felt the need to see the real world. He escaped from his castle and passed through four gates. Through the first gate, the prince encountered an old man who feared his coming end. The second gate held a sick man, slowly dying in agony. Behind the third was a man who had already passed on. Beyond the fourth gate was a monk– a man who radiated complete serenity and calmness. It was this monk, and the atrocity that preceded him, that inspired the prince to abandon his life of luxury and found the Buddhist faith.
             The governing principles of Buddhism are called the Four Noble Truths. These lay the ground work for the religion and are directly associated with the tale of the four gates. In fact, these are supposedly the realizations of the Buddha as he made his way through the gates of his castle and into the world. The first truth is that life is unsatisfactory. Life doesn't always go as planned and to expect a positive outcome is foolhardy. This unsatisfactoriness in known as the dukkha. The second truth says that the
             ...