Chapter 15 Chapter 1 Artificiality and Impermanence-9

Siddhartha did not leave Kapilavastu alone.Before dawn, when his family and servants were asleep, he came to the stable where his most trusted friend, the coachman Ghana, was resting.Kana saw Siddhartha coming alone without an attendant, and he was speechless.Under the instructions of his master, he put on the saddle for Siddhartha's most beloved horse "Kadangka".The two of them passed through the city gate quietly, and no one knew it.After walking a certain distance, Siddhartha got off his horse, took off all the jewelry, anklets and the prince's fine clothes, and handed them all over to Kana, ordering him to ride back to the city on Kadangka.Gana begged to be allowed to stay with Siddhartha, but the prince had made up his mind.He wants Ghana to go back and continue serving the royal family.

Siddhartha asked Kana to bring back a message telling his family not to worry about him because he was about to embark on an important journey.At this time, all his ornaments had been given to Ghana.Except for the last symbol of prominence, class and royalty - the beautiful long hair.Then, he cut off the long hair himself, handed it to Kana, and left alone.Siddhartha embarked on a journey of discovery of impermanence.At this moment, he felt that it was foolish to spend so much energy on beauty and vanity.What he criticizes is not beauty and dress per se, but the belief that their nature is permanent.

As the saying goes: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", this sentence is more profound than it seems literally.The concept of beauty is fluid.Until the beginning of the 20th century, there were still young girls who tied their feet into three-inch golden lotuses.People saw this abuse as beautiful, and some men even got erotic pleasure from the smell of footbinding.And now Chinese women have to go through another pain, lengthening their calves to look like Vogue models.The plump body of Indian women is just like the plump beauty depicted in Ajanta's cave paintings, but now they want to be as skinny as Parisian models.Silent film actresses were admired for their lips smaller than their eyes, but now they are popular for mouths and sausage-like lips.If the next glamor icon has lizard lips and parrot eyes, all those women who have thickened their lips will probably have to spend money to get their lips trimmed.