The
Buddha - His Life
Birth
Accounts of his life were passed down by oral tradition and first written
a few hundred years after his death. The common story place him born
around 523 BC in Lumbini, a village of Kapilvastu in the foothills of
the Himalayas in what is now modern day Nepal. Born Siddhartha Gautama
in Sanskrit or Siddhatta Gotama in Pali to King Suddhodana of the aristocratic
Shakya clan and Queen Maha Maya, he later became known as the Buddha
"enlightened one" a title bestowed upon him by his followers.
He is also received the title 'Sakyamuni', after becoming a
sage since he belonged to the Sakya clan. The child's name, Siddhartha,
means 'one whose goal is fulfilled'. Gautama is the family name. Thus
he was known as Siddhartha Gautama.
The Prediction
His mother died seven days after his birth so he was brought up by his
mother's sister. The wise men who were invited to a name-giving ceremony
for the newborn child, predicted that the child, on attaining manhood,
would become either a universal monarch; or, abandoning house and home,
would become a saviour of the world and would bring salvation to the
people. The King Suddhodana learned that if Siddhartha saw four signs:
an old man, a diseased man, a dead man and a holy man, that he would
become a Buddha and bring enlightenment to the world. Suddhodana thought
that he would prevent the loss of his son and heir, by surrounding him
with all kinds of luxury and indulgence, in order to prevent him from
witnessing pain and suffering.
Suddhodana's Precaution
The king, Suddhodana, therefore, ordered in the kingdom that the prince,
Siddhartha should be surrounded only by the happy and beautiful aspects
of life. Old and sick people were kept out of his sight. Death was not
mentioned to him. The king provided every luxury for the prince. In
these surroundings, Siddharth grew up to be a young man of great strength
and beauty. At sixteen, Siddhartha married his cousin,Yashodhara. They
lived in great splendour in a new palace surrounded by everything delight
and pleasant.
Despite all this Siddhartha grew restless, curious as to what was more
to know outside of the palace. Against his father's wishes, he journeyed
outside the palace walls four times and encountered what are called
the Four Sights.
Renunciation
In his escapes from the palace, he chanced to see an old men, a sick
men, a corpse and a holy man. He was much moved to compassion for the
first three conditions and was intrigued by the peacefulness of the
holy man. So at the age of 29, Siddhartha came to realize that he could
not be happy living as he had been. He had discovered suffering and
wanted more than anything to discover how one might overcome suffering.
So he left wealth, his newborn
son, wife and kingdom behind for the remote forests and mountains of
Northeast India to search for the answer. He studied under the Brahmins,
the wise priests that dominated his society, learning all they had to
impart, but they could not provide the answers he was seeking. He then
struggled on the path of self-mortification, taking that practice to
the extremes of asceticism, but still to no avail.
For six years, he practiced. But the answers to his questions were not
forthcoming. He began a fast, redoubled his efforts, until he was in
a state of near death. Siddhartha then realized that these extreme practices
were leading him nowhere, that in fact it might be better to find some
middle way between the extremes of the life of luxury and the life of
self-mortification. One day, a peasant girl named Sujata saw this starving
monk and took pity on him. She begged him to eat some of her rice-milk,
which renewed him so much that he decided to take a different approach
and look into his own heart and mind for the answers.
The Enlightenment
Having turned away from these two extremes, he sat beneath the branches
of what is now known as the Bodhi Tree, in a secluded grove by the banks
of a river, and vowed that 'flesh may wither, blood may dry up, but
I shall not rise from this spot until Enlightenment has been won.' and
developed his mind in deep, luminous and tranquil states of meditation.
He was tempted by an army of demons sent by Mara, an evil one, to keep
him from attaining illumination. She sent voluptuous goddesses parading
in front of him. When he was not moved she assailed him with every manner
of storm and beast–and finally darkness. Yet, still he remained
unmoved. In the final challenge, the temptress challenged him the right
to be doing what he was doing. Siddhartha then tapped the earth, and
the earth thundered her answer: "I bear you witness!" And
thus Mara fled as the all the earth beings acclaimed his right to pursue
the enlightenment of the Buddha.
Thus following the meditation he entered, the Four
Noble Truths were realized. Then, on the full moon night
of May, he finally attained Enlightenment. Through this contemplation
of the essence of reality, he attained the supreme awakening, the experience
of enlightenment.
From that point on he was known as the Buddha, the Awakened One.
For a total of forty-nine days he remained in deep meditation and experienced
Nirvana. When he finally turned his attention to the world, he found
Mara waiting for him with one last temptation: "Return to Nirvana,
no one will understand you. Do not try to deliver this message to the
world, remain in bliss!" But Buddha responded back there will be
some who will understand. And she vanished.
Spreading the Doctrine
Having realized the goal of perfect enlightenment, the Buddha spent
the next 45 years teaching a path of training and development which,
when accurately and diligently followed, will lead anyone regardless
of race, class or gender to the same awakening. Soon after his Enlightenment
the Buddha had a vision in which he saw the human race as a bed of lotus
flowers. Some of the lotuses were still enmired in the mud, others were
just emerging from it, and others again were on the point of blooming.
In other words, all people had the ability to unfold their potential
and some needed just a little help to do so. So the Buddha decided to
teach, and all of the teachings of Buddhism may be seen as attempts
to fulfil this vision–to help people grow towards Enlightenment.
In his first sermon he revealed the discovery of his quests: the Four
Noble Truths, the Eightfold
Path or the Middle Way. These teachings
are called the Dharma, literally meaning the nature of all things or
the underlying truths of existence, the universal Doctrine. He established
the Sangha (community) of Buddhism which numbered over twelve hundred
devotees. Nobles, Brahmins and many wealthy men became his disciples.
Buddha paid no attention to caste. The poor and the outcastes were admitted
to his order. Those who wanted to become full members of his order were
obliged to become monks and to observe strict rules of conduct.
Upon visiting his father's kingdom, Guatama discovered from the day
Yasodhara had lost her husband she gave up all her luxuries. She took
very simple food once daily and slept on a mat. She led a life of severe
austerities. Gautama was very much moved. He went at once to see her.
She prostrated at his feet. She caught hold of his feet and burst into
tears. Buddha established an order of female ascetics. Yasodhara became
the first of the Buddhistic nuns. His son also was initiated into the
order of monks.
Travelling from place to place, the Buddha taught numerous disciples,
many of whom gained Enlightenment in their own right. They, in turn,
taught others and in this way an unbroken chain of teaching has continued,
right down to the present day.
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