Siddhartha and King Vimbasara: This story really stuck with me after reading it. I really liked how Siddhartha is trying to escape from his life of royalty to pursue his path of enlightenment, but he is not able to shake that essence from him. People all across the city would follow him around thinking that he was a god. The hero is able to remain focused and humble despite having all of the temptations around him to return to a life luxury. I really enjoyed that King Vimbasara was so enthralled by him. Even though he is a king, he knows he can learn Siddhartha. I am thinking about writing about King Vimbasara for my storytelling assignment now. He seems like a very interesting character, in my opinion. I also really enjoyed the part about him going to see such a revered hermit only to find out that he did not actually know anything. That did not phase Buddha, he continued on his path and was able to gain some disciples from it.
The Tree of Knowledge: This was one of my favorite stories from this section. It really demonstrated how Siddhartha was on the cusp of becoming Buddha. Sakra, a god, offered to clean the shroud for burial; Buddha refused and opted to do it himself since he knew what a monk must do. I also liked how he knew that he was about to achieve his enlightenment throughout this story. It was not just one case of subtle foreshadowing either. He even threw a bowl in the river and said if it flowed upstream that he was going to be Buddha. He also said Buddha's from the past ate out of gold bowls before gaining supreme knowledge. I loved how focused he was and that nothing was going to stop him.
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