The Buddha's Story

From the moment of his birth, Siddhartha Gautama never doubted his specialness. He arrived with magnificently webbed digits and could lick his own earlobes. His karma had been that good. Thus, the question was never whether he would become a king, but rather, what type of king he would become. Siddhartha’s journey took a sudden spiritual turn when he came to the first of his many realizations: things die, and before they die, they suffer, a lot, for real. This harrowing insight formed the first of his eleven Four Noble Truths (not including the five other parts) and informed his ascetic-minded mission: to free the world of pain, even if he was very glad to no longer care about anything or anyone in it. Having already experienced an incalculable number of past lives, Siddhartha wondered, how could he himself escape this endless cycle of suffering? With this question came an enlightened answer that promised a possible way out: only those who live can die. In a race against his failing body following an ill-prepared meal, Siddhartha finally faces his ultimate test: will he achieve his blessed wish—to make himself cease to exist once and for all—or will he be reborn yet again into another oozing life of pain?

Chris Matheson is a screenwriter whose credits include the Bill & Ted movies and Rapture-Palooza. He is also the author of The Story of God and The Trouble with God. He lives in Portland, Oregon.