The Renunciation

He decided he would follow the path that night in search of deliverance from all worldly suffering. As the Prince Siddhattha had a final glance of his wife and his new born child, both of whom were fast asleep, great compassion for the two loved ones overwhelmed him. Yet he knew he had to leave so that he would find the path which would help beings reach the ultimate peace. In the silence of the night, at the age of twenty nine years, the Prince Siddhattha headed to the banks of the river Anomæ where he shed his princely clothes and ornaments and cut off his princely hair. He donned a yellow robe and became an ascetic, a wanderer and seeker of truth. He made his charioteer go back to the palace,
along with his royal horse Ka¼¥haka. But the loyal horse died of sorrow at having to part with its master on its way back to the palace.

The Buddha's search for truth

The first two teachers he met as an ascetic could only give the recluse Siddattha Gotama a high state of mental concentration which could not lead to actual enlightenment. The recluse Siddattha Gotama found that no one could teach him what he was looking for, and realized he had to depend on his own to gain what he was seeking. The recluse then practiced extreme self-mortification. He tried to hold his breath and because of this, wind blew from his ears with great noise. He felt as if his head were beaten with great violence and would explode. He tried taking only a morsel of food every day. As a result, his eyes became sunken, the skin became shrivelled, the belly skin touched the backbone, and hair fell off, the golden complexion, which used to be light and fair, became black. When the recluse walked to pass urine or excreta, he would stumble at that very spot and fall down . Even though he was experiencing utmost pain, his mind was pure. But he found that his painful austerities were futile and only led to exhaustion. After practising for six fruitless years, he became convinced that self-mortification only weakened one’s intellect and also knew that self-indulgence only hindered mental progress. The recluse Gotama recalled how, as an infant, during his father’s ploughing ceremony; he sat under a rose apple tree and was absorbed in contemplation of his own breath , which resulted in the attainment of the first jhana. He decided to nourish himself with balanced food intake so that he would gain the physical state fit enough for the practice to gain enlightenment. He practised contemplating his own in-breath and out-breath which enabled him to gain concentration.