Buddha

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(South and Central Asian mythology)

Gautama Siddartha (c. 563–479 BC), the prince from present day Nepal who became the Buddha, ‘the Enlightened One,’ required his followers to isolate themselves from worldly life. The saffron robe worn by Buddhist monks was a badge which showed ordinary society that they had elected to leave its toils; the colour of this garment was the same as that used to dress condemned men on the day of execution. Being liable to rebirth because of the self, and knowing the sorrow of living, dukkha,‘ world weariness,’ they sought the unborn, the final escape from Karmic bondage— nirvana. What was demanded from the individual devotee was nothing less than the extinction of the ego, freedom from aversion and desire.

Although there are striking parallels in the stories of the lives of the Jaina saviour Parsva and the Buddha, connections possibly suggesting the continued existence of a pre-Aryan religious tradition, Siddhartha had begun as a Hindu, and his own quest for wisdom was essentially a new and invigorating approach to the classic problem of release, moksa. Where the Buddha encountered difficulties was in the communication of his new understanding of the bondage of individualized existence. These problems sprang from the paradoxical position in which he found himself as a teacher. He alone understood Enlightenment, because it was an internal experience, yet he wished to point others along the way to self-realization. It was ineffable. Perhaps this block in communication explains the reluctance of the Buddha to sanction pictorial representation of his life and deeds. Instead, an empty seat, a footprint, or a wheel, were supposed to indicate the way he had discovered and taught. In contrast with the other great teachers of the world—Zarathustra, Confucius, Jesus, Mohammed–the Buddha was known as Sakyamuni, ‘the silent sage of the Sakya clan.’ The role of the sangha, the monk community, was to act as a permanent spiritual signpost for lay folk, who were daily reminded of the true path by the mendicant monks, the bhikkhus. At the moment in Sri Lanka and Thailand it is still the custom for young people to adopt holy orders for a short period of time. But, as the Buddha is said to have foreseen, his teachings became an organized religion over the centuries, and evolved a distinct mythology, till in its final stage in India Buddhism was merged with Hinduism.

The Buddha had many earlier lives which are described in the Jataka. Here we are only concerned with the chief legends surrounding the life of the historical founder of the Buddhist faith. The Buddha never denied the Hindu pantheon. On the contrary, prior to his incarnation as Gautama Siddhartha he lived in the heavenly realm, where he taught the law to the gods.‘Truly, monks,’ the Buddha once said,‘ I have been Indra, the ruler of the gods, thirty-six times, and many hundred times was I a worldmonarch.’ As the moment approached for his birth as the Buddha, earthquakes and miracles occurred, those ancient harbingers of significant events. In the city of Kapilavastu, on what is the modern Indo-Nepalese border, his earthly mother, Queen Maya, experienced a miraculous conception. She dreamed that she saw the future Buddha come down into her womb in the form of a white elephant. This dream and the corresponding natural signs were interpreted by sixty-four brahmins, who predicted the birth of a son who would become either a world-monarch or a world-saviour. When the time approached, Queen Maya made her way to the near-by grove of Lumbini, where the wonderful child was born, emerging from her right side without causing her the slightest pain. Received by Brahma and the other gods, the young prince was found to be endowed with speech, and there appeared on the ground a lotus every time he took a step. Instantaneously were born Yasodhara Devi, his wife; Kantaka, the horse on which he fled from the palace to seek for supreme consciousness; Chandaka, his charioteer; Ananda, his chief disciple; and the Bo Tree, beneath whose spreading branches he received Enlightenment.

According to one legend, Queen Maya died seven days after giving birth to Prince Siddhartha, and out of filial piety the Buddha, having attained to supreme knowledge, ascended to the Trayastrimsa Heaven and remained there for three months, preaching the law to his mother. This particular sutra, or narrative scripture, became very popular in China, where Buddhist missionaries were confronted with a civilization that set great store by ancestor worship. A religion of individual salvation had to be made relevant to a society based on family and clan harmony, lest the saffron robe seem quite incongruous.

