29. Q. But how did he acquire this boundless love?
A. Throughout numberless births and aeons of years he had been cultivating this love, with the unfaltering determination to become a Buddha.
30. Q. What did he this time relinquish?
A. His beautiful palaces, his riches, luxuries and pleasures, his soft beds, fine dresses, rich food, and his kingdom; he even left his beloved wife and only son, Rāhula.
31. Q. Did any other man ever sacrifice so much for our sake?
A. Not one in this present world-period: this is why Buddhists so love him, and why good Buddhists try to be like him.
32. Q. But have not many men given up all earthly blessings, and even life itself, for the sake of their fellow-men?
A. Certainly. But we believe that this surpassing unselfishness and love for humanity showed themselves in his renouncing the bliss of Nirvāna countless ages ago, when he was born as the Brāhmana Sumedha, in the time of Dīpānkara Buddha: he had then reached the stage where he might have entered Nirvāna, had he not loved mankind more than himself. This renunciation implied his voluntarily enduring the miseries of earthly lives until he became Buddha, for the sake of teaching all beings the way to emancipation and to give rest to the world.
33. Q. How old was he when he went to the jungle?
A. He was in his twenty-ninth year.