gautam buddha biography in english

Who Was Buddha?

Buddha, born with the name Siddhartha Gautama, was a teacher, philosopher and spiritual leader who is considered the founder of Buddhism . He lived and taught in the region around the border of modern-day Nepal and India sometime between the 6th to 4th century B.C.

The name Buddha means "one who is awakened" or "the enlightened one." While scholars agree that Buddha did in fact exist, the specific dates and events of his life are still debated.

According to the most widely known story of his life, after experimenting with different teachings for years, and finding none of them acceptable, Siddhartha Gautama spent a fateful night in deep meditation beneath a tree. During his meditation, all of the answers he had been seeking became clear, and he achieved full awareness, thereby becoming Buddha.

Buddha was born in the 6th century B.C., or possibly as early as 624 B.C., according to some scholars. Other researchers believe he was born later, even as late as 448 B.C. And some Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha lived from 563 B.C. to 483 B.C.

But virtually all scholars believe Siddhartha Gautama was born in Lumbini in present-day Nepal. He belonged to a large clan called the Shakyas.

In 2013, archaeologists working in Lumbini found evidence of a tree shrine that predated other Buddhist shrines by some 300 years, providing new evidence that Buddha was probably born in the 6th century B.C.

Siddhartha Gautama

Siddhartha ("he who achieves his aim") Gautama grew up the son of a ruler of the Shakya clan. His mother died seven days after giving birth.

A holy man, however, prophesied great things for the young Siddhartha: He would either be a great king or military leader or he would be a great spiritual leader.

To protect his son from the miseries and suffering of the world, Siddhartha's father raised him in opulence in a palace built just for the boy and sheltered him from knowledge of religion, human hardship and the outside world.

According to legend, he married at the age of 16 and had a son soon thereafter, but Siddhartha's life of worldly seclusion continued for another 13 years.

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Siddhartha in the Real World

The prince reached adulthood with little experience of the world outside the palace walls, but one day he ventured out with a charioteer and was quickly confronted with the realities of human frailty: He saw a very old man, and Siddhartha's charioteer explained that all people grow old.

Questions about all he had not experienced led him to take more journeys of exploration, and on these subsequent trips he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse and an ascetic. The charioteer explained that the ascetic had renounced the world to seek release from the human fear of death and suffering.

Siddhartha was overcome by these sights, and the next day, at age 29, he left his kingdom, his wife and his son to follow a more spiritual path, determined to find a way to relieve the universal suffering that he now understood to be one of the defining traits of humanity.

The Ascetic Life

For the next six years, Siddhartha lived an ascetic life, studying and meditating using the words of various religious teachers as his guide.

He practiced his new way of life with a group of five ascetics, and his dedication to his quest was so stunning that the five ascetics became Siddhartha's followers. When answers to his questions did not appear, however, he redoubled his efforts, enduring pain, fasting nearly to starvation and refusing water.

Whatever he tried, Siddhartha could not reach the level of insight he sought, until one day when a young girl offered him a bowl of rice. As he accepted it, he suddenly realized that corporeal austerity was not the means to achieve inner liberation, and that living under harsh physical constraints was not helping him achieve spiritual release.

So he had his rice, drank water and bathed in the river. The five ascetics decided that Siddhartha had given up the ascetic life and would now follow the ways of the flesh, and they promptly left him.

The Buddha Emerges

That night, Siddhartha sat alone under the Bodhi tree, vowing to not get up until the truths he sought came to him, and he meditated until the sun came up the next day. He remained there for several days, purifying his mind, seeing his entire life, and previous lives, in his thoughts.

During this time, he had to overcome the threats of Mara, an evil demon, who challenged his right to become the Buddha. When Mara attempted to claim the enlightened state as his own, Siddhartha touched his hand to the ground and asked the Earth to bear witness to his enlightenment, which it did, banishing Mara.

And soon a picture began to form in his mind of all that occurred in the universe, and Siddhartha finally saw the answer to the questions of suffering that he had been seeking for so many years. In that moment of pure enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha.

Armed with his new knowledge, the Buddha was initially hesitant to teach, because what he now knew could not be communicated to others in words. According to legend, it was then that the king of gods, Brahma, convinced Buddha to teach, and he got up from his spot under the Bodhi tree and set out to do just that.

About 100 miles away, he came across the five ascetics he had practiced with for so long, who had abandoned him on the eve of his enlightenment. Siddhartha encouraged them to follow a path of balance instead of one characterized by either aesthetic extremism or sensuous indulgence. He called this path the Middle Way.

To them and others who had gathered, he preached his first sermon (henceforth known as Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma) , in which he explained the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, which became the pillars of Buddhism.

The ascetics then became his first disciples and formed the foundation of the Sangha, or community of monks. Women were admitted to the Sangha, and all barriers of class, race, sex and previous background were ignored, with only the desire to reach enlightenment through the banishment of suffering and spiritual emptiness considered.

For the remainder of his years, Buddha traveled, preaching the Dharma (the name given to his teachings) in an effort to lead others along the path of enlightenment.

Buddha died around the age of 80, possibly of an illness from eating spoiled meat or other food. When he died, it is said that he told his disciples that they should follow no leader, but to "be your own light."

The Buddha is undoubtedly one of the most influential figures in world history, and his teachings have affected everything from a variety of other faiths (as many find their origins in the words of the Buddha) to literature to philosophy, both within India and to the farthest reaches of the world.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Buddha
• Birth Year: 563
• Birth City: Lumbini
• Birth Country: Nepal
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Buddha was a spiritual teacher in Nepal during the 6th century B.C. Born Siddhartha Gautama, his teachings serve as the foundation of the Buddhist religion.
• Nacionalities
• Nepalese (Nepal)
• Death Year: 483
• Death Country: India

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Buddha Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/religious-figures/buddha
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• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: July 13, 2020
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

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Buddha summary

Discover the life of buddha, founder of buddhism.

Buddha , orig. Siddhartha Gautama , (born c. 6th–4th century bce , Lumbini, near Kapilavastu, Shakya republic, Kosala kingdom—died, Kusinara, Malla republic, Magadha kingdom), Spiritual leader and founder of Buddhism . The term buddha (Sanskrit: “awakened one”) is a title rather than a name, and Buddhists believe that there are an infinite number of past and future buddhas. The historical Buddha, referred to as the Buddha Gautama or simply as the Buddha, was born a prince of the Shakyas, on the present-day India-Nepal border. He is said to have lived a sheltered life of luxury that was interrupted when he left the palace and encountered an old man, a sick man, and a corpse. Renouncing his princely life, he spent six years seeking out teachers and trying various ascetic practices, including fasting, to gain enlightenment. Unsatisfied with the results, he meditated beneath the bodhi tree, where, after temptations by Mara, he realized the Four Noble Truths and achieved enlightenment. At Sarnath he preached his first sermon to his companions, outlining the Eightfold Path, which offered a middle way between self-indulgence and self-mortification and led to the liberation of nirvana. The five ascetics who heard this sermon became not only his first disciples but also arhats who would enter nirvana upon death. His mission fulfilled, the Buddha died, after eating a meal that may accidentally have contained spoiled pork, and escaped the cycle of rebirth; his body was cremated, and stupas were built over his relics.

Siddhartha Gautama

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Siddhartha Gautama (better known as the Buddha, l. c. 563 - c. 483 BCE) was, according to legend, a Hindu prince who renounced his position and wealth to seek enlightenment as a spiritual ascetic, attained his goal and, in preaching his path to others, founded Buddhism in India in the 6th-5th centuries BCE.

The events of his life are largely legendary, but he is considered an actual historical figure and a younger contemporary of Mahavira (also known as Vardhamana , l. c. 599-527 BCE) who established the tenets of Jainism shortly before Siddhartha's time.

According to Buddhist texts, a prophecy was given at Siddhartha's birth that he would become either a powerful king or great spiritual leader. His father, fearing he would become the latter if he were exposed to the suffering of the world, protected him from seeing or experiencing anything unpleasant or upsetting for the first 29 years of his life. One day (or over the course of a few) he slipped through his father's defenses and saw what Buddhists refer to as the Four Signs:

• An aged man
• A religious ascetic

Through these signs, he realized that he, too, could become sick, would grow old, would die, and would lose everything he loved. He understood that the life he was living guaranteed he would suffer and, further, that all of life was essentially defined by suffering from want or loss. He therefore followed the example of the religious ascetic, tried different teachers and disciplines, and finally attained enlightenment through his own means and became known as the Buddha (“awakened” or “enlightened” one).

Afterwards, he preached his “middle way” of detachment from sense objects and renunciation of ignorance and illusion through his Four Noble Truths , the Wheel of Becoming, and the Eightfold Path to enlightenment. After his death , his disciples preserved and developed his teachings until they were spread from India to other countries by the Mauryan king Ashoka the Great (r. 268-232 BCE). From the time of Ashoka on, Buddhism has continued to flourish and, presently, is one of the major world religions.

Historical Background

Siddhartha was born in Lumbini (in modern-day Nepal) during a time of social and religious transformation. The dominant religion in India at the time was Hinduism ( Sanatan Dharma , “Eternal Order”) but a number of thinkers of the period had begun to question its validity and the authority of the Vedas (the Hindu scriptures) as well as the practices of the priests.

On a practical level, critics of orthodox Hinduism claimed that the religion was not meeting the needs of the people. The Vedas were said to have been received directly from the universe and could not be questioned, but these scriptures were all in Sanskrit , a language the people could not understand, and were interpreted by the priests to encourage acceptance of one's place in life – no matter how difficult or impoverished – while they themselves continued to live well from temple donations.

On a theological level, people began to question the entire construct of Hinduism. Hinduism taught that there was a supreme being, Brahman, who had not only created the universe but was the universe itself. Brahman had established the divine order, maintained this order, and had delivered the Vedas to enable human beings to participate in this order with understanding and clarity.

It was understood that the human soul was immortal and that the goal of life was to perform one's karma (action) in accordance with one's dharma (duty) in order to break free from the cycle of rebirth and death ( samsara ) and attain union with the oversoul ( atman ). It was also understood that the soul would be incarnated in physical bodies multiple times, over and over, until one finally attained this liberation.

The Hindu priests of the time defended the faith, which included the caste system, as part of the divine order but, as new ideas began to circulate, more people questioned whether that order was divine at all when all it seemed to offer was endless rounds of suffering. Scholar John M. Koller comments:

From a religious perspective, new ways of faith and practice challenged the established Vedic religion. The main concern dominating religious thought and practice at the time of the Buddha was the problem of suffering and death. Fear of death was an especially acute problem, because death was seen as an unending series of deaths and rebirths. Although the Buddha's solution to the problem was unique, most religious seekers at this time were engaged in the search for a way to obtain freedom from suffering and repeated death. (46)

Many schools of thought arose at this time in response to this need. Those which supported orthodox Hindu thought were known as astika (“there exists”), and those which rejected the Vedas and the Hindu construct were known as nastika (“there does not exist”). Among the nastika schools which survived the time and developed were Charvaka , Jainism, and Buddhism.

Early Life & Renunciation

Siddhartha Gautama grew up in this time of transition and reform but, according to the famous Buddhist legend concerning his youth, would not have been aware of any of it. When he was born, it was prophesied that he would become a great king or spiritual leader and his father, hoping for the former, hid his son away from anything that might be distressing. Siddhartha's mother died within a week of his birth, but he had no awareness of this, and his father did not want him to experience anything else as he grew which might inspire him to adopt a spiritual path.

Siddhartha lived among the luxuries of the palace , was married, had a son, and lacked for nothing as the heir-apparent of his father until his experience with the Four Signs. Whether he saw the aged man, sick man, dead man, and ascetic in rapid succession on a single ride in his carriage (or chariot , depending on the version), or over four days, the story relates how, with each one of the first three, he asked his driver, “Am I, too, subject to this?” His coachman responded, telling him how everyone aged, everyone was subject to illness, and everyone died.

Reflecting upon this, Siddhartha understood that everyone he loved, every fine object, all his grand clothes, his horses, his jewels would one day be lost to him – could be lost to him at any time on any day – because he was subject to age, illness, and death just like everyone else. The idea of such tremendous loss was unbearable to him but, he noticed, the religious ascetic – just as doomed as anyone – seemed at peace and so asked him why he seemed so content. The ascetic told him he was pursuing the path of spiritual reflection and detachment, recognizing the world and its trappings as illusion, and was therefore unconcerned with loss as he had already given everything away.

Siddhartha knew that his father would never allow him to follow this path and, further, he had a wife and son he was responsible for who would also try to prevent him. At the same time, though, the thought of accepting a life he knew he would ultimately lose and suffer for was unbearable. One night, after looking at all of the precious objects he was attached to and his sleeping wife and son, he walked out of the palace, left his fine clothes, put on the robes of an ascetic, and departed for the woods. In some versions of the story, he is assisted by supernatural means while, in others, he simply leaves.

