Buddha, who is also known as
Siddhartha (his given name), Gautama (his family name)
and Sakyamuni (sage of the Sakya) was born in
Kapilavastu, now in southern Nepal. His father Suddhodana
was a rajah of the Sakya clan. His mother Maya died a few
days after his birth. At the age of nineteen Gautama was
married to the beautiful princess Yasodhara, who bore him
a son Rahula. After ten years Gautama ventured out of his
cloistered estate and, according to the traditions, saw
for the first time an old man, a sick man, a dead man and
an ascetic. So struck was he by these sights that he
abandoned his family to become a wandering monk.
After six years of searching for
peace through asceticism, Gautama came to the town of
Uruvela in northeastern India. There he sat under the
Bodhi tree (a gigantic fig tree) and determined to stay
until he received Enlightenment. Forty-nine days later he
was illuminated, becoming the Buddha, which means
"Enlightened One." Buddha preached his first
sermons in Benares when he was thirty-five. He succeeded
in converting his ascetic companions, then his parents
and his wife, and eventually King Bimbisara.
Buddha's teachings may be summarized in the Four Noble
Truths and the Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Truths are
(1) suffering exists, (2) suffering has a cause, (3)
suffering can be eliminated, (4) ways to eliminate
suffering. Buddha taught that all that exists is
impermanent and that lasting happiness cannot be found in
samsara, the temporal world of change. The way to
Nirvana is to eliminate desire, which is the cause of
suffering. Desire is not eliminated by gratification nor
by mortification but by the Middle Way of the Eightfold
Path, which involves (1) right views, (2) aspirations,
(3) speech, (4) conduct, (5) livelihood, (6) effort, (7)
mindfulness and (8) contemplation.
Legends ascribe all kinds of miracles to Buddha: By
washing his hands over the seed of a ripe mango, he
caused a tree to spring up fifty-hands high. Once he flew
into the sky with fire and water streaming from various
parts of his body. He performed these miracles, according
to a Jataka account, to dispel the gods' doubts
about his mission.
n his eightieth year as he traveled
near Benares, Buddha became mortally ill after a meal of
pork, perhaps from dysentary [sic]. According to the Mahaparanibbana
Sutta his last words to a disciple were these:
I have reached my sum of days…. It is only,
Ananda, when the Tathagata [a title of Buddha]
ceasing to attend to any outward thing, or to
experience any sensation,becomes plunged in that
devout meditation of the heart which is concerned
with no material object - it is only then that the
body of the Tathagata is at ease.
Elsewhere in this sutta the Buddha is said to have
added, "Therefore, O Ananda, be ye lamps unto
yourselves. Be ye a refuge to yourselves. Betake
yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the truth
as a lamp." After his death Buddha was cremated and
his ashes distributed among eight cities. His alleged
remains are venerated at various stupas, or
shrines, throughout Asia.
