I watched a movie on television several years ago on the life of Buddha/Gautama.Any ideas on what it was?
453583
Prince Siddharta Gautama was born some 2,500 years ago as a prince in what is now called Lumbini in Nepal. At his birth, many special signs appeared. His father asked a sage living in his kingdom for advice on his son. The sage predicted that Gautama would become either a great King or a great spiritual teacher.\n\nThe King wanted his son to be his successor and tried to keep his son far away from all matters of life that could incline him to a spiritual life. Gautama usually spent his life in his father's palace, surrounded by all possible luxuries of the time. He proved to be a special child, being quite intelligent as well as an excellent sportsman. He married to a beautiful woman he loved, and they had a son.\n\nWhen he was 29 years old, he discovered there was much suffering in the world around him. Traditionally it is explained that he suddenly recognised the problems of sickness, old age and death when visiting the city. Being shocked by the suffering of all living beings, he decided to search for way to end it. He left his wife and child, the palace and even his royal clothes, and started out on a spiritual quest.\n\nGautama studied under various teachers and followed their practices until he mastered them all. His first teacher was Alara Kalama who taught a form of meditation leading to an exalted form of absorption called "state of no-thingness", a state without moral or cognitive dimension. Gautama saw this was not going to solve suffering, and continued his search.\nThe next teacher was Udraka Ramaputra who taught him meditative absorption leading to “the state of neither perception nor non-perception”. Again, Gautama realised this was not the state he was looking for. (Both Alara and Udraka are by some scholars considered Jain followers.)\nNext, he tried extreme ascetic practices at Uruvilva, with five other ascetics who turned into his followers. In the end, Gautama nearly died of starvation.\nAfter about six years of searching, he realised that just wearing down his body did not generate new insights, but rather leads to weakness and self-destruction. When he decided to give up extreme asceticism, his students left him.\nHe then sat down in a place now called Bodhgaya (North India) under a Bodhi-tree and decided not to get up anymore until he discovered the truth. Just a short time later, he became a fully enlightened Buddha. This means that he actualised all positive potentials of a sentient being and rid himself of all negative qualities. With this, he realised the true nature of existence and suffering (emptiness), and how suffering can be ended. \nSeven weeks after enlightenment, the Buddha gave his first discourse in Sarnath, near Varanasi . Here he taught the 4 Noble Truths. The Buddha continued to teach during his life, until passing away at the age of  81.\n\nThe Buddha once summarised his entire teachings in one sentence:\n\n    "I teach about suffering and the way to end it".
663541
its a cool story. its been proven that its not true, but its still an interesting take on things. there was a whole thing on it on the Discovery channel. or national geographic, one or the other. \n\nand as long as a religious person isnt afraid to learn other ppl's ideas, they have no reason to be afraid of a movie.
305251
yeah thats true.I remember that that movie was supposed to air on T.V in the U.K around the time of 9/11 and they didnt show it because it was similar to what happened.
778682
Not based on a true story, but is based on the medical condition he suffered in the movie.  I forgot the name of the disease, but you see the flashes of light and your senses heighten.  I think they may have heightened his senses a bit much but who knows?  Stranger things have happened :-)
400618
There is actually a very good film that answers this question and I suggest you see it. It is called \n"the man that went up a hill and came down a mountain"\nThen you'll kmow...
924831
I'm just going on memory here, but I think the whole "India as the origin of martial arts" argument is based on the fact that Bhodi-Dharma (sp?) was a monk from India who visited the Shaolin temple and introduced certain movements to the monks he found there.  I could be wrong, but that's what I recall.
300163
You could check search engines, etc. \nI found it on imdb.com for you.
775584
You are actualy trying to find information on the lame ass 1985 movie "Gymkata".  \n\nhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089243/\n\nThat site will give you all that you need.
5073
I just saw this version on the newly released DVD:\n\n"And the prophet said: 'And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty. And it stayed its hand from killing. And from that day it was as one dead.' 'Old Arabian proverb.'"
321220
I have no idea, i saw that movie like ten years ago
473885
An Italian movie named "Franchesco",\n\nIt's the life story of St. Francis (Franchesco, Francisco, Francois) Assisi [1181-1226] ......
466341
Good question, but a tough one to answer.\n\nThe short, short answer is it just happened. \n\nThe longer more elaborate answer is that Siddhartha Gautama, then man who became the historic Buddha, spent years studying with many Religious masters including Brahmin hermits and ascetic monks. It is recorded that he surpassed his teachers in his learning and skills, yet he didn’t find what he was searching for...An end to suffering. Gautama attempted to find enlightenment through complete deprivation of worldly goods, including food, and became a complete ascetic.  However, he still found no answer to his questions. So, after discarding asceticism and concentrating on meditation, Gautama discovered what we today call the Middle Way; a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and Asceticism. Then, sitting under a pipal tree (a type of fig tree) he vowed not to arise until he had found the truth he had been searching for. Some time later, under the tree, now called the Bodhi tree, Siddhartha Gautama experienced enlightenment and became "The Perfectly Self-Awakened One", the Buddha! (Sammasambuddha)\n\nBecause of the time period, he would not have had "books" but he did spend a great deal of time studying. However, these studies did not teach him about enlightenment, and he was not looking to be 'enlightened' so to speak. In fact, you could say that his 'lessons' before he achieved enlightenment, taught him what NOT to do. He was just looking for simple answers.  It just to happened that the answer was enlightenment. \n\nI hope this helped.
1120709
It seems to have been based on the novel.  Just done a quick search on Amazon and it dates the novel as 1998 - this was long before the screenplay.\n\nYou can get the DVD there too.\n\nThe link below might work, if not just type it into Amazon.
394228
i saw this question in the movie before... but i forgot the answer. oh from bullproof monk
1091726
I noticed this as well.\nI think I am going to check out this movie, it looked very interesting.
1146999
Buddhism stated with Buddha, he was disappointed with life in the sense world....so he wanted higher answers and he got them....the story is long, basically he grew up in luxury and did not know anything about disease or old age ...one day he went out of his palace and has seen a old person, a dead person, a disease stricken person..and a crippled person...he was disgusted with the world, left his palace, became a monk and sought after enlightenment which he got after rigorous practice.\n\nand with caste of Hindus, Hindus divided people on the nature of their work ...for example, Brahmin's were scholars they worked on metaphysics and religion, the Kshatriyas were the kings, and they were responsible for the protection of the country...\nthe vaisyas were business  men, merchants...people who made money...and the sudras were people like barbers, cleaners..who used to get paid for a certain work like the above..\n\nHindus believe that after death, they will be reborn, and this cycle of births and deaths will continue until one attains enlightenment..\n\nand,  a person who seeks spiritual knowledge and strives for it in the present life will be born in better circumstances in his next life which will make it easier for him to concentrate on spiritual pursuits..\n\n\n\nI just read some of the answers, and what you have to know is caste system was not introduced by ashoka, but by the ancient aryans..who wrote the vedas and was called varnasrama, and yes buddhism is an offshoot of hinduism, and no people can change their caste, ie. if you are a brahmin, but like to be a king you can be..and will be called  a kshyatriya, the system was very flexible...
748642
I saw that movie and liked it...I can't remember the name but it co-starred Shirley McClaine as the grandmother who was an ex-magician. She was the one who rigged up the girl to look like an angel in the tree that everyone thought was a sign from God. Then their diner was packed with tourists so they didn't want to confess it was a trick.