Criticism of the Four Signs Tale

Criticism of this story often includes the objection that Siddhartha could not possibly have gone 29 years without ever becoming sick, seeing an older person, or being aware of death, but this is explained by scholars in two ways:

• the story is symbolic of the conditions which cause/relieve suffering
• the story is an artificial construct to give Buddhism an illustrious past

Koller addresses the first point, writing :

Most likely the truth of the legend of the four signs is symbolic rather than literal. In the first place, they may symbolize existential crises in Siddhartha's life occasioned by experiences with sickness, old age, death, and renunciation. More important, these four signs symbolize his coming to a deep and profound understanding of the true reality of sickness, old age, death, and contentment and his conviction that peace and contentment are possible despite the fact that everyone experiences old age, sickness, and death. (49)

Scholars Robert E. Buswell, Jr. and Donald S. Lopez, Jr. address the second point noting that the story of the Four Signs was written over 100 years after Buddha's death and that early Buddhists were “motivated in part by the need to demonstrate that what the Buddha taught was not the innovation of an individual, but rather the rediscovery of a timeless truth” in order to give the belief system the same claim to ancient, divine origins held by Hinduism and Jainism (149).

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The story may or may not be true, but it hardly matters because it has come to be accepted as truth. It appears first in full in the Lalitavistara Sutra (c. 3rd century CE) and, before that, may have undergone extensive revision via oral tradition. The symbolic meaning seems obvious and the claim it was written to enhance the standing of Buddhist thought, which had to contend with the established faiths of Hinduism and Jainism for adherents, also seems probable.

Ascetic Life & Enlightenment

Siddhartha at first sought out the famous teacher Arada Kalama with whom he studied until he had mastered all Kamala knew, but the “attainment of nothingness” he gained did nothing to free him from suffering. He then became a student of the master Udraka Ramaputra who taught him how to suppress his desires and attain a state “neither conscious nor unconscious”, but this did not satisfy him as it, also, did not address the problem of suffering. He subjected himself to the harshest ascetic disciplines, most likely following a Jain model, eventually eating only a grain of rice a day, but, still, he could not find what he was looking for.

In one version of his story, at this point he stumbles into a river, barely strong enough to keep his head above water, and receives direction from a voice on the wind. In the more popular version, he is found in the woods by a milkmaid named Sujata, who mistakes him for a tree spirit because he is so emaciated, and offers him some rice milk. The milk revives him, and he ends his asceticism and goes to nearby village of Bodh Gaya where he seats himself on a bed of grass beneath a Bodhi tree and vows to remain there until he understands the means of living without suffering.

Deep in a meditative state, Siddhartha contemplated his life and experiences. He thought about the nature of suffering and fully recognized its power came from attachment. Finally, in a moment of illumination, he understood that suffering was caused by the human insistence on permanent states of being in a world of impermanence. Everything one was, everything one thought one owned, everything one wanted to gain, was in a constant state of flux. One suffered because one was ignorant of the fact that life itself was change and one could cease suffering by recognizing that, since this was so, attachment to anything in the belief it would last was a serious error which only trapped one in an endless cycle of craving, striving, rebirth, and death. His illumination was complete, and Siddhartha Gautama was now the Buddha, the enlightened one.

Tenets & Teachings

Although he could now live his life in contentment and do as he pleased, he chose instead to teach others the path of liberation from ignorance and desire and assist them in ending their suffering. He preached his first sermon at the Deer Park at Sarnath at which he introduced his audience to his Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Truths are:

• Life is suffering
• The cause of suffering is craving
• The end of suffering comes with an end to craving
• There is a path which leads one away from craving and suffering

The fourth truth directs one toward the Eightfold Path, which serves as a guide to live one's life without the kind of attachment that guarantees suffering:

• Right Intention
• Right Speech
• Right Action
• Right Livelihood
• Right Effort
• Right Mindfulness
• Right Concentration

By recognizing the Four Noble Truths and following the precepts of the Eightfold Path, one is freed from the Wheel of Becoming which is a symbolic illustration of existence. In the hub of the wheel sit ignorance, craving, and aversion which drive it. Between the hub and the rim of the wheel are six states of existence: human, animal, ghosts, demons, deities, and hell-beings. Along the rim of the wheel are depicted the conditions which cause suffering such as body-mind, consciousness, feeling, thirst, grasping among many others which bind one to the wheel and cause one to suffer.

In recognizing the Four Noble Truths and following the Eightfold Path, one will still experience loss, feel pain, know disappointment but it will not be the same as the experience of duhkha , translated as “suffering” which is unending because it is fueled by the soul's ignorance of the nature of life and of itself. One can still enjoy all aspects of life in pursuing the Buddhist path, only with the recognition that these things cannot last, it is not in their nature to last, because nothing in life is permanent.

Buddhists compare this realization to the end of a dinner party. When the meal is done, one thanks one's host for the pleasant time and goes home; one does not fall to the floor crying and lamenting the evening's end. The nature of the dinner party is that it has a beginning and an ending, it is not a permanent state, and neither is anything else in life. Instead of mourning the loss of something that one could never hope to have held onto, one should appreciate what one has experienced for what it is – and let it go when it is over.

Buddha called his teaching the Dharma which means “cosmic law ” in this case (not “duty” as in Hinduism) as it is based entirely on the concept of undeniable consequences for one's thoughts which form one's reality and dictate one's actions. As the Buddhist text Dhammapada puts it:

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draw it. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves. (I.1-2)

The individual is ultimately responsible for his or her level of suffering because, at any point, one can choose not to engage in the kinds of attachments and thought processes which cause suffering. Buddha would continue to teach his message for the rest of his life before dying at Kushinagar where, according to Buddhists, he attained nirvana and was released from the cycle of rebirth and death after being served a meal by one Cunda, a student, who some scholars claim may have poisoned him, perhaps accidentally.

Before dying of dysentery, he requested his remains be placed in a stupa at a crossroads, but his disciples divided them between themselves and had them interred in eight (or ten) stupas corresponding to important sites in Buddha's life. When Ashoka the Great embraced Buddhism, he had the relics disinterred and then reinterred in 84,000 stupas across India.

He then sent missionaries to other countries to spread Buddha's message where it was received so well that Buddhism became more popular in countries like Sri Lanka, China , Thailand, and Korea than it was in India - a situation which, actually, is ongoing – and Buddhist thought developed further after that. Today, the efforts of Siddhartha Gautama are appreciated worldwide by those who have embraced his message and still follow his example of appreciating, without clinging, to the beauty of life.

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Bibliography

• Baird, F. E. & Heimbeck, R. S. Philosophic Classics: Asian Philosophy. Routledge, 2005.
• Buddha. The Dhammapada. Royal Classics, 2020.
• Burtt, E. A. The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha. Berkley, 2000.
• Buswell, R. E. jr & Lopez, D. S. jr. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press, 2013.
• Keay, J. India: A History. Grove Press, 2010.
• Koller, J. M. Asian Philosophies. Prentice Hall, 2007.
• Long, J. D. Historical Dictionary of Hinduism. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010.
• Long, J. D. Jainism: An Introduction. I.B. Tauris, 2009.

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• Gautama Buddha

Gautama Buddha , also known as Shakyamuni Buddha , or simply the Buddha , was an Indian sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught in northeastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE. [1]

When referring to the period before he became enlightened, the Buddha is known as Siddhārtha Gautama ( Sanskrit ) or Siddhattha Gotama ( Pali ). Siddhartha , his given name, means "one who achieves his goals"; Gautama is his family name.

Gautama Buddha is believed by Buddhists to have been a fully awakened being who taught the true path to the cessation of suffering ( dukkha ) and the attainment of liberation ( nirvana ). Accounts of his life, discourses and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years after his death.

• 1.1 Influences
• 1.2 Birth and death
• 1.3 Shakya clan
• 1.4 Birthplace
• 1.5 Travels and teaching
• 1.6 Written records
• 2.2 Life in the palace
• 2.3 The four sights
• 2.4 Renunciation
• 2.5 Spiritual quest
• 2.6 Enlightenment
• 2.7 First teaching
• 2.8 The first sangha
• 2.9 Return to Kapilavastu to teach his family
• 2.10 Mahaparinirvana
• 3 Traditional biographical sources
• 4 Meaning of "Buddha"
• 6 Physical characteristics
• 8 References
• 9.1 Printed sources
• 9.2 Online souces
• 10.1 The Buddha
• 10.2 Early Buddhism
• 10.3 Buddhism general
• 11 External links

Historical Siddhārtha Gautama

Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order, but do not accept many of the details contained in traditional biographies. [2] [3]

According to author Michael Carrithers, while there are good reasons to doubt the traditional account, "the outline of the life must be true: birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death." [4] In her biography of the Buddha, Karen Armstrong writes,

The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha was born in a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. [6]

The Buddha was born into the Shakya clan, which historians believe to have been organized into either an oligarchy or a republic. Historians suggest that Siddhartha's father was likely an important figure in the republic or oligarchy, rather than a "king" as described in the traditional biographies. [6]

Most scholars accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era in India during the reign of Bimbisara , the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajatshatru who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira , the Jain teacher. [7] [8]

Apart from the Vedic Brahmins , the Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of other influential sramana schools of thoughts like Ājīvika , Cārvāka , Jain , and Ajñana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahāvīra , Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla , Ajita Kesakambalī , Pakudha Kaccāyana , and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta , whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by. [9] [10] [note 1] Indeed, Sariputta and Maudgalyāyana , two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the skeptic. [11] There is also evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta , were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. [12]

Birth and death

The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. [13] [14] More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium on this question held in 1988, [15] [16] [17] the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. [13] [18] [note 3] These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all historians. [24] [25] [note 5]

According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini , nowadays in modern-day Nepal , and raised in Kapilavastu (Shakya capital), which may either be in present day Tilaurakot , Nepal or Piprahwa , India. [note 2]

Shakya clan

The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. [6] According to Gombrich, they seem to have had no cast system, but did have servants.

Gombrich states, "Some historians call [Shakya] an oligarchy, some a  republic;  certainly  it  was  not  a  brahminical  monarchy,  and  makes more than dubious the later story that the future Buddha’s father was the local king." [33] In this view, Siddhartha's father was more likely an important figure in the republic or oligarchy, rather than a traditional monarch.

Historians believe that the Shakyas were self governing and heads of housholds met in council to discuss problems and reach unanimous decisions. According to Gombrich, this gave the Buddha a model of a castless society; in the Sangha he instituted rank based on seniority counted from ordination. [6]

The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini , present-day Nepal, to be the birthplace of the Buddha. [34] [note 2] According to tradition, he grew up in Kapilavastu . [note 2] The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa , Uttar Pradesh , present-day India, [31] or Tilaurakot , present-day Nepal. [35] Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 15 miles apart from each other. [35]

Siddharta Gautama was born as a Kshatriya , [36] [note 7] the son of Śuddhodana , "an elected chief of the Shakya clan ", [1] whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name . His mother, Queen Maha Maya (Māyādevī) was a Koliyan princess.

Travels and teaching

The Buddha spent about 45 years of his life teaching the dharma. He is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain , in what is now Uttar Pradesh , Bihar and southern Nepal , teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, murderers such as Angulimala , and cannibals such as Alavaka. [38] Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.

The sangha, the Buddha's disciples, would travel throughout the subcontinent, expounding the dharma.

Written records

No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One edict of Emperor Ashoka , who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini . Another one of his edict mentions several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Mauryan era and which may be the precursors of the Pāli Canon . [39] [note 8] The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts , reported to have been found in or around Haḍḍa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library . They are written in the Kharoṣṭhī script and the Gāndhārī language on twenty-seven birch bark scrolls , and they date from the first century BCE to the third century CE. [web 8]

Traditional life story

There are multiple accounts of the life of the Buddha within Buddhist literature. These accounts generally agree on the broad outlines of his life story, though there are differences in detail and interpretation. [40]

Alexander Berzin states:

The account below follows the broad outline of Buddha's life, according to traditional sources.

Gautama Buddha's parents were King Śuddhodana and Queen Maya , who were the rulers of the Shakya kingdom of Northern India. His given name was Siddhartha.

The King and Queen lived in the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu . Following the traditional custom of the time, when Queen Maya knew the time of her son's birth was drawing near, she began to travel to her father's home in Kapilavastu , in order to give birth to the child there. However, the queen was unable to reach her destination before giving birth, and her son was born in a garden beneath a sal tree in the region of Lumbini (in present-day Nepal).

Siddhartha's mother, Queen Maya died soon after giving birth. Siddhartha would be raised by his father, King Śuddhodana, and his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati .

Life in the palace

Siddhartha's father, King Śuddhodana , gave him the name Siddhartha , meaning "one who achieves his goals".

Soon after the birth of Siddhartha, Śuddhodana invited a group of eight brahmin sages to his court to examine the child and predict his future. The sages prophesied that Siddhartha would either become a great king and military conqueror ( chakravartin ) or an enlightened spiritual guide ( buddha ).

Śuddhodana was eager for his son to become a great king and conqueror. But he was concerned that Siddhartha might choose the spiritual path and renounce his worldly inheritance.

Thus, as a young man, Siddhartha wore robes of the finest silk, ate the best food and was surrounded by beautiful dancing girls. He was extremely handsome and he excelled at his studies and at every type of sporting contest. His father arranged for him to marry a young woman of exceptional grace and beauty, Yasodhara . Siddhartha and Yasodhara lived together in peace and harmony for many years, and they had a son together.

Yet despite all of this, Siddhartha still had not yet been outside the palace walls. His curiosity grew stronger and stronger and he pleaded with his father to allow him to venture beyond the palace gates. Finally, when Siddhartha reached the age of 29, his father relented and allowed him to visit the world outside the palace gates.

