Buddha and the end of craving
He came down from Nirvana to teach the path to selflessness, free of want and desire. How Buddha remade the consciousness of humankind.
This is Who made our minds? my Thursday essay probing the greatest, cruellest and most beautiful minds of the past 5,000 years, inspired by my book, The Soul: A History of the Human Mind (Penguin 2024). Coming soon: Cicero, the Tao and the female mystics.
WHEN PRINCE Siddhartha Gautama left Kapilavastu, in present-day Nepal, he gave up the wealth and comforts of his princely life and wandered the Indo-Ganges plain as a holy man and teacher, gathering disciples to a new monastic order.
We’re in the sixth century BCE, and Siddhartha is preaching a new doctrine that offers paths to enlightenment and happiness free of the craving that plagues our earthly lives.
Siddhartha tells anyone who’ll listen that they must escape samsara, the seemingly endless cycle of life and death, in order to reach the heavenly realm he called nirvana.
Malign forces are determined to prevent Siddhartha from reaching nirvana. Mara, the king…