The Foundations of Buddhism

Hello,

So honestly I felt that this week's reading on Buddhism was a little more interesting than last week's  reading on the Vedas. The Foundations of Buddhism was the was intriguing for me because like most people I had learned about Buddhism in high school but not to this deep of a level.

I always find the beginning of Buddhism, well how Siddhartha Gautama became Buddha, fun to read about. How he was a rich and noble prince and he one day left his comfortable life to experience the outside world and is shocked by the adversity people suffer everyday. I was surprised when the text said that this story was not meant to be history but was meant to be a myth and a legend.

The sentence that stood out the most to me was the quote by Belgian scholar Etienne Lamotte " Buddhism cannot be explained unless we accept that it has its origin in the strong personality of its founder." As a Christian, I sometimes think that it's hard to believe in Jesus Christ when he is not a tangible being, but reading this sentence I felt that Buddhists would need a strong faith as well. Basically Buddhism begins with believing in the belief of Buddha that sufferings needs to be overcome. I realized that having that strong of a belief in someone else's idea and making it your own belief would be difficult as well.

As I was reading the Foundations of Buddhism, I was slightly confused about the section titled The legend. I wanted to ask if anyone had any answers to that section even though I am posting this up pretty late ): or maybe we could discuss it in class? Although I didn't fully understand this part, I was surprised to read that there is a Buddhist being named Mara who is similar to Satan in Christianity.

I hope I didn't go too far off the track.... I just mentioned some parts of the reading and added some of my personal thoughts ! (: