with allowing things to be as they are and trusting that you can let things be as they are without overlaying them with your concepts. The Buddha's discovery was that we don't have to create our own world.

There is a world that doesn't exist in our minds, that just exists. And you can trust that. You don't always have to be manipulating and editing and doing all these things to keep yourself from being harmed or to keep yourself having a great time.

He said, if you are always trying to be comfortable, you're always seeking pleasure, and you're always trying to avoid discomfort, if you're always trying to avoid pain, you're never going to have profound happiness or joy, because there's this sense that you just want to have things on your own terms. And you'll manipulate it as much as you can so that it comes out your way.

Well, imagine there's billions of people on the earth. If each one is trying to manipulate it so it comes out on their own terms, there's no way. That ends up in wars. That ends up in all kinds of unhappiness.

As the Buddha, the Enlightened One, Siddhartha Gautama began his teaching. In his first sermon here in the Deer Park near Benares, India, he taught that what he had discovered was the noble truth of the way that leads to the cessation of pain, the Noble Eightfold Way-- namely, right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

For the rest of his life, the Buddha traveled from village to village teaching his Eightfold Way. The Buddha died at the age of 80 in the home of a friend who had unknowingly served him a meal prepared with poisonous mushrooms. At the end, he uttered these comforting words, in all of his lifetime, two meals stood out as supreme. One was the meal he ate before he sat beneath the bow tree, after which he received enlightenment. The other was the one he consumed at the home of his dear friend after which he would receive nirvana.

Long after the Buddha's death , his teachings were assembled by his followers into a collection called the Tribeca, or Three Baskets, for the writings were made on palm leaves like those used in basket making. Following the Buddha's death, his disciples continued his work. And this widespread religious fervor resulted in a creative outpouring of great works of art.

Today, tonka painting is a beautiful form of Buddhist art. These paintings depict events in the life of the Buddha and are used as objects of meditation. Some tonka paintings are so detailed that they are painted with a brush of only a single hair. Tonka artists in Nepal begin painting at a very early age with simpler designs.

Metal statues of the Buddha are also a popular form of art. These are cast from brass or bronze and then carefully finished by hand. Animals figure prominently in the Buddhist faith, reflecting the belief that all life is sacred. They are the subject of sculpture and are found at temples where they are fed and well cared for.

Sacred mounds, or stupas, such as this one at Kathmandu, Nepal, were built to contain Buddhist relics and remains. Many of these stupas were built as Buddhist missionaries spread the faith to other lands. These missionaries carried Buddha's story and his teachings throughout the world. Today, more than 250 million people follow his path to enlightenment, the Middle Way.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Buddhists in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam father what is called Theravada Buddhism, the way of the elders. This is an orthodox form of Buddhism, claiming to preserve the original interpretation of the Buddhist teachings as taught by the senior monks of the Sangha a monastic order founded by the Buddha. Theravadas believe that the Buddha was a great teacher, rather than a god, and that they can bring about their own salvation by following the Buddha's example. Within Buddhist temples and monasteries throughout Thailand and Burma, nearly all young men spend a few months of their lives in intense training as monks.

Before Thai men marry, they will go into the temple. They become monks. It is the custom in Thailand. They believe here that the custom can make their parents happy. And then when they die, they believe they can go to heaven.

Called novices until they are ordained at the age of 20, these young men learn discipline in their lives and in their studies. While in school, they study the fundamentals of Buddhism, as well as secular subjects such as English and math. The school is usually connected to a temple. In Thailand, Buddhist temple complexes are called Wats.

Following their schooling, the young men then enter the monastery for several months of training in the Buddhist way of life, a life of monastic tasks, meditation, and study. The regular members of the monastery belong to the great brotherhood of monks, known as the Sangha, which distinguishes Theravada from the other main division of Buddhism. Their monastic life is spent in such disciplined activities as ceremony and prayer.

In this ceremony, the monks chant while the people bring food as gifts for the monks. This is part of a great celebration marking the anniversary of the full moon when the Buddha preached his first sermon. After the ceremony, the novices collect the food and distribute it among themselves and the monks.

In Thailand, even the military participates in religious activities. On the night of the full moon, the soldiers come, along with many other people, to make offerings of flowers and incense and to hear the chief monk of the temple speak. Later, people come to light candles and incense and to chant and pray.

Sworn to poverty, the monks receive their food, clothing, and other needs from the people, who gain religious merit through such offerings. Here several monks returned to the temple at sunrise, after their early rounds to receive food. They do not beg. The food is offered gladly by the faithful. Solid food is forbidden the monks in the afternoon and evening, for Buddha warned that he who becomes fat is born into suffering again and again.

We take food two times as monks, in the morning and lunch. Other times, we do not eat. We do not take food because that is a rule of the Buddha. We can take water and coffee. But food, I cannot take food.

In return for supporting their religious community, the people receive their religious education and examples of right conduct from the monks. Following these examples, the people lead lives of great simplicity, serenity, and dignity and achieve happiness through gentleness and kindness toward others, characteristic of Buddhists everywhere.