The four sights

Siddhartha ventured beyond the gates with his faithful charioteer Channa and they had a series of encounters known as the four sights . In these encounters, Siddhartha and Channa first encountered an old man, then a sick man, and then a corpse. From these three encounters Siddhartha began to understand the nature of suffering in the world. Finally, they met an ascetic holy man ( śramaṇa ), who appeared to be content and at peace with the world.

These encounters had a profound impact on Siddhartha. Through the first three sights, Siddhartha came to understand that despite the luxury of his surroundings, and despite the immense wealth and power of his family, both he himself and everyone he loved would eventually have to face the sufferings of old age, sickness and death. And he was powerless to stop this. Siddhartha was also inspired by the holy man who was seeking a path beyond suffering, and Siddhartha resolved that he too would seek that path in order that he could lead his family beyond suffering.

Renunciation

Siddhartha made the decision to renounce his worldly life and follow the path of an ascetic spiritual seeker. According to one account, late one night, after the rest of the household had gone to sleep, Siddhartha ordered Channa the charioteer to prepare his horse, and together they slipped unnoticed outside the palace gates. They rode to the edge of a nearby forest, and once there, Siddhartha informed Channa that he was renouncing his worldly life to become a seeker of truth. As a sign of his renunciation, Siddhartha cut off his long, beautiful hair and discarded his royal robes. Siddhartha instructed Channa to return to the palace and inform his father of his decision, and then he walked off into the forest.

Spiritual quest

After renouncing his worldly life, Siddhartha sought out the great spiritual teachers of his day. He studied with several teachers, and in each case, he mastered the meditative techniques which they taught. But he found that the meditation techniques that he learned from these teachers did not provide a permanent end to suffering, so he continued his quest. He next joined a group of five other ascetics ( śramaṇa ), led by a holy man named Kondañña . For the next several years, Siddhartha practiced extreme austerities along with his five companions. These austerities included prolonged fasting, breath-holding, and exposure to pain. He almost starved himself to death in the process.

Eventually Siddhartha realized that he had taken this kind of practice to its limit, and had not put an end to suffering. In a pivotal moment, as he was near death, Siddhartha accepted milk and rice from a village girl and began to regain his strength. He then devoted himself to meditation, taking in the nourishment that he needed, but not more than that. He would later describe his new approach as the Middle Way : a path of moderation between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-denial.

Enlightenment

At the age of 35, Siddhartha sat in meditation under a fig tree — now known as the Bodhi tree — and he vowed not to rise before achieving enlightenment ( bodhi ). After many days, he finally destroyed the fetters of his mind, thereby liberating himself from the cycle of suffering and rebirth ( saṃsāra ), and arose as a fully enlightened being ( samyaksambuddha ).

According to some accounts, after his awakening, the Buddha debated with himself whether or not he should teach the Dharma to others. [note 9] He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance ( avidya ), greed ( raga ) and hatred ( dvesha ) that they would not understand his dharma, which is subtle, deep and difficult to grasp. However, while he was contemplating this, he was approached by a being from the heavenly realms ( Brahma Sahampati ), who urged the Buddha to teach, arguing that at least some people will understand the dharma. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.

First teaching

After a period of deep reflection, the Buddha sought out his five former companions (with whom he had practiced austerities). He found them in a deer park in Sarnath , northern India.

There he gave his first teaching to his former companions, in which he explained his middle way approach and the four noble truths . Traditionally, it is said the Buddha "set in motion the Wheel of Dharma " when he gave this first teaching; this teaching is recorded in The Discourse That Sets Turning the Wheel of Truth ( Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta ).

The Buddha spent the rest of his life traveling throughout northeastern India and teaching the path of awakening he had discovered.

The first sangha

The Buddha along with his first five followers are said to have formed the first saṅgha : the company of Buddhist monks. As the Buddha traveled and continued teaching, he attracted many more followers, many of whom became monks and nuns, and many who became lay followers.

Return to Kapilavastu to teach his family

Upon hearing of Siddhartha's awakening, his father King Śuddhodana sent many requests to ask the Buddha to return to Kapilavastu. Two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return to Kapilavastu, and made a two-month journey by foot, teaching the dharma as he went. When he reached his father's home in Kapilavastu, he taught the dharma to his father and his extended family. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha . The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arhat.

Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Maudgalyayana , Mahakasyapa , Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him.

Mahaparinirvana

At the age of 80, the Buddha fell ill in the town of Kushinagar in northern India. At this time, he said to his attendant Ananda :

When Ananda become despondent, the Buddha said to him:

The Buddha then passed away. He death is considered to be a parinirvana , a complete release from the cycle of existence ( samsara ).

The Buddha's body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present.

Traditional biographical sources

There are multiple accounts of the life of the Buddha within Buddhist literature. These accounts generally agree on the broad outlines of his life story, though there are differences in detail and interpretation. [40] The sources for these accounts include:

• Buddhacarita ,
• Lalitavistara Sūtra ,
• Mahāvastu , and
• Nidānakathā . [44]

Of these, the Buddhacarita [45] [46] [47] is considered to be the earliest full biography. This text is an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa , and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. [44]

The Lalitavistara Sūtra is thought to be the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna / Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. [48]

The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. [48]

The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra , [49] and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE.

Lastly, the Nidānakathā is from the Theravāda tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century CE by Buddhaghoṣa . [50]

Additional sources from the Pali Canon include the Jātakas , the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva , and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. [51] The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.

Meaning of "Buddha"

The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in an era . In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha ( Pali sammāsambuddha , Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha ) of our age. [note 10]

After his death, Buddha's cremation relics were divided amongst 8 royal families and his disciples; centuries later they would be enshrined by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas. [web 9] [52] [53]

Physical characteristics

Traditionally, the Buddha's physical body is said to possess:

• Mahapurusalaksana - thirty-two major marks of a great man
• Minor marks of a great person - eighty minor marks

Within Buddhist cosmology , these physical marks are shared by both buddhas and chakravartins . However the marks are more clear and distinct on the body of a buddha. The Buddha also has a few marks that are not found on the chakravartin, such as the protuberance on the crown of the Buddha's head. [54]

• ↑ According to Alexander Berzin, "Buddhism developed as a shramana school that accepted rebirth under the force of karma, while rejecting the existence of the type of soul that other schools asserted. In addition, the Buddha accepted as parts of the path to liberation the use of logic and reasoning, as well as ethical behavior, but not to the degree of Jain asceticism. In this way, Buddhism avoided the extremes of the previous four shramana schools." [web 1]
• Warder: "The Buddha [...] was born in the Sakya Republic, which was the city state of Kapilavastu, a very small state just inside the modern state boundary of Nepal against the Northern Indian frontier. [1]
• Walsh: "He belonged to the Sakya clan dwelling on the edge of the Himalayas, his actual birthplace being a few miles north of the present-day Northern Indian border, in Nepal. His father was in fact an elected chief of the clan rather than the king he was later made out to be, though his title was raja – a term which only partly corresponds to our word 'king'. Some of the states of North India at that time were kingdoms and others republics, and the Sakyan republic was subject to the powerful king of neighbouring Kosala, which lay to the south". [30] The exact location of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. [28] It may have been either Piprahwa in Uttar Pradesh , northern India, [31] [28] or Tilaurakot , present-day Nepal . [32] [28] The two cities are located only fifteen miles from each other. [32]
• 411–400: Dundas 2002 , p. 24: "...as is now almost universally accepted by informed Indological scholarship, a re-examination of early Buddhist historical material, [...], necessitates a redating of the Buddha's death to between 411 and 400 BCE..."
• 405: Richard Gombrich [19] [20] [21] [22]
• Around 400: See the consensus in the essays by leading scholars in Narain, Awadh Kishore , ed. (2003), The Date of the Historical Śākyamuni Buddha , New Delhi: BR Publishing, ISBN   81-7646-353-1   .
• According to Pali scholar K. R. Norman , a life span for the Buddha of c. 480 to 400 BCE (and his teaching period roughly from c. 445 to 400 BCE) "fits the archaeological evidence better". [23] See also Notes on the Dates of the Buddha Íåkyamuni .
• ↑ See "Ambattha Sutta", Digha Nikaya 3, were Vajrapani frightens an arrogant young Brahman, and the superiority of Kashatriyas over Brahmins is established. [web 4]
• ↑ In 2013, archaeologist Robert Coningham found the remains of a Bodhigara , a tree shrine, dated to 550 BCE at the Maya Devi Temple, Lumbini , speculating that it may possible be a Buddhist shrine. If so, this may push back the Buddha's birth date. [web 2] Archaeologists caution that the shrine may represent pre-Buddhist tree worship, and that further research is needed. [web 2] Richard Gombrich has dismissed Coningham's specualtions as "a fantasy", noting that Coningham lacks the necessary expertise on the history of early Buddhism. [web 3] Geoffrey Samuels notes that several locations of both early Buddhism and Jainism are closely related to Yaksha -worship, that several Yakshas were "converted" to Buddhism, a well-known example being Vajrapani , [note 4] and that several Yaksha-shrines, where trees were worshipped, were converted into Buddhist holy places. [26]
• ↑ Some sources mention Kapilavastu as the birthplace of the Buddha. Gethin states: "The earliest Buddhist sources state that the future Buddha was born Siddhārtha Gautama (Pali Siddhattha Gotama), the son of a local chieftain — a rājan — in Kapilavastu (Pali Kapilavatthu) what is now the Indian–Nepalese border." [29] Gethin does not give references for this statement.
• ↑ According to Geoffrey Samuel, the Buddha was born as a Kshatriya, [36] in a moderate Vedic culture at the central Ganges Plain area, where the shramana-traditions developed. This area had a moderate Vedic culture, where the kshatriyas were the highest varna , in contrast to the Brahmanic ideology of Kuru - Panchala , were the Brahmins had become the highest varna. [36] Both the Vedic culture and the shramana tradition contributed to the emergence of the so-called "Hindu-synthesis" around the start of the Common Era. [37] [36]
• ↑ Minor Rock Edict Nb3: "These Dhamma texts – Extracts from the Discipline, the Noble Way of Life, the Fears to Come, the Poem on the Silent Sage, the Discourse on the Pure Life, Upatisa's Questions, and the Advice to Rahula which was spoken by the Buddha concerning false speech – these Dhamma texts, reverend sirs, I desire that all the monks and nuns may constantly listen to and remember. Likewise the laymen and laywomen." [39] Dhammika:"There is disagreement amongst scholars concerning which Pali suttas correspond to some of the text. Vinaya samukose: probably the Atthavasa Vagga, Anguttara Nikaya, 1:98-100. Aliya vasani: either the Ariyavasa Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya, V:29, or the Ariyavamsa Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya, II: 27-28. Anagata bhayani: probably the Anagata Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya, III:100. Muni gatha: Muni Sutta, Sutta Nipata 207-221. Upatisa pasine: Sariputta Sutta, Sutta Nipata 955-975. Laghulavade: Rahulavada Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya, I:421." [39]
• ↑ E.g. the  Āyācana Sutta  (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1)
• ↑ Hypothetical root budh "perceive" 1. Pali buddha – "understood, enlightened", masculine "the Buddha "; Aśokan (the language of the Inscriptions of Aśoka ) Budhe nominative singular ; Prakrit buddha – ‘ known, awakened ’; Waigalī būdāī , "truth"; Bashkarīk budh "he heard"; Tōrwālī būdo preterite of bū , "to see, know" from bṓdhati ; Phalūṛa búddo preterite of buǰǰ , "to understand" from búdhyatē ; Shina Gilgitī dialect budo , "awake"; Gurēsī dialect budyōnṷ intransitive "to wake"; Kashmiri bọ̆du , "quick of understanding (especially of a child)"; Sindhī ḇudho , past participle ( passive ) of ḇujhaṇu , "to understand" from búdhyatē , West Pahāṛī buddhā , preterite of bujṇā , "to know"; Sinhalese buj ( j written for d ), budu , bud , but , "the Buddha". Turner, Sir Ralph Lilley . "buddha 9276; 1962–1985" . A comparative dictionary of the Indo-Aryan languages . Digital Dictionaries of South Asia, University of Chicago. London: Oxford University Press. p. 525 . Retrieved 22 February 2010 .  
• ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Warder 2000 , p. 45.
• ↑ Buswell 2003 , p. 352.
• ↑ Lopez 1995 , p. 6.
• ↑ Carrithers 1986 , p. 10.
• ↑ Armstrong 2004 , p. xii.
• ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Gombrich 1988 , p. 49.
• ↑ Smith 1924 , pp. 34, 48.
• ↑ Schumann 2003 , pp. 1–5.
• ↑ Walshe 1995 , p. 268.
• ↑ Collins 2009 , pp. 199–200.
• ↑ Nakamura 1980 , p. 20.
• ↑ Wynne 2007 , pp. 8–23, ch. 2.
• ↑ 13.0 13.1 Cousins 1996 , pp. 57–63.
• ↑ Schumann 2003 , pp. 10–13.
• ↑ Bechert & 1991-1997 .
• ↑ Ruegg 1999 , pp. 82-87.
• ↑ Narain 1993 , pp. 187-201.
• ↑ Prebish 2008 , p. 2.
• ↑ Gombrich 1992 .
• ↑ Uni. Heidelberg   .
• ↑ Hartmann 1991 .
• ↑ Gombrich 2000 .
• ↑ Norman 1997 , p. 33.
• ↑ Schumann 2003 , p. xv.
• ↑ Wayman 1993 , pp. 37–58.
• ↑ Samuels 2010 , pp. 140–52.
• ↑ Gethin 1998 , p. 19.
• ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 Keown & Prebish 2013 , p. 436.
• ↑ Gethin 1998 , p. 14.
• ↑ Walsh 1995 , p. 20.
• ↑ 31.0 31.1 Nakamura 1980 , p. 18.
• ↑ 32.0 32.1 Huntington 1986 .
• ↑ Gombrich 2002 , p. 49.
• ↑ Weise 2013 .
• ↑ 35.0 35.1 Huntington 1988 .
• ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 36.3 Samuel 2010 .
• ↑ Hiltebeitel 2002 .
• ↑ Malalasekera 1960 , pp. 291-292.
• ↑ 39.0 39.1 39.2 Dhammika 1993 .
• ↑ 40.0 40.1 Corless 1989 , p. 4.

