Power And Powerlessness In Siddhartha

The concept of power and what it means to be powerful and powerless is explored greatly in the manga Buddha by Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka explores the life of Siddhartha in his manga and the trials that he faced in order to come into being as the Buddha. What Buddha vol. 3 shows people struggling through life with the caste system and their place in it to the inescapable fate of death. In the manga we are shown people try to overcome their struggles with pure power but ultimately suffer defeat. Yatala’s father tries to break the cycle of the shudra life for his son through physical strength and Siddhartha tries to combat death through knowledge and training. But in the end both figures find that it is not power that makes them powerful.

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The prince Seniya is fearful of his impending death and seeks guidance from Siddhartha to no longer fear death. Siddhartha himself is afraid of death also and seeks to find the answer through different ascetics’ training but is unable to find an answer. To overcome the dread of death Siddhartha masters the essence of meditation and the meaning of emptiness, but finds that these practices do not give any relief. Death has the ultimate power over humans because it is inescapable and all encompassing. Siddhartha, and those he has met, try to gain some sort of power or understanding that will make death powerless. Many people in Buddha try other methods to combat death with their own power. The monks in the forest of Uruvela suffer great painful trials in order gain enlightenment and glory, yet the most glorified monks are those who have suffered death. The problems with this method is that Siddhartha does not find purpose in the suffering for the sake of sufferings. Eventually he finds that to indulge in suffering is the same as give into pleasure and that they are the same distraction from enlightenment. Instead Siddhartha does not give up his trials completely but allows himself to go the middle path because he finds that power against power does not work. One must give themselves to the natural order of things and accept it all as a whole because it is the fight against the current that causes suffering. Assaji demonstrates this to Siddhartha through his outlook on death. “Fly no think of death until spider catch him” (Buddha pg. 142) Assaji tells this to Siddhartha when asked how he is able to cope with his impending demise. The key to his calm is not that he finds a way to fight back against death but accepts it as an eventuality and through that is able to live happily. The lesson to be learned is not that death is something to be