Week 4 Storytelling: Story Time

Aiden was ready for sleep. If he closed his eyes this very moment, he would be off in the land of dreams, but he fought this urge because he wanted to wait until his mother came. Every night, his mother would come upstairs and tell him a story. His eight-year-old self always thought his mom was the best storyteller ever!

He waited a little before he heard her soft footsteps come up the stairs. "Ready for story time, Aiden?" his mom asked as she walked in his room. "Duhhh, mom!" he replied. She sat down next to him on the bed, tucked him in, and so she began…

Once upon a time, a little prince was born in India by the name of Siddhartha Gautama. When he was born, the world rejoiced and he was a beautiful baby. It was said this little boy would walk the path of enlightenment and save the world. As this boy was growing up, he was loved by the people and lived a life of luxury. Just his mere appearance would bring a smile and happiness to the people who saw him. “Just like you, honey!” she interjected. However, the gods felt jealous of the people’s reverence of the boy. They intended to destroy Siddhartha’s happiness by showing him the truths of life.

She stopped the story and ask Aiden, “Do you know what the truths of life are?” He thought for a bit and couldn’t come up with an answer, but he wanted to say something anyway. “Is it lots of ice cream and video games?” he asked. His mother laughed and said, “Why not?” She then continued on…

When he was older, Siddhartha went out to see the world to sate his curiosity of what was out there. Little did he know that his father wanted him to see a world of happiness rather than a world of poverty and suffering. His father would send people to take the old and sick people away from the city so that Siddhartha would not see them.

“What a nice daddy!” said Aiden. His mother thought for a moment and replied, “He was a good daddy, but he held his son back. How would you feel if daddy took away your books because he thought they taught you bad lessons?” Aiden thought about what his mother said and realized that although the father in the story had good intentions, he held back his son and showed him a false view of the world.

The gods transformed themselves into an old man, a sick person, and a corpse. Siddhartha saw these scenes and was no longer happy. He then left his home and renounced his claim to his father’s kingdom to become a hermit. His ultimate goal was to learn the true law of life in order to beat suffering, sickness, and death. He almost died during his journey but he eventually found the true law of life under the Tree of Knowledge.

“Well, are you sleepy yet?” she stopped to ask. “I am, but I want to know what the true law is. Don’t do this to me, mom!” he said. His mom was always like that. She loved cliffhangers and it was almost like torture when she didn’t finish the stories. She chuckled and said, “Alright. The truth that Siddhartha discovered was that in order to escape the cycle of birth and death and our own suffering, we had to suppress our desires and lead a moderate life.” “Oh, that’s it? All I have to do is not eat ice cream and I won’t die?” asked Aiden. “No, there’s much more to it than that, honey. All of us living in the world have a long way to go.” she told him as she got up to turn off the lights. “Good night, Aiden.”

Digital art of a statue of Buddha.

"Buddha Sky" by hanciong. Source: DeviantArt.

Author's Note: For this week, I retold the story of The Life of Buddha. In the original story, it told about the life of Buddha: how it began and the path that lead him to become the Buddha. 

I kept the story of the Buddha the same and shortened it a little while keeping the main parts of the story. This is in order to make the story easier to read because although I loved reading it, the original story got very word-y. I also framed my story as a bedtime story for Aiden. I added in some dialogue from Aiden and his mom to help the reader possibly answer some unanswered questions. I think this story had a good lesson to teach about life. 

Bibliography: 

"The Life of Buddha" by Andre Ferdinand Herold. Website: Un-Textbook.