• ↑ Anderson 2013 , Kindle Locations 364-367.
• ↑ 43.0 43.1 Gethin 1998 , s.v. Chapter 1, section "Legend of the Buddha".
• ↑ 44.0 44.1 Fowler 2005 , p. 32.
• ↑ Beal 1883 .
• ↑ Cowell 1894 .
• ↑ Willemen 2009 .
• ↑ 48.0 48.1 Karetzky 2000 , p. xxi.
• ↑ Beal 1875 .
• ↑ Swearer 2004 , p. 177.
• ↑ Schober 2002 , p. 20.
• ↑ Strong 2007 , pp. 136–37.
• ↑ Relics associated with Buddha (Wikipedia)
• ↑ Mipham Rinpoche 2002 , s.v. paragraphs 21.149-150.

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• Ruegg, Seyford (1999). "A new publication on the date and historiography of Buddha´s decease (nirvana): a review article". Bulletin of the Schoool of Oriental and Afrikan Studies, University of London . 62 (1): 82–87.  
• Samuel, Geoffrey (2010), The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century , Cambridge University Press  
• Schmithausen, Lambert (1981), "On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism", in von Klaus, Bruhn; Wezler, Albrecht, Studies on Jainism and Buddhism (Schriftfest for Ludwig Alsdorf) (in Deutsch), Wiesbaden, pp. 199–250  
• Schober, Juliane (2002), Sacred biography in the Buddhist traditions of South and Southeast Asia , Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass  
• Schumann, Hans Wolfgang (2003), The Historical Buddha: The Times, Life, and Teachings of the Founder of Buddhism , Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN   812081817-2  
• Shimoda, Masahiro (2002), "How has the Lotus Sutra Created Social Movements: The Relationship of the Lotus Sutra to the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra", in Reeves, Gene, A Buddhist Kaleidoscope , Kosei  
• Skilton, Andrew (2004), A Concise History of Buddhism  
• Smith, Peter (2000), "Manifestations of God", A concise encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith , Oxford: Oneworld Publications, ISBN   1-85168-184-1   , 231 pp.
• Smith, Vincent (1924), The Early History of India (4th ed.), Oxford: Clarendon  
• Strong, John S (2007), Relics of the Buddha , Motilal Banarsidass  
• Swearer, Donald (2004), Becoming the Buddha , Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press  
• Thapar, Romila (2002), The Penguin History of Early India: From Origins to AD 1300 , Penguin  
• Turpie, D (2001), Wesak And The Re-Creation of Buddhist Tradition (PDF) (master's thesis), Montreal, QC : McGill University, archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-04-15  
• Twitchett, Denis, ed. (1986), The Cambridge History of China , 1. The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC – AD 220, Cambridge University Press, ISBN   0-521-24327-0  
• Upadhyaya, KN (1971), Early Buddhism and the Bhagavadgita , Dehli, IN : Motilal Banarsidass, p. 95, ISBN   978-812080880-5  
• Vetter, Tilmann (1988), The Ideas and Meditative Practices of Early Buddhism , Brill  
• Waley, Arthur (Jul 1932), "Did Buddha die of eating pork?: with a note on Buddha's image" , Melanges Chinois et bouddhiques , NTU, 1931– 32 : 343–54, archived from the original on Jun 3, 2011  
• Walshe, Maurice (1995), The Long Discourses of the Buddha. A Translation of the Digha Nikaya , Boston: Wisdom Publications  
• Warder, AK (2000), Indian Buddhism , Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass  
• Wayman, Alex (1997), Untying the Knots in Buddhism: Selected Essays , Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN   812081321-9  
• Weise, Kai; et al. (2013), The Sacred Garden of Lumbini – Perceptions of Buddha's Birthplace (PDF) , Paris: UNESCO, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-30   CS1 maint: Explicit use of et al. ( link )
• Willemen, Charles (2009), Buddhacarita: In Praise of Buddha's Acts (translation), Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, ISBN   978-1886439-42-9  
• Wynne, Alexander (2007), The Origin of Buddhist Meditation (PDF) , Routledge, ISBN   0-20396300-8  

Online souces

• ↑ Berzin, Alexander (April 2007). "Indian Society and Thought before and at the Time of Buddha" . Berzin archives . Retrieved 22 December 2014 .  
• ↑ 2.0 2.1 Vergano, Dan (25 November 2013). "Oldest Buddhist Shrine Uncovered In Nepal May Push Back the Buddha's Birth Date" . National Geographic . Retrieved 26 November 2013 .  
• ↑ Gombrich, Richard (2013), Recent discovery of "earliest Buddhist shrine" a sham? , Tricycle   .
• ↑ Tan, Piya (2009-12-21), Ambaṭṭha Sutta. Theme: Religious arrogance versus spiritual openness ( PDF ) , Dharma farer   .
• ↑ Davids, Rhys, ed. (1878), Buddhist birth-stories; Jataka tales. The commentary introd. entitled Nidanakatha; the story of the lineage. Translated from V. Fausböll's ed. of the Pali text by TW Rhys Davids (new & rev. ed.)   .
• ↑ "Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha" . UNESCO . Retrieved 26 May 2011 .  
• ↑ "The Astamahapratiharya: Buddhist pilgrimage sites" . Victoria and Albert Museum . Retrieved 25 December 2012 .  
• ↑ "Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhara" . UW Press . Retrieved 4 September 2008 .  
• ↑ Lopez Jr., Donald S. "The Buddha's relics" . Encyclopædia Britannica .  

Further reading

• Thich Nhat Hanh (1991), Old Path White Clouds , Parallax Press  
• Ñāṇamoli, Bhikku (1992). The Life of the Buddha According to the Pali Canon (3rd ed.). Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society.  
• Wagle, Narendra K (1995). Society at the Time of the Buddha (2nd ed.). Popular Prakashan. ISBN   978-817154553-7 .  

Early Buddhism

• Rahula, Walpola (1974). What the Buddha Taught (2nd ed.). New York: Grove Press.  

Buddhism general

• Kalupahana, David J. (1994), A history of Buddhist philosophy , Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass  
• Robinson, Richard H.; Johnson, Willard L; Wawrytko, Sandra A; DeGraff, Geoffrey (1996). The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction . Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.  

External links

• Life of the Buddha (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

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The Life of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama

A Prince Renounces Pleasure and Founds Buddhism

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The life of Siddhartha Gautama, the person we call the Buddha, is shrouded in legend and myth. Although most historians believe there was such a person, we know very little about the actual historical person. The "standard" biography, relayed in this article, appears to have evolved over time. It was largely completed by the "Buddhacarita," an epic poem written by Aśvaghoṣa in the second century A.D.

Siddhartha Gautama's Birth and Family

The future Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was born in the fifth or sixth century B.C. in Lumbini (in modern-day Nepal). Siddhartha is a Sanskrit name meaning "one who has accomplished a goal," and Gautama is a family name.

His father, King Suddhodana, was the leader of a large clan called the Shakya (or Sakya). It's not clear from the earliest texts whether he was a hereditary king or more of a tribal chief. It is also possible that he was elected to this status.

Suddhodana married two sisters, Maya and Pajapati Gotami. They are said to have been princesses of another clan, the Koliya, from what is northern India today. Maya was the mother of Siddhartha, and he was her only child. She died shortly after his birth. Pajapati, who later became  the first Buddhist nun , raised Siddhartha as her own.

By all accounts, Prince Siddhartha and his family were of the Kshatriya caste of warriors and nobles. Among Siddhartha's more well-known relatives was his cousin Ananda, the son of his father's brother. Ananda would later become the Buddha's disciple and personal attendant. He would have been considerably younger than Siddhartha, however, and they didn't know each other as children.

The Prophecy and a Young Marriage

When Prince Siddhartha was a few days old, it is said, a holy man prophesied over the prince. By some accounts, nine Brahman holy men made the prophecy. It was foretold that the boy would be either a great ruler or a great spiritual teacher. King Suddhodana preferred the first outcome and prepared his son accordingly.

He raised the boy in great luxury and shielded him from knowledge of religion and human suffering. At the age of 16, he was married to his cousin, Yasodhara, who was also 16. This was no doubt a marriage arranged by the families, as was customary at the time.

Yasodhara was the daughter of a Koliya chief, and her mother was a sister to King Suddhodana. She was also a sister of  Devadatta , who became a disciple of the Buddha and then, by some accounts, a dangerous rival.

The Four Passing Sights

The prince reached the age of 29 with little experience of the world outside the walls of his opulent palaces. He was oblivious to the realities of sickness, old age, and death.

One day, overcome with curiosity, Prince Siddhartha asked a charioteer to take him on a series of rides through the countryside. On these journeys he was shocked by the sight of an aged man, then a sick man, and then a corpse. The stark realities of old age, disease, and death seized and sickened the prince.

Finally, he saw a wandering ascetic. The charioteer explained that the ascetic was one who had renounced the world and sought release from the fear of death and suffering. 

These life-changing encounters would become known in Buddhism as the Four Passing Sights.

Siddhartha's Renunciation

For a time the prince returned to palace life, but he took no pleasure in it. Even the news that his wife Yasodhara had given birth to a son did not please him. The child was called Rahula , which means "fetter."

One night the prince wandered the palace alone. The luxuries that had once pleased him now seemed grotesque. Musicians and dancing girls had fallen asleep and were sprawled about, snoring and sputtering. Prince Siddhartha reflected on the old age, disease, and death that would overtake them all and turn their bodies to dust.

He realized then that he could no longer be content living the life of a prince. That very night he left the palace, shaved his head, and changed from his royal clothes into a beggar's robe. Renouncing all the luxury he had known, he began his quest for enlightenment .

The Search Begins

Siddhartha started by seeking out renowned teachers. They taught him about the many religious philosophies of his day as well as how to meditate. After he had learned all they had to teach, his doubts and questions remained. He and five disciples left to find enlightenment by themselves.

The six companions attempted to find release from suffering through physical discipline: enduring pain, holding their breath, and fasting nearly to starvation. Yet Siddhartha was still unsatisfied.

It occurred to him that in renouncing pleasure he had grasped the opposite of pleasure, which was pain and self-mortification. Now Siddhartha considered a Middle Way between those two extremes.

He remembered an experience from his childhood when his mind had settled into a state of deep peace. He saw that the path of liberation was through the discipline of mind, and he realized that, instead of starvation, he needed nourishment to build up his strength for the effort. When he accepted a bowl of rice milk from a young girl, his companions assumed he had given up the quest, and they abandoned him.

The Enlightenment of the Buddha

Siddhartha sat beneath a sacred fig tree ( Ficus religiosa ), known ever after as the Bodhi Tree ( bodhi means "awakened"). It was there that he settled into meditation.

The struggle within Siddhartha's mind came to be mythologized as a great battle with Mara . The demon's name means "destruction" and represents the passions that snare and delude us. Mara brought vast armies of monsters to attack Siddhartha, who sat still and untouched. Mara's most beautiful daughter tried to seduce Siddhartha, but this effort also failed.

Finally, Mara claimed that the seat of enlightenment rightfully belonged to him. Mara's spiritual accomplishments were greater than Siddhartha's, the demon said. Mara's monstrous soldiers cried out together, "I am his witness!" Mara challenged Siddhartha, "Who will speak for you?"

Then Siddhartha reached out his right hand to touch the earth , and the earth itself roared, "I bear you witness!" Mara disappeared. As the morning star rose in the sky, Siddhartha Gautama realized enlightenment and became a buddha, which is defined as "a person who has achieved full enlightenment."

The Buddha as a Teacher

At first, the Buddha was reluctant to teach because what he had realized could not be communicated in words. Only through discipline and clarity of mind would delusions fall away and could one experience the Great Reality. Listeners without that direct experience would be stuck in conceptualizations and would surely misunderstand everything he said. Still, compassion persuaded him to make the attempt to transmit what he had realized.

After his enlightenment, he went to the Deer Park in Isipatana, located in what is now the province of Uttar Pradesh, India. There he found the five companions who had abandoned him and preached his first sermon to them.

This sermon has been preserved as the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta and centers on the Four Noble Truths . Instead of teaching doctrines about enlightenment, the Buddha chose to prescribe a path of practice through which people can realize enlightenment for themselves.

