Of losing weight and sleep

I've been so damn tired these past few days.

I read this article about lack of sleep and weight loss. It's all the things you eat for gosh sakes. It's easy to understand for the most part.

We have this guest- a scholar- here with us now who's been telling us different stories of the world and etc and today he told us the story of Buddha, aka Siddhartha.

I find this picture of him to be a very nice one to describe his leaving everything behind:


Siddhartha grew up in a palace where he was completely shielded from any misery and suffering that is so prevalent in our world today. The compound in which he lived was a very vast one, and it was only when he was already a young man with a child of his own that he saw the wall that was keeping him within that "fake world" that his parents created for him in hopes of keeping him from becoming what a priest has predicted he would be before his birth- a great sage. His father figured if he didn't see the suffering of the world he wouldn't look for the solution to the suffering. Of course that didn't stop him.

He was great friends with his chariot driver and one day when he saw the wall, he asked his chariot driver to take him outside that wall. His chariot driver refused of course, but upon Siddhartha's nagging him- he finally gave in, and said, "All right all right- tomorrow night, we'll go." They sneaked out of a small hole in the wall ... and that's where Siddhartha's "awakening" to the miseries of the world came about.

We'll zip right through the little details and... here, so this picture- is probably just when he was about to leave everything. The night after he went out and saw all the miseries, he had his chariot driver his beautiful white horse who he had grown up with bring him deep into the forests. He took of all his jewelry and beautiful clothes and exchanged it with his chariot driver's clothes. He cut off his beautiful long black hair and told his chariot driver to leave. His horse was standing there, head hanging, tears streaming down his face. The chariot driver said, "No, no, I can't leave you. You are my Lord, You are my life. How can I leave You here?" But Siddhartha was firm, "No, you must go. I must find the solution to the miseries of life." Even his horse didn't want to go, and so Siddhartha went and whispered some words into the horse' ear, so then both the horse and the chariot driver had to go. :'(

Anyway... I loved it.

Anyway.. don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter