Before he became the Buddha, Prince Siddhartha encountered an old person, a sick person, and a dead person for the first time and was overcome by shock and dismay. This experience of confronting the challenging realities of life is known in Pali as samvega. When he then saw a spiritual seeker, he glimpsed the possibility of a way out of suffering. This confidence in the spiritual path is called pasada, which keeps samvega from turning into hopelessness.

In this talk, we’ll explore how these two experiences are relevant to us as practitioners in the world today.