The Buddha devoted himself to teaching and attracted hundreds of followers. Eventually, he became reconciled with his father, King Suddhodana. His wife, the devoted Yasodhara, became a nun and disciple. Rahula, his son, became a novice monk at the age of seven and spent the rest of his life with his father.

The Last Words of the Buddha

The Buddha traveled tirelessly through all areas of northern India and Nepal. He taught a diverse group of followers, all of whom were seeking the truth he had to offer.

At the age of 80, the Buddha entered Parinirvana , leaving his physical body behind. In his passing, he abandoned the endless cycle of death and rebirth.

Before his last breath, he spoke final words to his followers:

"Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All compounded things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation."

The Buddha's body was cremated. His remains were placed in stupas —domed structures common in Buddhism—in many places, including China, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.

The Buddha Has Inspired Millions

Some 2,500 years later, the Buddha's teachings remain significant for many people throughout the world. Buddhism continues to attract new followers and is one of the fastest-growing religions, though many do not refer to it as a religion  but as a spiritual path or a philosophy. An estimated 350 to 550 million people practice Buddhism today. 

• Twelve Buddhas
• The Demon Mara
• What Is a Sutra in Buddhism?
• An Overview of Bodhi Day
• Ten Famous Buddhas: Where They Came From; What They Represent
• Aspects and Tenets of Buddhism
• 'Siddhartha' Quotes From His Spiritual Journey
• The Five Remembrances
• The Buddhist Holiday of Magha Puja or Sangha Day
• What Is a Buddha? Who Was the Buddha?
• What Is an Arhat or Arahant in Buddhism?
• Ksanti Paramita: Perfection of Patience
• The Search for Original Buddhism
• The Agganna Sutta
• The Jataka Tale of the Selfless Hare

Biography Online

Biography of The Buddha

Siddhartha, who later became known as the Buddha – or The Enlightened One – was a prince who forsook the comforts of a palace to seek enlightenment. He realised the essential unreality of the world and experienced the bliss of Nirvana. After his enlightenment, he spent the remainder of his life teaching others how to escape the endless cycle of birth and death.

Daibutsu Buddha  Kamakura, Japan

Buddha was born approximately 400 BCE in the district of Lumbini, which is now modern-day Nepal, close to the Indian border. He was brought up in a palace with all the comforts and luxuries possible. Growing up a young noble prince, it is said his father sought to shield the young prince Siddhartha from the pain and suffering of the world. It is said his father had a premonition that Siddhartha would one day renounce the world.

However, at one point in his early adult life, Siddhartha sought to find a greater meaning to life. In disguise, he left the palace and wandered around the kingdom. Here, Siddhartha came across different people suffering from old age and illness and witnessed death. This showed him the transitory nature of life, which had a great impact on him. As a consequence, Siddhartha resolved to seek a deeper meaning of life.

Secretly, Siddhartha left the palace – leaving behind his wife, son and all the worldly comforts that he had enjoyed. He devoted himself to meditation, seeking enlightenment amongst the ascetics of the forest.

In his intense quest for enlightenment, Siddhartha fasted excessively so his body wasted away; however, despite his great efforts enlightenment still remained a far cry. At one point, a passing woman gave him some food to eat and Siddhartha realised it was a mistake to seek enlightenment by torturing the body. He regained his strength and resolved to follow a ‘middle path’, avoiding excesses of both fasting and feasting.

On one day, Siddhartha resolved to sit under a Bodhi tree until he attained enlightenment. For several days, he sat in meditation seeking Nirvana. He was tested by various forces which tried to prevent him realising the goal.

However, Siddhartha was successful and entered into the blissful consciousness of Nirvana for several days. On returning to normal consciousness, Siddhartha the Buddha (Buddha means ‘enlightened one’) made the decision to spend the remainder of his life teaching others how to escape the inherent suffering of life.

For many years, Buddha travelled around India, especially around the Ganges plain and in Nepal, teaching his philosophy of liberation. His teachings were transmitted orally and not written down until many years after his death.

Many stories relate to the life of the Buddha in this teaching phase. His essential teachings were of love, compassion and tolerance. The Buddha taught that a seeker must have compassion for all living beings and this was the most important teaching. Although the Buddha disliked formal rules, a monastic following sprung up for those interested in following his path. He advocated strict celibacy for those wishing to follow his monastic path.

The Buddha would often give talks on enlightenment, but on one occasion, he simply held up a flower and maintained silence. Many left not understanding the point, but when later questioned, the Buddha replied that his real teaching could only be understood in silence. Talks could only give limited intellectual information which was not real enlightenment.

The Buddha sought to avoid deep philosophy, he avoided using the term God, preferring to talk about the practical way that a person may escape the cycle of birth and rebirth and attain enlightenment. Like many spiritual teachers, he often taught in parables to keep his teachings simple and practical.

The Buddha attracted hostility from those jealous of his popularity and spiritual development. One of his own monks Devadatta later became jealous of the Buddha and sought to split the community. He even tried on three occasions to kill the Buddha, but on each occasion, he failed. The Buddha was a contemporary of Jain teacher Mahavira , but though they had great mutual respect, they did not physically meet.

The Buddha passed away after many years of teaching and travelling throughout India. On his deathbed, he told Ananda (his dearest disciple) that he should now rely on his teachings and own ethical conduct to be the guide of his life.

“For centuries the light of the Buddha has shone as a beacon beckoning men from across the sea of darkness. Like lost children, millions of seekers have reached out to the light with their heart’s inmost cry, and the Buddha has shown them the Way. The world stood before the Buddha with its ignorance, and the Buddha, the Enlightened One, gave man Truth. The world offered its age-old suffering to the Buddha’s heart and the Buddha, Lord of Compassion, showed man the Dharma.”

– Sri Chinmoy

Prince Siddhartha: The Story of Buddha

Prince Siddhartha: The Story of Buddha at Amazon

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “ Biography of Lord Buddha” , Oxford, UK – www.biographyonline.net .  19th May 2013. Updated 26 June 2017

Teachings of the Buddha

Some of the fundamentals of the teachings of Gautama Buddha are:

* The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an inherent part of existence; that the origin of suffering is ignorance and the main symptoms of that ignorance are attachment and craving; that attachment and craving can be ceased; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path will lead to the cessation of attachment and craving and therefore suffering.

* The Noble Eightfold Path: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

* Love. The Buddha stressed the importance of calming the mind and seeking the peace that each individual has within. With this inner peace, we can react to awkward situations with love, compassion and generosity.

Conquer the angry man by love. Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness. Conquer the miser with generosity. Conquer the liar with truth.

– The Dhammapada

* Power of the Mind . The Buddha taught it is our own mind which creates our own suffering, but also we can use this power to create happiness.

“Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.”

– Lord Buddha

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.”

Related pages

Buddhist links

• Buddhist Traditions
• Buddhist Principles
• Similarities between Mahavira and the Buddha
• Differences between Buddhism and Christianity
• Writings on Lord Buddha by Sri Chinmoy

The Buddha: History, meditation, religion and images

Over 2,500 years ago, an Indian prince named Siddhartha Gautama achieved spiritual enlightenment and became the Buddha, the founder of the world's fourth-largest religion.

• Life of Siddhartha Gautama
• The Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path
• Death of the Buddha

Additional resources

Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Buddha, was a philosopher and spiritual teacher who lived sometime during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. in India. He is credited with founding Buddhism — now the world's fourth largest religion with an estimated 500 million adherents — and teaching such concepts as enlightenment, nirvana and the "middle way." 

The word "Buddha" is derived from the Sanskrit word budh and is generally translated as "one who is awake." To many Buddhists, the Buddha is a man who achieved spiritual enlightenment — a state of mind in which all traces of personal suffering have been extinguished and reality is viewed with an unfailing clarity. 

The story of his life, however, does not form a single, unvarying narrative. There are many variations, and the stories of the Buddha's life and teachings form a vast compendium.

"Buddhist literature is immense," Paul Harrison, the co-director of the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford and the chair of the Department of Religious Studies, told Live Science. "I think it's fair to say that Buddhism has more scripture than any other religious tradition. They transmitted all that by prodigious feats of memory." And yet, in spite of all that has been written about him, the historical Buddha is elusive and hard to pin down. "We know about the Buddha only through the records left by his followers down through the centuries," Harrison said. "Unfortunately, we have no independent confirmation of his life. We only have the words of his followers to go on."

Indeed, scholars have had a difficult time distinguishing the facts of the historical Buddha's life from those of legend, and many have relied heavily on the legendary stories.

These legendary stories portray an idealized picture of the Buddha, Harrison said, but they nonetheless likely contain a kernel of historical truth. "But it's not easy to see what that was, nor is it easy to say what he taught," Harrison added. "We have what his followers in the centuries after his death thought he taught, but how much of that is things he said himself and how much is what they remembered? That is something that is currently debated in the field."

The life of Siddhartha Gautama

According to Buddhist tradition, Siddhartha was an Indian prince who was born sometime around 560 B.C. in the town of Lumbini, in what is now southern Nepal. Lumbini was part of the ancient Indian kingdom of Kosala , which was centered in what is now northern India and included parts of southern Nepal. Siddhartha was raised in a palace in Kapilavastu, which historians think was located in either northwest India or southern Nepal, according to World History Encyclopedia .  His father was purportedly the powerful ruler of the Shakya clan — one of the families that ruled the region and a member of the warrior (Kshatriya) caste. The Indian caste system divided society into four hierarchical castes or social classes; these consisted of Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (merchants and traders), and the Shudra (laborers).

There are many stories and legends surrounding Siddhartha's birth. In one of these, according to Britannica , Siddhartha's mother, Maya, received a prophecy when her son was born, saying that he would become either a powerful ruler — even greater than his father — or a renowned spiritual leader. In an effort to bring about the former, Siddhartha's father, Shuddodana (also spelled Śuddhodana), decided his son needed to be cloistered in the palace; at the same time, Shuddodana catered to his son's every need so that the young man grew up in luxury and ease, shielded from all that was ugly, unpleasant or profane. At the age of 16, Siddhartha married a woman called Yasodhara, and later they had a son named Rahula. 

"Siddhartha was raised in a very well protected, isolated and privileged environment," Sara Jaye Hart, a lecturer in religious studies at Cal Poly Humboldt, told Live Science. "Today, he would be considered a member of the 1%." 

But this idyllic life was not destined to last. When Siddhartha was 29, he had an experience that changed his life forever, and set him on a spiritual path that would mold him into one of the world's most influential religious leaders.

This experience is known in Buddhist lore as the "four sights," and stories of it relate Siddhartha's encounter with four individuals outside the palace grounds. According to the stories, while accompanied by his charioteer, Channa, Siddhartha came across four individuals in succession (in some versions, he encountered the individuals on separate days, each during different excursions outside the palace walls). The first was an old man; the second a sick person; the third a corpse; and the last was a wandering mendicant, or a religious practitioner, typically a monk, who lived by begging. 

Siddhartha's sheltered existence hadn't accustomed him to such sights, so he looked to his charioteer — a worldly man — for answers. Channa explained that the first three individuals are the consequences of a normal human existence: we grow old, we get sick and we die. Channa also explained that the last person was a spiritual renunciate — someone who has renounced worldly comforts in favor of seeking spiritual salvation through meditation, begging and asceticism, or strict self-denial. 

These encounters pushed the prince into an existential crisis, and he decided he needed to explore the world and find answers to life's questions for himself. Importantly, he was concerned with the topic of human suffering. He wanted to discover a method or philosophical system that would alleviate human suffering. Many people during this time believed in reincarnation, and it was this seemingly endless cycle of death and rebirth that bound one to life — and all life's problems, challenges and travails. 

"The story of Buddha, in essence, is the story of someone who had a really profound early mid-life crisis, and he decided he wanted to know more than his privileged upbringing was going to give him," Hart said. 

When he returned to the palace, Siddhartha decided to leave his current life behind, including his wife and son, and venture out into the world. In an act symbolic of renouncing his privileged upbringing, he exchanged his fine, rich robes for Channa's coarse tunic, and cut his hair. He first went into the forest, where he joined a group of ascetics who practiced a severe form of self-discipline that included meditation, fasting and, in some versions of the story, fleshly mortification, or physical abuse of the body, according to World History Encyclopedia. Siddhartha stayed with them for several years, learning their disciplines and perfecting his meditation techniques.

"He really mastered the yogic practices during this time," Hart said. "He was clearly devoted and diligent, and even extreme, in his dedication. Part of his asceticism was to limit his food intake, so much so that he ate only a single grain of rice a day." 

However, he eventually realized that this extreme form of abnegation was not getting him any closer to answering his questions. So, Siddhartha decided to leave his ascetic companions. 

After emerging from the forest, sickly and emaciated, he reached a river, where he encountered a young girl, according to legend. The girl took pity on him and offered him a bowl of cream and rice. The food revived Siddhartha, and he was able to continue his spiritual quest, Hart said. 

Siddhartha's experience with asceticism taught him a profound lesson. "He goes on to develop a philosophical practice that really has to do with what is called the 'middle way' — neither asceticism nor indulgence," Hart said. 