Mindful of the prophecy that the young prince would not become a great ruler, but a great sage, if he became aware of the sufferings of mankind, King Suddhodana, his father, did his utmost to prevent Siddhartha from having any contact with the outside world. A costly palace was built in which all possible pleasures were offered to beguile the youth's mind, and even the words ‘death’ and ‘grief’ were forbidden. King Suddhodana conceived the plan of forging an inseparable link between his son and the kingdom through the marriage of Siddhartha, who would be declared heir-apparent. The beautiful Yasodhara, the daughter of a minister, was chosen and, as a kshatriya, the prince had to win her hand by a display of prowess in fencing, swimming, and combat at a special tournament. Yet within Siddhartha the spirit was beginning to stir, for on hearing the news of the birth of their son, he pronounced the boy's name, Rahula, in such a way as to mean ‘a bond’. Though King Suddhodana took every precaution, order-ing that the streets of the capital be swept clean, decorated with flowers, and emptied of everything unpleasant, the visit of twenty-nine-year-old Siddhartha and Chandaka proved a shattering experience. The prince saw a tottering old man, bowed double over his walking stick, and later had view of an incurable invalid. These sights troubled him considerably, but it was an encounter with a corpse being carried to the cremation ground that jolted him into active discontent with his luxurious surroundings. The serene calm of a hermit suggested a course for him and, abandoning throne, family, and offspring, he became a wandering ascetic, bent on discovering the nature of things. Having tried the way of self-mortification for six years without success, the monk Gautama, as he was now called, travelled to Gaya and resolved to sit in meditation under a fig-tree till he completed his quest. His Enlightenment followed, whereby he became the Buddha, the One who was released from the overwhelming consciousness of suffering.

The demon Mara assaulted the contemplative monk, immobile beneath the Bo Tree, but nothing could disturb his single-mindedness. To no avail were the enticements of Mara's daughters, skilled in all the magic arts of desire and voluptuousness; unheeded went the threats of an army of hideous devils, grotesque in shape and powerfully armed; and the ultimate weapon of Mara, his fiery discus, turned into a canopy of flowers when hurled at the Buddha. For five weeks the possessor of perfect illumination, bodhi, stayed rapt in meditation, all his previous lives being revealed to him. It was during the final week that the world-shaking tempest happened, when Muchalinda, King of the Nagas, protected the Buddha with his serpentine body.

The Enlightened One was then faced with a choice. He could enter nirvana: literally, the cessation, nir, of mental turnings, vritti; the undisturbed condition of supreme consciousness. Or, renouncing personal deliverance for the moment, he could preach the law. Mara urged one course, Brahma the other, and it was to the great god's entreaties on behalf of all created things the Buddha yielded. He began to travel and teach, founding a monastic order as well as preparing the framework for the Buddhist era of Indian civilization. One day a little child wanted to make him an offering, but had no worldly possessions. Innocently the boy presented for blessing a pile of dust, which the Buddha accepted with a smile. This child is reputed to have been reborn as King Asoka, who reigned from 272 to 232 BC. Not only did this monarch establish throughout his realm countless monasteries and have constructed 80,000 stupas, or reliquary shrines, but his Buddhist missionaries were dispatched even to Syria and Egypt.

Tibetan carving of the Buddha

• Born: c. 563 B.C.
• Birthplace: Kapilvastu, Nepal
• Died: c. 483 B.C. (possibly food poisoning)
• Best Known As: The founder of Buddhism

Name at birth: Siddhartha Gautama

Buddha ("the awakened") was the title given to Siddhartha Gautama, the son of a Nepalese rajah. According to tradition, Guatama left a life of luxury at age 30 and devoted himself to years of contemplation and self-denial, finally reaching enlightenment while sitting beneath a tree. Henceforth known as Buddha, he spent his life teaching disciples about his beliefs (embodied in the Four Noble Truths) and the goal of achieving the enlightened state of Nirvana.

The Buddha (ca. 560-480 B.C.) was an Indian philosopher, religious teacher, and the historical founder of Buddhism. He is regarded variously as a human spiritual teacher or an omniscient, active deity.

India during the 6th century B.C. was a land of religious and political turmoil. The Northwest was dominated by the Indo-Aryan invaders who had entered India in the 2d millennium, bringing their own religious and social institutions, which were dominated by a great sacrificial cult and hereditary priestly elite, the Brahmins. Their cultural influence was widespread even in areas to the east beyond their political authority. But their claims to religious and social superiority were often regarded as pretentious and superficial by the older, indigenous aristocracy.

