Buddha Folklores, a story about young Prince Siddharta is one of the many folklores most of you would know.

Penang Folklores are related with myths and legends. Being born of Buddhist, I am always fascinated by what folklores and myths my elders would share.

Buddha Folklores happen to be one of my many favorites. And it seems like yesterday, I remembered my late father telling us this folklore.

Another is of Hanuman, the monkey God, great tales.... unbelievable but brilliant tales. Maybe that is his way to remind us through Buddha Folklores, to be god fearing and be religious and never forget our roots. Memories of Wesak day is when we thought of these stories to tell the kids on Buddha roles and the fame of Buddhism in India.

In this page, you will find:

• The birth of Buddha
• His trips outside the palace
• All ways to stop him from leaving
• Saffon Robes for his royal garments
• Six years of meditation
• The Enlightened One Is Born
• Triumphed over Evil

Joyce in front of murals in Burmese Temple, Penang

One night, The Queen dreamed that a white elephant descended from heaven and entered her womb.

The white elephant entering her womb indicated that on that very night she had conceived a child who was a pure and powerful being, from the Pure Land of Buddha Maitreya in Buddha Folklore.

The Prince was born as the gods Brahma and Indra took the child painlessly from her side. They then proceeded to honor the infant by offering him ritual ablutions.

Prince Siddhartha would follow his servant into the city of his father’s kingdom to see how people lived in Buddha Folklore. Sometimes, he sees many old and sick people and even saw a dead man being carried to the funeral pyre.

These encounters left a deep impression on his mind. He realized that all living things have to experience the sufferings of birth, sickness and death.

Share with us your folklore, the ones you love when you were young.

Realizing that only a fully enlightened Buddha has the wisdom and the power to help all living beings in this way. He resolved to leave the palace and retire to the solitude of the forest where he would engage in profound meditation until he attained enlightenment.

When his fellow subject heard of their prince leaving for the forest, they made the King marry him in the hope he might changed his mind.

To fulfill his father’s wish, he married the princess and when he was 29, he asked his father blessing to leave the palace.

Leaving the palace

The king tried all ways and means to stop Prince from leaving the palace but he uses his supernatural powers to stop all the guards by putting them sleep then he left for the palace with a trusted servant.

He then rode some distance then the prince dismounted from his horse and bade farewell to his aide.

He then cut off his hair and threw it into the sky, where it was caught by the gods. One of the gods then offered the prince the saffron robes of a religious mendicant.

The prince accepted these and gave his royal garments to the god in exchange. In this way he ordained himself as a monk. Siddhartha went to his journey to India, where he found a suitable place for meditation.

For six years, Buddha meditated under the Bodhi Tree

For six years he meditated, then one full moon day, he seated himself beneath the Bodhi Tree in the meditation posture.

And vowed not to rise from meditation until he had attained perfect enlightenment.

With this determination he entered the space-like concentration on the Dharmakaya.

Read about the oldest temple in Penang with a huge statue of standing Buddha

His final test came as dusk when demons tried to disturb Siddhartha's concentration by manifesting hosts of terrifying demons, some throwing spears, and some firing arrows, some trying to burn him with fire, and some hurling boulders and even mountains at him.

Through the force of his concentration, the weapons, rocks, and mountains appeared to him as a rain of fragrant flowers, and the raging fires became like offerings of rainbow lights.

Seeing that Siddhartha could not be frightened into abandoning his meditation, Devaputra Mara tried instead to distract him by manifesting countless beautiful women, but Siddhartha responded by developing even deeper concentration.

Man being blessed by Priest in Burmese Temple, Penang

In this way he triumphed over all the demons of this world, which is why he subsequently became known as a "Conqueror Buddha." He then continued with his meditation until dawn, when he attained the varja-like concentration.

With this concentration, which is the very last mind of a limited being, he removed the final veils of ignorance from his mind and in the next moment became a Buddha, ’The Enlightened One’.(In fact, Joyce is younger by 20 years and these stories were never told to her).

I still remember sitting in awe as they recited the Buddha Folklores and stories, goose pimples stood on ends, as I recall the stories.

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