But Siddhartha was far from content; he was still determined to find a way to end what he believed was the cycle of death and rebirth. So, one day, according to tradition, he sat underneath a tree at a place called Bodh Gaya, in the modern Indian state of Bihar, and vowed not to leave the spot until he became enlightened. In some stories, he sat in deep meditation for seven days and nights, and was beset upon by Mara, a demon who in Buddhism is the manifestation of delusion and desire . Mara tried to prevent Siddhartha from attaining enlightenment by placing a series of obstacles — rain, lightning, storms, demon armies and lustful maidens — in his way. But Siddhartha remained steadfastly devoted to his goal of enlightenment. 

His efforts ultimately paid off, according to legend. When he finally opened his eyes, he found himself in the blissful state of enlightenment — a state of mind that is said to give one insight into the true nature of reality and leaves the devotee free from craving, desire and suffering — and knew he had conquered the cycle of death and rebirth. From that time, he became known as the Buddha, the "awakened one." The tree under which he sat became known as the Bodhi Tree ("the tree of awakening"). 

What the Buddha taught: The Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path

After attaining enlightenment, Siddhartha spent the remainder of his life traveling around what is today northern India, teaching his insights and gathering around him a community of devotees, or monks. At his first sermon, reputed to be at the deer park of Sarnath in modern-day Uttar Pradesh, India, Siddhartha taught concepts that have come to be known as the "Four Noble Truths" , which the Buddha believed characterize all sentient life. The first states that life is characterized by dukkha, which is a Sanskrit word that is often translated as "suffering," Hart said. But, she added, it is perhaps better understood to signify an all-pervading sense of disquietude or dissatisfaction with the transitory, imperfect, often stressful, and generally non-satisfactory nature of existence. 

"Specifically, dukkha is a word that refers to a wagon wheel that isn't quite centered," Hart said. "It refers to an unsettled quality about the world — that there's a 'not-quite-rightness' about the world that causes suffering." 

The second Noble Truth states that dukkha has a cause, and the third Noble Truth identifies that cause: desire. "The nature of human desire is that it will never be fulfilled," Hart said. "That's what the Buddha tells us." 

The fourth Noble Truth provides a prescription to end suffering: the Noble Eightfold Path. This is essentially a list of mental and spiritual practices to help someone reach the correct moral frame of mind to attain enlightenment. The Eightfold Path consists of the right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right meditation.

The death of the Buddha

The traditional date of Siddhartha Gautama's death is in 483 B.C., reportedly at the age of 80. (Harrison, however, places his death at around 400 B.C.). According to Britannica, Siddhartha accepted a meal from a village blacksmith in Kushinagar, northern India; unbeknownst to the blacksmith, however, the food was tainted and Siddhartha immediately fell ill. As he lay dying, the blacksmith came to his side and expressed his great grief that he had inadvertently poisoned the great sage. Siddhartha told him not to grieve but to rejoice because the tainted meal was releasing him from the endless cycle of death and rebirth and allowing him to enter nirvana (in another version of the story, according to Britannica, Siddhartha himself caused the food to become spoiled). Just before he died, Siddhartha told his monks to continue working diligently for their spiritual liberation by following his teachings. These teachings came to be known as the dharma, a Sanskrit word that in a Buddhist context is typically defined as the "cosmic law," according to World History Encyclopedia. 

Buddhism spread throughout Asia after Siddhartha's death, especially in China , Tibet, Japan, Korea and in parts of southeast Asia such as Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Buddhism also spread to Nepal and Mongolia. In India, Buddhism became an important religion only under the influence of King Ashoka (268 B.C. to 232 B.C.), who ruled almost all of modern-day India. Ashoka promoted the religion and sent Buddhist emissaries throughout Asia. However, Buddhism's influence waned in India after Ashoka's death and never again became a major religious force there.

According to Harrison, the Buddha's teachings and life story were originally transmitted orally. "The conventional thinking is that nothing was written down about the Buddha until the first century B.C.E. And that's recently been confirmed more or less by manuscript finds that are very ancient," he said. 

Some of the earliest written materials are called the sutras, which are discourses of varying length written in either Pali (an ancient language of northern India) or Sanskrit. The most famous of these is known as the Triple Basket ("Tripitaka" in Pali), which is said to contain discourses attributed to the historical Buddha. Scattered throughout these writings are anecdotes about his life, mostly after the time he renounced his princely life. Accounts of the Buddha's early life come from texts that were written much later — sometime around the second century B.C., according to Britannica. One of these, called the Buddhacharita ("Acts of the Buddha"), was written in Sanskrit as a long poem. These, and other written accounts, are the main sources of Buddha's biography. 

Today, the Buddha is revered the world over for his profound spiritual insights, practical philosophy of life and meditative practices. Buddhists and many non-Buddhists laud him as an important thinker and major influence on world history. 

"You can understand the Buddha as either a religious exemplar who started a profound, world-changing religion — the first great missionary religion, 500 years before Jesus — or you can think of him as a philosophical thinker and teacher who gave each and every person, regardless of belief or religious affiliation, tools for dealing with the problem of human suffering," Hart said.

To learn more about Buddhism, you can watch the PBS documentary , The Buddha. You can also read about Buddhism at National Geographic . And don't forget to learn about the origins of Buddhism from Stanford scholar Paul Harrison. 

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Tom Garlinghouse is a journalist specializing in general science stories. He has a Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of California, Davis, and was a practicing archaeologist prior to receiving his MA in science journalism from the University of California, Santa Cruz. His work has appeared in an eclectic array of print and online publications, including the Monterey Herald, the San Jose Mercury News, History Today, Sapiens.org, Science.com, Current World Archaeology and many others. He is also a novelist whose first novel  Mind Fields , was recently published by  Open-Books.com .

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Life of the buddha.

The Dream of Queen Maya (the Buddha's Conception)

Birth of the Buddha Shakyamuni

Vajrapani Attends the Buddha at His First Sermon

The Death of the Buddha (Parinirvana)

Drum panel depicting a stupa with the Buddha’s descent from Trayastrimsa Heaven

Fasting Buddha Shakyamuni

Niche with the Seated Bodhisattva Shakyamuni Flanked by Devotees and an Elephant

Reliquary in the Shape of a Stupa

Head of Buddha

Seated Buddha Vairocana

Seated Buddha

Reliquary(?) with Scenes from the Life of Buddha

Book Cover from a Manuscript of the Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra

Plaque with Scenes from the Life of the Buddha

Buddha Sheltered by a Naga

“Devadatta,” Chapter 12 of the Lotus Sutra (Hoke-kyō, Daibadatta-bon)

Death of the Historical Buddha (Nehan-zu)

Illustrated manuscript of the Lotus Sutra (Miaofa lianhua jing), Volume 2

Unidentified artist (mid-14th century)

Scene from the Life of the Buddha

Kathryn Selig Brown Independent Scholar

October 2003

According to tradition, the historical Buddha lived from 563 to 483 B.C. , although scholars postulate that he may have lived as much as a century later. He was born to the rulers of the Shakya clan, hence his appellation Shakyamuni, which means “sage of the Shakya clan.” The legends that grew up around him hold that both his conception and birth were miraculous. His mother, Maya, conceived him when she dreamed that a white elephant entered her right side ( 1976.402 ). She gave birth to him in a standing position while grasping a tree in a garden ( 1987.417.1 ). The child emerged from Maya’s right side fully formed and proceeded to take seven steps. Once back in the palace, he was presented to an astrologer who predicted that he would become either a great king or a great religious teacher, and he was given the name Siddhartha (“He who achieves His Goal”). His father, evidently thinking that any contact with unpleasantness might prompt Siddhartha to seek a life of renunciation as a religious teacher, and not wanting to lose his son to such a future, protected him from the realities of life.

The ravages of poverty, disease, and even old age were therefore unknown to Siddhartha, who grew up surrounded by every comfort in a sumptuous palace. At age twenty-nine, he made three successive chariot rides outside the palace grounds and saw an old person, a sick person, and a corpse, all for the first time. On the fourth trip, he saw a wandering holy man whose asceticism inspired Siddhartha to follow a similar path in search of freedom from the suffering caused by the infinite cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Because he knew his father would try to stop him, Siddhartha secretly left the palace in the middle of the night ( 28.105 ) and sent all his belongings and jewelry back with his servant and horse. Completely abandoning his luxurious existence, he spent six years as an ascetic ( 1987.218.5 ), attempting to conquer the innate appetites for food, sex, and comfort by engaging in various yogic disciplines. Eventually near death from his vigilant fasting, he accepted a bowl of rice from a young girl. Once he had eaten, he had a realization that physical austerities were not the means to achieve spiritual liberation. At a place now known as Bodh Gaya (“enlightenment place”), he sat and meditated all night beneath a pipal tree. After defeating the forces of the demon Mara, Siddhartha reached enlightenment ( 1982.233 ) and became a Buddha (“enlightened one”) at the age of thirty-five.

The Buddha continued to sit after his enlightenment, meditating beneath the tree and then standing beside it for a number of weeks. During the fifth or sixth week, he was beset by heavy rains while meditating but was protected by the hood of the serpent king Muchilinda ( 1987.424.19ab ). Seven weeks after his enlightenment, he left his seat under the tree and decided to teach others what he had learned, encouraging people to follow a path he called “The Middle Way,” which is one of balance rather than extremism. He gave his first sermon ( 1980.527.4 ) in a deer park in Sarnath, on the outskirts of the city of Benares. He soon had many disciples and spent the next forty-five years walking around northeastern India spreading his teachings. Although the Buddha presented himself only as a teacher and not as a god or object of worship, he is said to have performed many miracles during his lifetime ( 1979.511 ). Traditional accounts relate that he died at the age of eighty ( 2015.500.4.1 ) in Kushinagara, after ingesting a tainted piece of either mushroom or pork. His body was cremated and the remains distributed among groups of his followers. These holy relics were enshrined in large hemispherical burial mounds ( 1985.387 ), a number of which became important pilgrimage sites.

In India, by the Pala period (ca. 700–1200), the Buddha’s life was codified into a series of “Eight Great Events” ( 1982.233 ). These eight events are, in order of their occurrence in the Buddha’s life: his birth ( 1976.402 ), his defeat over Mara and consequent enlightenment ( 1982.233 ; 1985.392.1 ), his first sermon at Sarnath ( 1980.527.4 ), the miracles he performed at Shravasti ( 1979.511 ), his descent from the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods ( 28.31 ), his taming of a wild elephant ( 1979.511 ), the monkey’s gift of honey, and his death ( 2015.500.4.1 ).

Brown, Kathryn Selig. “Life of the Buddha.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/buda/hd_buda.htm (October 2003)

Further Reading

Pal, Pratapaditya, et al. Light of Asia: Buddha Sakyamuni in Asian Art . Exhibition catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.

Snellgrove, David L., ed. The Image of the Buddha . Tokyo: Kodansha, 1978.

Additional Essays by Kathryn Selig Brown

• Brown, Kathryn Selig. “ Nepalese Painting .” (October 2003)
• Brown, Kathryn Selig. “ Nepalese Sculpture .” (October 2003)
• Brown, Kathryn Selig. “ Tibetan Buddhist Art .” (October 2003)

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Gautama Buddha: Biography

Last updated on March 25, 2023 by ClearIAS Team

Siddhartha Gautama, also known as Gautama Buddha, was a traveling monk and spiritual guide who founded Buddhism during the sixth or fifth century BCE. Read here to know the biography of Gautama Buddha.

Gautama Buddha taught that life is full of suffering and unhappiness. This is caused because we have cravings and desires. He taught that this constant craving could be removed by following moderation in everything.

Siddhartha Gautama was, according to legend, a Hindu prince who renounced his position and wealth to seek enlightenment as a spiritual ascetic, attained his goal and, in preaching his path to others, founded Buddhism in India in the 6th-5th centuries BCE.

Buddha was born during a time of social and religious transformation. The dominant religion in India at the time was Hinduism (Sanatan Dharma, “Eternal Order”) but several thinkers of the period had begun to question its validity and the authority of the Vedas as well as the practices of the priests.

Table of Contents

The early life of Gautama Buddha

According to tradition, Siddhartha was born more than 200 years before the reign of the Maurya king Asoka (lived 304–232 BCE).

Siddhartha was born in Lumbini in modern-day Nepal. His father was Suddhodana, the chief of the Shakya nation, one of several ancient tribes in the growing state of Kosala. His mother was Queen Maya, King Sudhodhana’s wife.

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On the night Gautama was conceived, Mayadevi dreamt that a white elephant entered her side, and following the dream, Siddhartha was born.

During the birth celebrations, the seer Asita announced that this baby would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great holy man. His father, King Suddhodana, wished for Siddhartha Gautama to be a great king, and shielded his son from religious teachings or knowledge of human suffering.

When the prince reached the age of 16, his father arranged his marriage to Yasodhara, from an elite family of the same age. In time, she gave birth to a son, Rahula.

Siddhartha Gautama spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu, a place now situated in Nepal. Although his father ensured that the prince was provided with everything he could want or need, he felt that material wealth was not the ultimate goal of life.

Journey of Buddha

The journey of Siddhartha the Prince to Gautama buddha is largely divided into three stages- the great departure, the great enlightenment, and the great passing.

The great departure or renunciation

Siddhartha’s father did not want him to experience anything other than luxuries as he grew which might inspire him to adopt a spiritual path. But eventually, the prince ventured out of the palace and experienced, what is called the four signs which changed his path forever.