It was an era of great brutality which undermined traditional religious moorings and, for men of deeper religious sensibilities, called into question the value of all worldly activities and the meaning of life itself. In these circumstances emerged many new religious teachers and schools - all searching for deeper insights into the meaning of existence, the nature of man, and programs of spiritual reconstruction. It was in this environment that young Prince Gautama matured and grew to manhood.

The Buddha ("enlightened one") was born Siddhartha Gautama in northern India near the town of Kapilavastu. His father was ruler of an indigenous Indian tribe, the Shakyas - hence one of the Buddha's traditional epithets, Shakyamuni, or "sage of the Shakyas" - and he was expected to follow in the tradition of a worldly raja.

The traditions relate that his father was disturbed by Gautama's excessive - seemingly morbid - preoccupation with the great spiritual enigmas of life: the problems of suffering, death, and the inequities of human existence. The King tried in vain to insulate him from these harsh realities and built a special palace for him surrounded with distracting luxuries. Gautama married and had a son. But his preoccupation with the great religious questions could not be suppressed, and at the age of 29 he made a decisive move. He formally renounced his worldly commitments, left his family and clan, and embarked on a search for the answers to the massive spiritual questions which perplexed him.

Spiritual Struggles and Enlightenment

Gautama was just one of many wandering ascetics, philosophers, and teachers in India during this period who were searching for religious truth. For many of these teachers the basic religious problem was defined by the theory of transmigration, which, in its most general form, asserts that the human soul (atman) is entrapped in the phenomenal world by an endless cycle of rebirths (samsara). After death the soul is reborn in a new physical form depending on the ethical quality of deeds (karma) in the preceding life. The ultimate religious goal is to obtain complete salvation or "release" (moksha) from bondage to this phenomenal process. For this purpose the spiritual adept practices the yoga - a system of inward, ascetic discipline over body, mind, and motivations designed to cleanse and finally eliminate the debilitating sources of karma and transmigration. This basic teaching was presupposed as the dominant religious problem, though there were sharp disagreements over which teacher had most accurately analyzed the situation and evolved the most efficacious yoga.

The traditions relate that for 7 years Gautama experimented with many different teachings, including extreme bodily self-mortification, but found none of them adequate. He set them all aside; and at last in a single night of intensive meditation he achieved a radical breakthrough, an absolutely clear perception of the real spiritual enigmas of life and the unique religious means for dealing with them. This realization culminated in a transcendental mystical experience - his own enlightenment (bodhi) - which simultaneously confirmed the integrity of his insight and unqualified spiritual salvation. At this point he became the Buddha.

The Buddha's Teaching

There is an interesting legend which reveals some of the problems inherent in formulating the Buddha's teaching. It is told that at the moment of his enlightenment he was entitled to its immediate rewards - complete salvation and spiritual release from the bonds of existence. This would have meant that the doctrine would never have been made known to other men. And there was the additional problem that the inner spiritual meaning of the teaching and its ultimate mystical consequences could not be adequately communicated in any case, except paradoxically through silence. But after debating these issues, the Buddha decided to preach the doctrine anyway, out of his love and compassion for all men. This legend presents a psychological and historical truth: the formal exposition of the teaching is just the top of the iceberg. Understanding the mystical essence of the teaching and putting it into practice varies greatly, depending on the capacity of its hearers, their needs, and their historical and cultural situation. In a sense, the subsequent history of Buddhism, in all of its immensely varied forms, is proof of this fact.

The earliest tradition represents the Buddha as teaching a yoga which was exoteric - open to all men - and, at least on the surface, simple and eminently practical. It was called the Middle Path, a qualitative mean between the extremes of physical self-indulgence and self-mortification. The teaching is specifically embodied in the Four Noble Truths. The first of these truths lies in the recognition that all existence is fundamentally sorrow and pain (duhkha), bound to birth, old age, death, and rebirth and (collectively, samsara) and marked by impermanence (anitya) without lasting essence (anatman). The second truth asserts that this condition is caused by ignorance (avidya) of the nature of reality, especially of the Buddha's teachings, and by sensual craving (trishna) for worldly existence. This craving in turn is the prime element which at death binds together the heterogeneous components of the individual human being, including the soul itself, and ties it once again inexorably to the causal sequence of phenomenal composition and rebirth. The third truth promises that the elimination of these pernicious factors will finally break the chain of causation and bring about final salvation, Nirvana (the "blowing out"), release from the transmigrational process and achievement of a state of mystical transcendence beyond expression. The fourth truth shows that to gain this end, the appropriate yoga is the Eightfold Path, a combination of moral and mental self-discipline which will root out the conceptual and libidinal perversions of the mind that are inimical to salvation.

