How did Gautama Buddha reach Enlightenment (Nirvana)?

BBC The Story of India (2 of 6) The Power of Ideas

@7:00 starts talking the power of ideas, the "Ethics" brought by many in that century (6 Century th Before Common Era!). For example: Confucious in China, Prophets from Old Testament in the Middle East and India, the Buddha.

Buddhism and Ashoka

Note, the clip starts from Hinduism since Siddhartha Gautama grew up a Hindu Prince! In 5:20 it starts talking about Buddhism. It's awesome!

The Elephant and the blind Men

You can watch here again the story (parable) of the Elephant and the Blind Men . This short story with a moral, what so called parable, belongs to Hinduism and Buddhism. In this site it is related to Buddhism. Please select and click there. After watching it try to explain in your own words what this story is about. If you can describe in detail you are acting on level 4 because you are describing what it is. If can explain the meaning of it is level 5 because you are evaluating it. If you can, in addition to all, explain what you learn from the story you are evaluating in high level i.e you are acting in a solid level 5! and approaching level 6!

PS: The story sometimes is called "The wise men and the Elephant" and the number of wise men also varies. As we discussed, one of the reasons is because it is a very old story. Hinduism and Buddhism have more than 2.500 years! Hinduism has almost 5.000 years!. Another question is how the story has been passed, it belongs to an oral tradition i.e. it may be more subjected of changes than written stories. It will vary a little bit through time and through cultures. Beware in some cultures animals like elephant are very important (they are considered "sacred") and that's why they come first in the title of the story and in other cultures humans are more important, that's why they come second in the title. 

PS: Prepare questions and interesting facts for next lesson about Introduction to Hinduism. I hope you en-joy it! :-)

Twilight at the Museums

Read more here thanks to University of Cambridge