Angelina Tran - The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Ariadne and Gautama)

 In the beginning of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, they make notes of various famous stories that I would like to just touch on. One of the stories was the tale of the Minotaur and the labyrinth. I did not know actually that the bull was supposed to be sacrificed by the King to Poseidon before Queen Europa had a child with the bull. The king would then again decide to keep the minotaur that was born from the bull and Queen Europa in a labyrinth to be made. The King I felt did not learn his lesson after not sacrificing the first time! Later on in the story, many children are sacrificed to the minotaur but one girl, Ariadne, is able to save a child from the labyrinth. Ariadne was given a skein of linen thread by the creator of the labyrinth to allow herself to follow her way back out to the exit despite the changing walls. Interestingly, the creator of the labyrinth decides to help them escape. The creator acts as a double edged sword that created a hell for children but also a savior for some. Moving onto the story of how Gautama became Buddha, the struggles became real. Gautama had started out as a prince of an empire but would then see how the poor lived and all the struggles that the rest of the empire lived through. Realizing these struggles, Gautama could not live with himself living lavishly in the castle and devoted his life instead to meditation. While meditating and defeating the demons in his head he soon almost starved to death until a little girl would give him some food. Now, looking at this story it is interesting to note how much the sights of the empire Gautama ruled impacted him. Gautama felt so guilty for living lavishly while others suffered that he decided to suffer with them. He faced the starvation, the heat, and tiredness that they all felt and later would become the Buddha. I have heard this story before but every time I can not help but wonder if he felt so guilty for them why did he not help the villagers instead? Is there merit in just being able to suffer with someone instead of helping them? Looking back there is merit in being just there for someone suffering but they will soon start wanting solutions.

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