Despite its apparent simplicity the yoga is described as very demanding, "subtle and hard to understand," since it is only through arduous practice that real insight, the inner meaning of the truths, self-transformation, and final enlightenment can be attained. Consequenlty, in this form of the teaching there is a premium placed on total commitment expressed in the person of the celibate monk who has withdrawn from the world for fulltime pursuit of the spiritual goal. A perfected monk is an arahat, or "noble one," who has given his whole life to the yoga.

It is important to realize that the teaching is basically optimistic. It places the broken and disrupted forms of the phenomenal world in perspective and teaches that every human being - irrespective of his social position or past life - can through his own exertions obtain therapeutic control of himself, of his preconceptions and passions, and of his destiny. The ethical principles gravitate around concepts of compassion (karuna), love (maitri), and noninjury (ahimsa) to living creatures, and they stress the obligation to promote friendship and concord. They are basically universal standards of behavior with obvious constructive consequences for stabilization of interpersonal relationships and social order.

Mission and Monastic Order

The traditions relate that the Buddha first preached his doctrine (Dharma) in Benares, India's great holy city on the Ganges. He began his missionary work soon after with a handful of disciples, offering the teaching to all who would hear and understand. The life and discipline of this little band were at first centered on the spiritual authority of the Buddha himself. But as the number of converts and monastic centers grew, the loosely structured community (Sangha) began to take on more formal characteristics. It seems probable that by the time of the Buddha's death, at the age of 80, a number of basic institutional patterns had been set. These included a disciplinary code, later expanded into the full monastic rule (Vinaya), and a collection of the Buddha's sayings and discourses (Sutra). The major ceremonies included the bimonthly uposatha, a confessional assembly of the monks in each monastery to recite the monastic rules.

Despite this appearance of routine orthodoxy, the early Sangha was not a centralized church under a bureaucratic hierarchy. In one of his last sermons the Buddha is depicted as rejecting all forms of magisterial authority or patriarchal succession: "Be lamps unto yourselves, O monks." The main purpose of the monastic rule was to guard the independence of each monk in his own spiritual quest. All fully ordained monks had an equal vote on matters affecting the welfare of the community. When internal disagreements could not be resolved, the dissenters simply left and formed a new community. Monks guilty of infractions against the monastic code were expected to confess and discipline themselves. No form of coercion could legitimately be invoked.

Nevertheless, the institutional problems must have been burdensome. The Buddha is occasionally represented as perplexed and disgusted by the contentious and often selfish behavior of the monks. On at least one occasion he took time to wash and care for a sick monk who had been callously neglected by his fellows; and his own cousin, Devadatta, is reputed to have started a schismatic movement to replace him as head of the order. He was equally irritated by abstruse philosophical speculation about topics not specifically relevant to the practice of the yoga, and he likened this kind of distraction to a man, struck by a poisoned arrow, speculating at length about its point of origin and ballistic curve before trying to pull it out.

In keeping with the principle of personal conversion women were admitted to the order; within the monastic community all barriers of caste, race, sex, and previous background were swept under the impact of the universal thrust of the teaching.

The Laity

Although the ascetic ideal and rigors of the yoga tended to limit monastic membership to those who were fulltime practitioners, the power of the Buddha's personality attracted many lay followers - the "householders." The tradition relates that the Buddha said only that it was harder for the laity to attain Nirvana; but the bulk of lay piety gravitated toward a merit-making ethic which could at least guarantee a better rebirth.

