Siddhartha's Saga
By Tim Kindseth in Time magazine August 11, 2008.

Were he alive today, the Buddha would be in jail for child-support violations. Two-and-a-half millenniums of adoration and mythology have obscured the unflattering fact that the Buddha was a deadbeat dad. So a shimmering new English translation of the Buddhacarita, the 2nd century Sanskrit poem chronicling his life, reminds us that in his search for enlightenment and release from samsara — the wheel of rebirths that condemns us to endless lives and thus suffering — he cruelly abandoned his wife and young son Rahula (whose name, making a not-so-subtle point, means "fetters").

A most interesting review from the latest issue of Time. Link here to read.

Other stories of interest in this issue of Time include a review of a biography of Charles Fort , author of the 1920 publication The Book of the Damned, the return of the 1960's rock show HAIR, and a page long look at the business title, How to Get Rich by magazine tycoon Felix Dennis.