During his 29 th year, the prince slipped through his father’s defenses and saw the four signs in the outside world-

• An aged man
• A religious ascetic

Through these signs, he realized that he, too, could become sick, would grow old, would die, and would lose everything he loved. He understood that the life he was living guaranteed he would suffer and, further, that all of life was essentially defined by suffering from want or loss.

Siddhartha disturbed by these sightings and realization renounced his luxurious life, wife, son, and family at the age of 29. He left the palace on his favorite horse, Kanthaka for a life dedicated to learning how to overcome suffering.

He meditated with two hermits, and, although he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, he was still not satisfied with his path.

He began his training in the ascetic life and practiced vigorous techniques of physical and mental austerity. Gautama proved quite adept at these practices and surpassed even his teachers.

However, he found no answer to his questions regarding freedom from suffering. Leaving behind his teachers, he and a small group of close companions set out to take their austerities even further.

Gautama tried to find enlightenment through the complete deprivation of worldly goods, including food, and became a complete ascetic. After nearly starving himself to death, Gautama began to reconsider his path.

The great enlightenment

He finally reached Gaya in modern-day Bihar where he seated himself under a Bodhi tree and meditated.

Finally, in a moment of illumination, he understood that suffering was caused by the human insistence on permanent states of being in a world of impermanence.

• One suffers because they are unaware that life is changing, and they may stop suffering by understanding that believing anything will last or being attached to it is a grave mistake that will keep them stuck in a never-ending cycle of desire, effort, rebirth, and death.

His illumination was complete, and Siddhartha Gautama was now the Buddha, the enlightened one.

Although he could now live his life in contentment, he chose instead to teach others the path of liberation from ignorance and desire and assist them in ending their suffering.

He preached his first sermon at the Deer Park at Sarnath at which he introduced his audience to his Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Truths are:

• Life is suffering
• The cause of suffering is craving
• The end of suffering comes with an end to craving
• There is a path that leads one away from craving and suffering

The fourth truth directs one toward the Eightfold Path, which serves as a guide to living one’s life without the kind of attachment that guarantees to suffer:

• Right Intention
• Right Speech
• Right Action
• Right Livelihood
• Right Effort
• Right Mindfulness
• Right Concentration

For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain of Northeastern India and Southern Nepal, teaching his doctrine and discipline to everyone from nobles to outcast street sweepers, including many adherents of rival philosophies and religions.

The Buddha founded the community of Buddhist monks and nuns (the Sangha) to continue the dispensation after his Parinirvana or “complete Nirvana”, and made thousands of converts. His religion was open to all races and classes and had no caste structure.

The great passing

According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon enter Parinirvana, or the final deathless state abandoning the earthly body.

He died in Kusinara.

The Buddha’s body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present.

Symbols of Buddha’s life

The great events of the life of the Buddha, are important milestones in the life of Siddhartha Gautama which are represented by various symbols.

• The birth of buddha is represented by the lotus flower representing purity, beauty, and spiritual growth.
• The renunciation is depicted by his horse, Kanthaka.
• The great enlightenment is depicted by the Bodhi tree.
• The first sermon is represented by the wheel of dharma.
• The mahaparinirvana is depicted by the stupa.

 Conclusion

Buddha urged his pupils to examine his teachings and validate them through personal experience throughout his life. Buddhism is still characterized by this lack of dogmatism today.

-Article written by Swathi Satish

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Magazine | Feature

Who Is The Buddha?

The life story of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama

The Buddha, or Siddhartha Gautama, was born around 567 B.C.E., in a small kingdom just below the Himalayan foothills. His father was a chief of the Shakya clan. It is said that twelve years before his birth the brahmins prophesied that he would become either a universal monarch or a great sage. To prevent him from becoming an ascetic, his father kept him within the confines of the palace. Gautama grew up in princely luxury, shielded from the outside world, entertained by dancing girls, instructed by brahmins, and trained in archery, swordsmanship, wrestling, swimming, and running. When he came of age he married Gopa, who gave birth to a son. He had, as we might say today, everything.

And yet, it was not enough. Something—something as persistent as his own shadow—drew him into the world beyond the castle walls. There, in the streets of Kapilavastu, he encountered three simple things: a sick man , an old man , and a corpse being carried to the burning grounds. Nothing in his life of ease had prepared him for this experience. When his charioteer told him that all beings are subject to sickness, old age, and death, he could not rest.

As he returned to the palace, he passed a wandering ascetic walking peacefully along the road, wearing the robe and carrying the single bowl of a sadhu. He then resolved to leave the palace in search of the answer to the problem of suffering. After bidding his wife and child a silent farewell without waking them, he rode to the edge of the forest. There, he cut his long hair with his sword and exchanged his fine clothes for the simple robes of an ascetic.

Finding Liberation

With these actions Siddhartha Gautama joined a whole class of men who had dropped out of Indian society to find liberation. There were a variety of methods and teachers , and Gautama investigated many—atheists, materialists, idealists, and dialecticians. The deep forest and the teeming marketplace were alive with the sounds of thousands of arguments and opinions, unlike in our time.

Gautama finally settled down to work with two teachers. From Arada Kalama, who had three hundred disciples, he learned how to discipline his mind to enter the sphere of nothingness. But even though Arada Kalama asked him to remain and teach as an equal, he recognized that this was not liberation, and left. Next Siddhartha learned how to enter the concentration of mind which is neither consciousness nor unconsciousness from Udraka Ramaputra. But neither was this liberation and Siddhartha left his second teacher.

For six years Siddhartha along with five companions practiced austerities and concentration. He drove himself mercilessly, eating only a single grain of rice a day, pitting mind against body. His ribs stuck through his wasted flesh and he seemed more dead than alive.

The Middle Path

His five companions left him after he made the decision to take more substantial food and to abandon asceticism. Then, Siddhartha entered a village in search of food.  There, a woman named Sujata offered him a dish of milk and a separate vessel of honey. His strength returned, Siddhartha washed himself in the Nairanjana River, and then set off to the Bodhi tree. He spread a mat of kusha grass underneath, crossed his legs and sat.

He sat, having listened to all the teachers, studied all the sacred texts and tried all the methods. Now there was nothing to rely on, no one to turn to, nowhere to go. He sat solid and unmoving and determined as a mountain, until finally, after six days, his eye opened on the rising morning star, so it is said, and he realized that what he had been looking for had never been lost, neither to him nor to anyone else. Therefore there was nothing to attain, and no longer any struggle to attain it.

“Wonder of wonders,” he is reported to have said, “this very enlightenment is the nature of all beings, and yet they are unhappy for lack of it.” So it was that Siddhartha Gautama woke up at the age of thirty-five, and became the Buddha, the Awakened One, known as Shakyamuni, the sage of the Shakyas.

For seven weeks he enjoyed the freedom and tranquillity of liberation. At first he had no inclination to speak about his realization. He felt would be too difficult for most people to understand. But when, according to legend, Brahma, chief of the three thousand worlds, requested that the Awakened One teach, since there were those “whose eyes were only a little clouded over,” the Buddha agreed.

The First Noble Truth

Shakyamuni’s two former teachers, Udraka and Arada Kalama, had both died only a few days earlier, and so he sought the five ascetics who had left him. When they saw him approaching the Deer Park in Benares they decided to ignore him, since he had broken his vows. Yet they found something so radiant about his presence that they rose, prepared a seat, bathed his feet and listened as the Buddha turned the wheel of the dharma, the teachings, for the first time.

Related: What are The Four Noble Truths?

The First Noble Truth of the Buddha stated that all life, all existence, is characterized by duhkha.  The Sanskrit word meaning suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness. Even moments of happiness have a way of turning into pain when we hold onto them, or, once they have passed into memory, they twist the present as the mind makes an inevitable, hopeless attempt to recreate the past. The teaching of the Buddha is based on direct insight into the nature of existence. Ir is a radical critique of wishful thinking and the myriad tactics of escapism—whether through political utopianism, psychological therapeutics, simple hedonism, or (and it is this which primarily distinguishes Buddhism from most of the world’s religions) the theistic salvation of mysticism.

Suffering is true

Duhkha is Noble, and it is true. It is a foundation, a stepping stone, to be comprehended fully, not to be escaped from or explained. The experience of duhkha, of the working of one’s mind, leads to the Second Noble Truth, the origin of suffering, traditionally described as craving, thirsting for pleasure, but also and more fundamentally a thirst for continued existence, as well as nonexistence. Examination of the nature of this thirst leads to the heart of the Second Noble Truth, the idea of the “self,” or “I,” with all its desires, hopes, and fears, and it is only when this self is comprehended and seen to be insubstantial that the Third Noble Truth, the cessation of suffering, is realized.

The first sangha

The five ascetics who listened to the Buddha ‘s first discourse in the Deer Park became the nucleus of a community, a sangha , of men (women were to enter later) who followed the way the Buddha had described in his Fourth Noble Truth, the Noble Eightfold Path. These bhikshus , or monks, lived simply, owning a bowl, a robe, a needle, a water strainer, and a razor, since they shaved their heads as a sign of having left home. They traveled around northeastern India, practicing meditation alone or in small groups, begging for their meals.

Related: The Noble Eightfold Path

The Buddha’s teaching, however, was not only for the monastic community. Shakyamuni had instructed them to bring it to all: “Go ye, O bhikshus, for the gain of the many, the welfare of the many, in compassion for the world, for the good, for the gain, for the welfare of gods and men.”

For the next forty-nine years Shakyamuni walked through the villages and towns of India, speaking in the vernacular, using common figures of speech that everyone could understand. He taught a villager to practice mindfulness while drawing water from a well, and when a distraught mother asked him to heal the dead child she carried in her arms, he did not perform a miracle, but instead instructed her to bring him a mustard seed from a house where no one had ever died. She returned from her search without the seed, but with the knowledge that death is universal.

Death and Impermanence

As the Buddha’s fame spread, kings and other wealthy patrons donated parks and gardens for retreats.  The Buddha accepted these, but he continued to live as he had ever since his twenty-ninth year: as a wandering sadhu, begging his own meal, spending his days in meditation. Only now there was one difference. Almost every day, after his noon meal, the Buddha taught. None of these discourses, or the questions and answers that followed, were recorded during the Buddha’s lifetime.

The Buddha died in the town of Kushinagara, at the age of eighty, having eaten a meal of pork or mushrooms. Some of the assembled monks were despondent, but the Buddha, lying on his side, with his head resting on his right hand, reminded them that everything is impermanent, and advised them to take refuge in themselves and the dharma—the teaching. He asked for questions a last time. There were none. Then he spoke his final words: “Now then, bhikshus, I address you: all compound things are subject to decay; strive diligently.”

The first rainy season after the Buddha’s parinirvana , it is said that five hundred elders gathered at a mountain cave near Rajagriha, where they held the First Council. Ananda, who had been the Buddha’s attendant, repeated all the discourses, or sutras , he had heard, and Upali recited the two hundred fifty monastic rules, the Vinaya , while Mahakashyapa recited the Abhidharma , the compendium of Buddhist psychology and metaphysics.  These three collections, which were written on palm leaves a few centuries later and known as the Tripitaka (literally “three baskets”), became the basis for all subsequent versions of the Buddhist canon.

Adapted from How the Swans Came to the Lake (Shambhala Publications).

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Gautama Buddha Biography

Born: 563 BC

Born In: Lumbini Province, Nepal

Gautama Buddha was a spiritual leader on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived in eastern India/ Nepal between the 6th and 4th century B.C. Born as a prince, he spent his childhood in the lap of luxury. He lost his mother at an early age and his doting father tried his best to keep his young son away from the miseries of the world. When he was a little boy, some wise scholars predicted that he would either become a great king or a renowned spiritual leader. His father hoped that his son would one day become a great king. The prince was kept away from all forms of religious knowledge and had no idea about the concepts of old age, sickness, and death. On a trip through the city on a chariot, he witnessed an old man, a sick person, and a corpse. This new knowledge of the sufferings in the world gave rise to several questions within his mind, and the prince soon renounced all his worldly affairs in order to embark on a journey of self-discovery. After years of rigorous contemplation and meditation, he attained enlightenment, and became the ‘Buddha,’ which means ‘the awakened one’ or ‘the enlightened one.’

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Also Known As: Siddhartha Gautama, Gautama Buddha

Died At Age: 80

Spouse/Ex-: Yaśodharā

father: King Śuddhodana

mother: Mahapajapati Gotami, Maya Devi

siblings: Nanda, Sundari

children: Rāhula

Born Country: Nepal

Indian Men Indian Spiritual & Religious Leaders

Died on: 483 BC

place of death: Kushinagar, India

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Siddhartha Gautama Biography: The Buddha

Twenty-five thousand years ago one’s man’s spiritual journey was the beginning of one of the world’s seven religions — boasting 376 million followers today. He is simply called “The Buddha,” and he grew up the son of a king…sheltered from the realities of human suffering. When he finally learned the harsh truth, he left his family and set off on a path to understand life itself — first as a monk and then as a teacher.

Let’s take a closer look at “The Buddha”, Siddhartha Gautama on Biographics.