The Buddhist ethic was significantly oriented to the economic and political needs of urban mercantile and artisan groups. At the outset, lay devotees promised to adhere to the five precepts: no killing, stealing, lying, adultery, or consumption of alcoholic beverages. In a sermon attributed to the Buddha he advises a well-to-do young layman to pursue ethical self-discipline for the sake of "well-being in this world and the next," especially the elimination of economically wasteful vices such as sloth, self-indulgence, and sensuality. The Buddha is also represented as preaching openly against hereditary caste distinctions, which he regarded as social conventions based originally on occupational differences. "A Brahmin is not such by his deeds, an Outcaste is such by his deeds." And, typically, he reserved the words "Aryan" and "true Brahmin" for members of the monastic community.

Buddha's political teachings are basically contractual and were probably drawn from the oligarchical patrimonialism of his own clan. The king has the obligation to care for his people and, especially, to set high moral standards. A man who fails in this is not worthy to rule. No cult of divine kingship is proposed. In the traditions the Buddha is represented as consulting frequently with the monarchs of the great states and petty kingdoms, teaching his doctrine and seeking to ameliorate the conditions of endemic warfare.

Later Developments

One of the most ancient forms of the teaching is in the texts of the Theravada Buddhists, now dominant in Ceylon and the Southeast Asian mainland. But Theravada is the only living remnant of a number of ancient Indian schools. There were schismatic movements both during and after the Buddha's life. One of these gave birth to the forerunners of another great and very different tradition, the Mahayana ("great vehicle"). This tradition stretches from India through China to Japan and appears in an immense variety of schools ranging from abstruse philosophies to popular theism and magic. Though its exponents have often stigmatized the Theravada school as Hinayana ("small vehicle"), it has produced a massively diverse body of literature which defies uniform characterization.

Mahayana is itself closely related to another tradition - the Tantrayana ("esoteric vehicle"), which found one of its central locations in Tibet. Consequently the historical reality of the Buddha's teaching has been vastly complicated and often obscured over the past 2500 years.

Though there were always signs of tension and disagreements over the appropriate interpretation of the Buddha's teaching, it was not until a century after his death that a major schism developed, based on longstanding points of contention, basic elements of which are most prominently developed in Mahayana doctrine. Although Mahayana literature emerged later, beginning in the 1st century B.C., it claims to present the true and restored teaching of the Buddha.

The first point is directed against the conservative ideal of the monk, the arahat, who attains enlightenment only after long and solitary practice of the yoga. For the Mahayana teachers this ideal is a self-centered perversion of the spirit of the Buddha's teaching, especially his outgoing love for all men, and instead these teachers developed the notion of the Bodhisattva ("being of enlightement"). This concept originally denoted previous incarnations of the historical Buddha. In Mahayana it signifies one who is essentially worthy of Nirvana but, like the Buddha himself, gives up this right in order to teach and assist all sentient creatures with compassion and love. All men, including the laity, are held capable of this great role. Typically, one of the great Mahayana texts speaks of a precocious layman - Vimalakirti - who achieves spiritual perfection far in excess of that of the monks while living a normal householder's life.

The second and related point concerns the concept of Nirvana. In his wisdom (prajha) the Bodhisattva knows that Nirvana cannot be conceived of as a simple goal or reward for spiritual striving in the fashion of the arahat. This misconception subtly reinforces the craving (trishna) for personal satisfaction and therefore is the antithesis of salvation. Nirvana is beyond all spatiotemporal polarities. It is "void" (shunya), and its realization is inseparable from the compassionate wisdom which is the distinctive mark of the Bodhisattva.

The third point concerns the status of the Buddha himself. In the Hinayana (Theravada) tradition, he is the human founder of the historical teaching, but in Mahayana he is an omniscient, omnipresent, loving deity. These theistic developments had their roots in lay worship practices which emerged very early in the tradition - perhaps even in the Buddha's own lifetime - as his personal spiritual power promoted the notion that he was a reincarnation of an eternal sacred reality. The bulk of popular Mahayana throughout Asia became centered on the theistic cult. Believers worshiped many transcendent Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who had the power to answer prayers of petition and to magically transfer merit for the welfare of the pious. The new mythologies even included a heavenly paradise - a "Pure Land" - available to the faithful through the active grace of the savior Amitabha (endless light) Buddha.

