Expert: John Willemsens aka Advayavadananda - 4/30/2008

Question
How did the childhood experiences of Siddhartha Guatama (Buddha) lead to his questioning of the spiritual practices of his time?

Answer
Hello Tracy,
They say that it was after seeing for the first time a sick person, a corpse and an ascetic that he started his quest. In due course he came to the conclusion that it was the Middle Way between self-indulgence and self-mortification that we must follow to rid ourselves of existential suffering.
See http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/patipada.htm for more about the Buddha's Path.
Kind regards,
Advayavadananda.