The founder of Buddhism was a man named Siddhartha Gautama. He was the son a chieftain and believed to be born in Lumbini (modern-day Nepal) in the 6th century B.C. His father Śuddhodana (translating to, “he who grows pure rice”) presided over a large clan called the Shakya in either a republic or an oligarchy system of rule. His mother was Queen Māyā of Sakya who is said to have died shortly after his birth. The infant was given the name Siddhartha, meaning “he who achieves his aim.” When Siddhartha was still a baby, several seers with the power of supernatural insight into the future, predicted he would either be a great spiritual leader, military leader or a king.

Since Siddhartha’s mother died, he was brought up by his maternal aunt, Maha Pajapati. His father, hoping to steer Siddhartha in the direction of the throne, shielded him from religion of any kind and sheltered him from seeing human hardship and suffering. As such, he was raised in the lap of luxury and blissful ignorance where he knew nothing about aging, disease, or death.

At the age of 16, Siddhartha’s father arranged his marriage to a cousin, Yaśodharā, who was also a teenager. She gave birth to a son, Rāhula, some years later. Siddhartha is said to have remained living in the palace until the age of 29 when everything changed.

According to the story, one day Siddhartha travelled outside of the palace gates and he was deeply disturbed by the sight of an old man. His charioteer Channa explained to Siddhartha that all people grow old and that death is an integral part of life. This prompted Siddhartha to secretly venture outside the palace on more trips. When leaving, it was said that, “the horse’s hooves were muffled by the gods” so as to prevent the guards from knowing of his departure. Outside the gates on these trips he encountered a sick man, a decaying corpse, and a homeless, holy man (also known as an ascetic). Channa told Siddhartha ascetics give up their material possessions and forgo physical pleasures for a higher, spiritual purpose.

After witnessing the reality of human hardship and suffering, Siddhartha had no interest in living at the palace. He left his wife and child to discover the true meaning of life, first through living as a traveling beggar, like the ascetics he saw on the streets.

Ascetic life

“The root of suffering is attachment.”

Siddhartha first went to the city of Rajagaha and began begging on the streets to survive. He was recognized there by the king’s men and offered the throne. He rejected it but promised to come back and visit once he attained enlightenment.

When he left Rajagaha, he met a hermit Brahmin saint named Alara Kalama. Kalama taught Siddhartha a form of meditation known as the dhyānic state, or the “sphere of nothingness.” Siddhartha eventually became his teacher’s equal and Kalama offered him his place saying, “You are the same as I am now. There is no difference between us. Stay here and take my place and teach my students with me.” But Siddhartha didn’t stay, and instead he moved on to another teacher, Udaka Ramaputta. Once again, he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness and was asked to succeed his teacher. Siddhartha refused the offer and moved on.

Through the practice of meditation, Siddhartha realized dhyana, a “state of perfect equanimity and awareness” was the path to enlightenment. He also realized that living life as an extremely deprived beggar, as he had done, wasn’t working. It had been six years, and he had eaten very little and fasted until he was weak.

After starving himself for days, Siddhartha famously accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata. He was so emaciated, she thought he was a spirit there to grant her a wish.

Siddhartha, after having this meal, decided against living a life of extreme self-denial since his spiritual goals were not being met. He instead opted to follow a path of balance, known in Buddhism as the Middle Way. At this turning point, his five followers believed he was giving up and abandoned him.

Soon after he started meditating under a fig tree (now called the Bodhi tree) and committed himself to staying there until he had found enlightenment. He meditated for six days and nights and reached enlightenment on the full moon morning of May, a week before he turned thirty-five.

At the time of his enlightenment he gained complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. He called these steps the “Four Noble Truths.”

After his awakening, the Buddha met two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in modern-day Afghanistan. The brothers, Trapusa and Bahalika, offered the Buddha his first meal after enlightenment and they became his first lay disciplines. According to some texts, each brother gave a hair from his head and these became relics enshrined at the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma.

The Teacher

“I teach because you and all beings want to have happiness and want to avoid suffering. I teach the way things are.”

Legend has it that initially Buddha was reluctant to spread his knowledge to others as he was doubtful of whether the common people would understand his teachings. But then the king of gods, Brahma, convinced Buddha to teach, and he set out to do that.

The Buddha travelled to Deer Park in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions who had abandoned him earlier. Together with him, they formed the first Buddhist monks, also known as saṅgha. All five attained nirvana, a state along the path to enlightenment yet not full enlightenment.  They were known as arahants, meaning “one who is worthy,” or “perfected person.” From the first five, the group of arahants steadily grew to 60 within the first few months and eventually, the sangha reached more than one thousand.

The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vassa rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.

The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha’s two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, the capital of Magadha.

Upon hearing of his son’s awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama’s (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.

Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying: “Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms.” The Buddha is said to have replied: “That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms.”

Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha’s cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant. His wife, reportedly became a nun.

Throughout his life, Buddha encouraged his students to question his teachings and confirm them through their own experience. This non-dogmatic attitude still characterizes Buddhism today.

“You yourself must strive. The Buddhas only point the way.”

Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the world and t is also one of the oldest, established in the 6th century B.C. in present-day Nepal, India. Unlike other religions, Buddhists do not worship a God. Instead, they focus on spiritual development with the end-goal of becoming “enlightened” — though not in the intellectual sense of the word.

In the Western world, enlightenment is most often associated with the 18th century European Enlightenment Period, a movement characterized by a rational and scientific approach to politics, religion, and social and economic issues. In Buddhism, the simplest explanation of attaining enlightenment is when an individual finds out the truth about life, and experiences “an awakening” where they are freed from the cycle of being reborn. Central to Buddhism is the notion that to live is to suffer, and everything is in a constant state of change. All Buddhists believe, unless one has become enlightened, they will be reincarnated again and again. Enlightenment can be achieved through the practice and development of morality, meditation and wisdom.

Four Noble Truths

The Four Noble Truths contain the essence of the Buddha’s teachings. It was these four principles that the Buddha came to understand during his meditation under the bodhi tree. These are: The truth of suffering (Dukkha); the truth of the origin of suffering (Samudāya); the truth of the cessation of suffering (Nirodha); and the truth of the path to the cessation of suffering (Magga).

Suffering comes in many forms. Three obvious kinds of suffering correspond to the first three sights the Buddha saw on his first journey outside his palace: old age, sickness and death. But according to the Buddha, the problem of suffering goes much deeper. Life is not ideal: it frequently fails to live up to our expectations. Human beings are subject to desires and cravings, but even when we are able to satisfy these desires, the satisfaction is only temporary. Pleasure does not last; or if it does, it becomes monotonous.

Even when we are not suffering from outward causes like illness or bereavement, we are unfulfilled, unsatisfied. This is the truth of suffering.

The next noble truth is the origin of suffering. Our day-to-day troubles may seem to have easily identifiable causes: thirst, pain from an injury, sadness from the loss of a loved one. In the second of his Noble Truths, though, the Buddha claimed to have found the cause of all suffering – and it is much more deeply rooted than our immediate worries. The Buddha taught that the root of all suffering is desire, tanhā. This comes in three forms, which he described as the Three Roots of Evil, or the Three Fires, or the Three Poisons.

The three roots of evil are greed and desire, represented in art by a rooster; ignorance or delusion, represented by a pig, and hatred and destructive urges, represented by a snake. He taught more about suffering in his Fire Sermon, saying, a that is burning?

The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.

The Third Noble Truth is Cessation of suffering (Nirodha). The Buddha taught that the way to extinguish desire, which causes suffering, is to liberate oneself from attachment. This is the third Noble Truth – the possibility of liberation. The Buddha was a living example that this is possible in a human lifetime. “Estrangement” here means disenchantment: a Buddhist aims to know sense conditions clearly as they are without becoming enchanted or misled by them.

Nirvana means extinguishing. Attaining nirvana – reaching enlightenment – means extinguishing the three fires of greed, delusion and hatred.

Someone who reaches nirvana does not immediately disappear to a heavenly realm. Nirvana is better understood as a state of mind that humans can reach. It is a state of profound spiritual joy, without negative emotions and fears. Someone who has attained enlightenment is filled with compassion for all living things.After death an enlightened person is liberated from the cycle of rebirth, but Buddhism gives no definite answers as to what happens next.

The Buddha discouraged his followers from asking too many questions about nirvana. He wanted them to concentrate on the task at hand, which was freeing themselves from the cycle of suffering. Asking questions is like quibbling with the doctor who is trying to save your life.

The Fourth Noble Truth is the path to the cessation of suffering (Magga). The final Noble Truth is the Buddha’s prescription for the end of suffering. This is a set of principles called the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path is also called the Middle Way: it avoids both indulgence and severe asceticism, neither of which the Buddha had found helpful in his search for enlightenment. The eight stages are not to be taken in order, but rather support and reinforce each other.

Death and Legacy

“I can die happily. I have not kept a single teaching hidden in a closed hand. Everything that is useful for you, I have already given. Be your own guiding light.”

According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his earthly body.

After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha. Mettanando and von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of old age, rather than food poisoning.

The Buddha’s teachings began to be codified shortly after his death, and continue to be followed one way or another (and with major discrepancies) by at least 400 million people to this day.

There are numerous different schools or sects of Buddhism. The two largest are Theravada Buddhism, which is most popular in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Burma (Myanmar), and Mahayana Buddhism, which is strongest in Tibet, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia. The majority of Buddhist sects do not seek to proselytise (preach and convert), with the notable exception of Nichiren Buddhism. All schools of Buddhism seek to aid followers on a path of enlightenment. “If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows them like a never-departing shadow.”

The Buddha’s place in history is one of influence that spans the globe and survives, thousands of years after his death. He is immortalized as a symbol, principal figure in Buddhism, and worshipped as a manifestation of God in Hinduism, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the Bahá’í faith.

Today, Buddhism is the dominant religion in many Asian countries, such as Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. Many forms of Buddhism exist, with Zen Buddhism enjoying considerable popularity in the United States. According to one 2012 estimate, approximately 1.2 million Buddhists live in America, with 40% of these adherents living in Southern California.

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The Life Of The Buddha – Nanamoli Bhikkhu

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Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of The Awakened One Paperback – August 9, 2016

• Print length 400 pages
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0857388304
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Short Biography of Gautama Buddha | Buddhism

The below mentioned article provides a short biography of Gautama Buddha.

Gautama Buddha was a contemporary of Mahavira. Gautama Buddha’s royal name was Siddhartha. He was the son of Suddhodhana, the Chief of Sakya clan of Kapilvastu in the Nepal Tarai area. He was born in 566 B.C. in the village of Lumbini a few miles from Kapilvastu.

Siddhartha lost his mother at the time of his birth and was brought up by his aunt and step-mother. Right from his child­hood Siddhartha showed inclination towards contemplation. He loved seclusion and avoided the company of his play-mates.

He spent most of his time meditating over the various human problems. His father Suddhodhana tried to attract him towards worldly objects and married Siddhartha to a beautiful princess, Yashodhara, the daughter of a Sakya noble.

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He provided all possible pleasures and luxuries to the young Siddhartha so that he could get involved in the worldly affairs. But Siddhartha was not happy with all this. He continued to concentrate on problems of birth, old age, sickness, sorrow and impurity.

At the age of 29 he was blessed with a son but he did not feel happy, instead he considered it as a bond. Soon after the birth of his son he left his home in search of truth and be­came a wandering ascetic. This renunciation by Buddha is known as Maha Parityaga.

After leaving his house Gautama Buddha went to Vaishali. He lived with the famous Philosopher Adara Kalama but was not satisfied with his teachings. He therefore moved to Rajgriha, and met Rudraka and other philosophers. But here also he did not get satis­faction. After this Siddhartha practiced severest penances for six years and reduced himself to a skeleton, but he did not get any satisfaction.

He gave up penance and took bowl of milk offered to him by village girl, Sujata. He then sat under Pipal tree and said, “Let my skin, my nerves and bones waste away, let my life hood dry up, I will not leave this posture until I have perfect attainment.”

He remained in meditation for seven days and seven nights and was ultimately enlightened on the eighth day. On the day of enlightenment he came to be known as Buddha or Tathagat. Siddhartha discovered the Law of Causation, a cycle of twelve causes and effects condi­tioning the universe. This Law had not been thought of by any philosopher before him.

After his enlightenment Gautama decided to preach the know­ledge to the people for their benefit. First of all, he went to Banaras and Sarnath which were great centres of learning in those days. First of all, at Sarnath he preached to the five Monks who had left him in despair.

He taught them the middle path i.e. an ascetic should avoid feeling extremes. He should neither addict himself to the pleasure of services nor of self-mortification and so he (Gautama) set in motion his ‘ dharma-chakra’.

These five monks were greatly impressed by his teachings and became his disciples again. Thus the foundation of the Buddha Sangha was laid. Then Buddha visited Rajgriha, where he was accorded a warm welcome by the King Bimbsara. From here he moved to Saravasti, the capital of Kosala.

At Kosala, King Prasenjit became his disciple. Then Gautama proceeded to Kapilvastu where large number of people became his disciples, including his wife, Yashodhara and his son Rahul. Buddha concentrated his activities in Magadha and preached his message to a large number of people.

The other places where his message was received with great admiration were Kashi, Kosala, Vajji, Avanti etc. Buddha continued to preach his message till his death in 487 B.C. His last words were “Now, monks I have nothing more to tell you but that all that is composed is liable to decay, strive after salvation energetically.”

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