While certain features of these theistic developments are present in the early Indian traditions, altogether they represent later changes and accretions which seem remote from the earliest teaching. But in another sense they are not untrue to the spirit of the whole. The Buddha is represented, even in the earliest traditions, as tolerant of the necessity of adjusting the teaching to the capacities and background of his adherents. His "skill in means" (upayakaushalya) refers to the technique of doctrinal and institutional adjustment out of compassion for diverse human needs and limitations. And this principle was an important factor in facilitating the missionary diffusion of Buddhism throughout Asia.

Buddha's Modern Significance

The immense diversity of Buddhist faith and practice is perhaps its most striking feature. In Tibet the political system was until recently a theocracy, ruled by spiritual leaders, the Dalai and Panchen Lamas who were regarded as supreme Bodhisattvas, worldly incarnations of the Buddha; and Tibetan Tantrism is a rich synthesis of Buddhist and primitive indigenous teachings.

In China and Japan, Zen Buddhism represents a special adaptation of the meditational yoga strongly influenced by Chinese values and regarded as uniquely efficacious by its adherents. In Ceylon and the Indochinese mainland, orthodox Theravada has served as an effective state religion while often richly infused with primitive animism and magic.

In looking for a single point of unity in this extraordinarily complex matrix, it is to be found only in the paradigmatic grandeur of the Buddha himself, who persists in all the traditions as a model of spiritual perfection and transcendent saving power.

Further Reading

Edward J. Thomas, The Life of Buddha as Legend and History (1927; 3d ed. 1952), is a scholarly study of the Buddha and of Buddhist thought. A biography based on an evaluation of the ancient texts, which includes a social analysis of the Buddha's times, is Alfred Foucher, The Life of the Buddha: According to the Ancient Texts and Monuments of India (abr. trans. 1963). Two scholarly studies of Buddhist thought are Sukumar Dutt, Early Buddhist Monachism: 600 B.C.-100 B.C. (1924), and Edward J. Thomas, The History of Buddhist Thought (1933; 2d ed. 1951). See also Beatrice Lane Suzuki, Mahayana Buddhism (1938; 2d ed. 1948); Edward Conze, Buddhism: Its Essence and Development (1951); and Edward Conze, ed., Buddhist Texts through the Ages (1954).

For more information on Buddha, visit Britannica.com.

(Sanskrit; Pāli, Siddhattha Gotama). Name of the historical Buddha. Siddhārtha (meaning ‘one whose aim is accomplished’) was his personal name, and Gautama his clan or family name. His dates are still uncertain, but recent scholarship inclines to the dates shown as opposed to the more conventional ones of 563-486 bce (see Date Of The Buddha). He was born into a noble family of the Śākya clan, and for this reason came to be known also as Śākyamuni (the sage of the Śākyas). His father was Śuddhodana and his mother Māyā. According to Buddhist sources his father was king of the city of Kapilavastu, which was located just inside the southern border of present-day Nepal. Siddhārtha's birth was preceded by a dream in which his mother saw a white elephant entering her womb. From this the soothsayers foretold that the child would be either a Buddha or a Universal Ruler (cakravartin). Seven days after giving birth Queen Māyā died. Siddhārtha was married to Yaśodharā (or Rāhulamātā) and a son, Rāhula, was born when the Buddha was either 16 or 29. Tradition recalls that the Buddha's father shielded his son from the harsh realities of life until the young prince ventured outside the palace and was confronted by the sight of ‘fours signs’: an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a renunciate. These experiences brought home to him the reality of suffering and the nature of the human predicament, and turning his back on family life he renounced the world and became a religious mendicant. He studied with two teachers, Udraka Rāmaputra and Āḷāra Kālāma, but after six years of unproductive ascetic exercises renounced the path of austerities and embarked on a more moderate spiritual path which he characterized as the ‘Middle Way’ (madhyamā-pratipad). By following this he gained enlightenment (bodhi) at Bodhgayā at the age of 35 and became a Buddha. After his spiritual awakening he attracted a band of followers and instituted a monastic order (Saṃgha). He travelled throughout north-east India as an itinerant teacher for the remaining 45 years of his life. He died at age 80 after being in ill health for some months and having eaten a meal of contaminated pork (see Cunda; Mahāparinibbāna Sutta; sūkara-maddava).

