[Buddha-l] Great Renunciation

[Mike Austin]

In message <15209424.1157191872557.JavaMail.rbaksa at mac.com>, 
rbaksa at mac.com writes

>First, when Buddha left the worldly life, both his father Shuddodan and 
>maternal aunt Gautami were around 70 years old. So, it's indeed absurd 
>to say that Buddha had not seen old people before. It is equally absurd 
>to believe that by the age of 29, Buddha had not seen a dead or sick 
>person.

One looks, but one does not always see. I don't think Prince Gautama was 
any different from us at this stage.


>Then, what were the immediate reasons which led Buddha to renunciation? 
>As the book details, it was all about War and Peace.
>
.....
>
>I have never run across this explanation of the Great Renunciation 
>before and would appreciate any information on it from the members of 
>this list.

I don't know if this was Great Renunciation or disillusionment. My guess 
is the latter, and that 'Great Renunciation' followed a prolonged period 
of meditation - after his unsuccessful practice of extreme asceticism.

-- 
Metta
Mike Austin