Four sights

The four sights are four events described in the legendary account of Gautama Buddha's life which led to his realization of the impermanence and the ultimate dissatisfaction of conditioned existence.

According to this legend, before these encounters Gautama Siddhartha had been confined to his palace by his father, who feared that he would become an ascetic if he came into contact with sufferings of life according to a prediction.

However, his first venture out of the palace affected him deeply and made him realize the sufferings of all, and compelled him to begin his spiritual journey as a wandering ascetic, which eventually led to his enlightenment.

[2] After leading a sheltered existence surrounded by luxury and pleasure in his younger years, Prince Siddhārtha ventured out of his palace for the first time at the age of 29.

[4] According to the more elaborated accounts such as the Lalitavistara Sūtra, a Mahayana text originally in Sanskrit, probably from the 3rd century, the Four Sights were placed on his route by the gods, to encourage the development of Siddharta's thinking.

[4] After seeing these three sights, Siddhārtha was troubled in his mind and sorrowful about the sufferings that have to be endured in life.

The sight of this drastic change strengthened his resolve to leave in search of an end to the suffering of beings.

He sent Channa back with his possessions and began an ascetic life, at the end of which he attained enlightenment as Gautama Buddha.

[8] In the early Pali suttas, the four sights as discrete encounters were not mentioned with respect to the historical Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama.

For the next forty-five years he spent his life travelling and preaching.He died at the age of eighty and by this time there were thousands of people who had started following Buddhism.

[13] In the later works Nidanakatha, Buddhavamsa and the Lalitavistara Sūtra, the account was consequently also applied to Siddhārtha Gautama.

Some versions of the story also say that the prince's father had the route beautified and guarded to ensure that he does not see anything that might turn his thoughts towards suffering.