Gautama Buddha or the Buddha Sākyamuni, or simply “the Buddha,” whose personal name was Siddhārtha (“the one whose goals are achieved”) lived in present-day Nepal during the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE. He was born into the royal family of the Sākyas (thus, Sākyamuni: “wise one of the Sākyas”). Eventually he became the de facto founder of an outgrowth of Brahmanism (see Brahmanism) called Buddhism (see Buddhism). Little is known about Gautama's life, but a rich mythology has developed around it. The first “biography” was not set down until about 80 CE in the so-called Pāli (see Pāli) Canon in Sri Lanka. Mythic narratives of the Buddha's life had developed over the centuries, however, both orally and in writing—in various jātaka or previous life tales contained in Buddhist Sūtras (scriptures), for instance, and in traditional tales told at various Buddhist pilgrimage sites. As is the case with other great religious leaders—Jesus, Zarathustra (see Zoroaster), Muhammad, for example—the Buddha's life was raised by myth to the level of the sacred and the superhuman.

The mythic Buddha's story begins in the heavens, where the future Buddha—the Bodhisattva (see Bodhisattva)—who had already lived thousands of lives, preached to the gods. When he realized that it was time for him to enter the world as the Buddha, he allowed himself to be miraculously conceived in Queen Māyā (see Māyā) of the Sākyas. He entered her womb in a dream as a beautiful white elephant, causing all of nature to rejoice. The child was born without pain or blood from the side of the queen as she stood in a Lumbinī grove. Upon birth, the child possessed adult qualities. He surveyed each of the four directions and then announced his possession of the world. Soon after he received the name of Siddhārtha, the Buddha's mother died of joy, her role as birthgiver duly accomplished. When Prince Siddhārtha was twelve, brahman (see Brahmans) sages revealed to his worldly father, King Suddhodana, that the boy would one day be a great ascetic. As if playing out the archetypal refusal of the call for his son, the king decided he would rather that Siddhārtha be a world monarch, and he provided him with sumptuous palaces, beautiful women, and riches. Siddhārtha was married to Yasodharā, who produced a son, Rahula. But Siddhārtha's vocation was strong, and he sensed the imperfections of the world. When he asked his charioteer to take him into the city, the King first had everything ugly or unclean removed. But, miraculously, there appeared before the young prince an old man on the verge of death. On other trips he met other people marked with signs of pain and mortality and imperfection. Finally he met an ascetic beggar who had left worldly pleasures in search of a deeper peace. In spite of the efforts of his father and the love he felt for his wife and son, Siddhārtha left his palace and city and became the ascetic monk Gautama. After a long period of wandering and fasting, he accepted milk-cooked rice from the maiden Sujātā and bathed in the river before moving to the central act of his life, the ordeal under the world tree (see Bodhi Tree) or tree of Enlightenment. There he sat down to die or to achieve total Enlightenment. At first the demon Mārā tried to tempt the Buddha away from his intention. He tempted him with lust, with power, and some say with the supposed enslavement of the wife and child he had left behind. Then Enlightenment (bodhi) came to Gautama and he became a Buddha. He understood death and rebirth and existence itself. After seven days of further meditation and four more weeks near the tree, the Buddha decided to put off his entering Nirvāna (see Nirvāna) in favor of preaching his wisdom to the world. He went first to Banāras (see Banāras) and there preached his brand of mercy and universal love. Many miracles followed. The Buddha tamed a wild elephant sent by his cousin Devadatta to undermine his work. He converted his family, including his cousin ānanda (see ānanda), who became his chief disciple. As he was dying, the Buddha reminded his followers that they must work for liberation from the impermanence of life. His funeral pyre caught fire of its own accord, and Gautama Buddha entered Nirvāna. In one popular depiction, he sits on a lotus flower between the Hindu gods Brahmā (see Brahmā) and Indra (Indra) and creates a vast number of lotuses all with himself seated in their centers.

Quotes:

"Fashion your life as a garland of beautiful deeds."

"There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills."

"The Buddhas do but tell the way; it is for you to swelter at the task."

"Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes."

"If a man who enjoys a lesser happiness beholds a greater one, let him leave aside the lesser to gain the greater."

"There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it."

