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first level of meditation. Two other stories about his early life are also told and they both emphasise his sensitivity and compassion. In the first, he goes out to see the countryside (in some accounts this is a ploughing competition). While others see the beauty of the landscape, the bodhisattva only notices the exhausted peasants and oxen and the worms and insects being killed. In the second story his cousin Devadatta, who later becomes his enemy, shot down a swan that was hurt but not killed. Devadatta planned to eat the swan, but the bodhisattva rescued it and nursed it back to health before setting it free.

The bodhisattva was married at 16 to a neighbouring princess, Yasodhara. In due course they had a son who was named Rahula (fetter).

The Four Signs/Sights

At the age of 29, soon after the birth of his son, the bodhisattva became deeply dissatisfied with his life of luxury. Legend states that his father had protected him from all suffering in order to ensure that he grew up to be a ruler rather than a religious teacher. Even when he left the palace, his father made sure that he did not see anyone who was suffering. This changed on a visit to the outside with his charioteer Channa. The bodhisattva saw four sights that changed his life. First he saw an old man, and he had never seen someone old before so he did not understand what was happening to the man. When Channa explained, he realised that he too would grow old and that he could not be disgusted by what happened to other people. This lead to him losing the vanity of youth. Next he saw a sick man and he realised that sickness affects everyone rich and poor, and is random in the people it affects. He lost the vanity of health, recognizing that illness could affect him and his family. His third sight was a corpse being carried to the burial grounds and once Channa explained what had happened this made him realise that everyone would eventually die. This caused the Buddha to be deeply disturbed about the meaning and purpose of life. His final sight was a sadhu, a wandering holy man, who looked so peaceful that the bodhisattva believed that he must have found a spiritual solution to all these issues. This sight inspired him to leave his life of luxury and go forth to seek a solution to suffering.

It is unlikely that this story is literally true even if his father protected him from suffering, it is unlikely that Siddhartha could reach the age of 29 without ever being ill or without seeing anyone get older.

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