See more famous quotes by Buddha

"Buddha" and "Gautama" redirect here. For other uses, see Buddha (disambiguation) and Gautama (disambiguation).

Gautama Buddha
A statue of the Buddha from Sarnath, 4th century CE.
Born	c. 563 BCE Lumbini, today in Nepal
Died	c. 483 BCE Kushinagar, today in India
Known for	Founder of Buddhism
Predecessor	Kassapa Buddha
Successor	Maitreya Buddha

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Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher in the north eastern region of the Indian subcontinent who founded Buddhism.^[1] In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Sammāsambuddha) of our age, "Buddha" meaning "awakened one." The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE; more recently, however, at a specialist symposium on this question,^[2] the majority of those scholars who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death, with others supporting earlier or later dates.^[3]

Gautama, also known as Śākyamuni or Shakyamuni ("sage of the Shakyas"), is the key figure in Buddhism, and 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 Gautama were passed down by oral tradition, and first committed to writing about 400 years later. Early Western scholarship tended to accept the biography of the Buddha presented in the Buddhist scriptures as largely historical, but currently "scholars are increasingly reluctant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life and teachings."^[4]

Contents 1 Life 1.1 Conception and birth 1.2 Early life and marriage 1.3 Departure and Ascetic Life 1.4 Enlightenment 1.5 Formation of the sangha 1.6 Travels and teaching 1.7 Death / Mahaparinirvana 2 Physical characteristics 3 Teachings 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

Life

The primary sources of information regarding Siddhārtha Gautama's life are the Buddhist texts. The Buddha and his monks spent four months each year discussing and rehearsing his teachings, and after his death his monks set about preserving them. A council was held shortly after his death, and another was held a century later. At these councils the monks attempted to establish and authenticate the extant accounts of the life and teachings of the Buddha following systematic rules. They divided the teachings into distinct but overlapping bodies of material, and assigned specific monks to preserve each one.^[5] In some cases, essential aspects of the Buddha's teaching were incorporated into stories and chants in order to preserve them accurately.^[6]

From then on, the teachings were transmitted orally. From internal evidence it seems clear that the oldest texts crystallized into their current form by the time of the second council or shortly after it. The scriptures were not written down until three or four hundred years after the Buddha's death. By this point, the monks had added or altered some material themselves, in particular magnifying the figure of the Buddha.^[7]

The ancient Indians were generally not concerned with chronologies, being far more focused on philosophy. The Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Shakyamuni may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which substantial accounts exist.^[8] According to Michael Carrithers, there are good reasons to doubt the traditional account, though the outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.^[9]

Conception and birth

Maya Devi Temple in Lumbini, Nepal.

Birth of Buddha at Lumbini. Picture of a painting in a Laotian Temple.

Siddhartha was born in Lumbini^[10] and raised in the small kingdom or principality of Kapilvastu, both of which are in modern day Nepal. At the time of the Buddha's birth, the area was at or beyond the boundary of Vedic civilization, the dominant culture of northern India at the time; it is even possible that his mother tongue was not an Indo-Aryan language.^[11] At the time, a multitude of small city-states existed in ancient India, called janapadas. Republics and chiefdoms with diffused political power and limited social stratification, were not uncommon amongst them, and were referred to as gana-sanghas.^[12] The Buddha's community does not seem to have had a caste system, and their society was not structured according to Brahminical theory. It was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic.^[13] The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the Shramana type Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.^[14]

According to the traditional biography, his father was King Suddhodana, the leader of Shakya clan, 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) and Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. On the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side^[15], and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, she gave birth on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.

The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak.^[16] Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhatta), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great holy man.^[17] This occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man.^[17] Kaundinya (Pali: Kondanna), the youngest, and later to be the first arahant, was the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.^[18]

While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Solar Dynasty of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars believe that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.

Early life and marriage

Siddhartha, destined to a luxurious life as a prince, had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) especially built for him. His father, King Śuddhodana, wishing for Siddhartha to be a great king, shielded his son from religious teachings or knowledge of human suffering. Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati.^[19]

As the boy reached the age of 16, his father arranged his marriage to Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā), a cousin of the same age. According to the traditional account, in time, she gave birth to a son, Rahula. Siddhartha spent 29 years as a Prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Siddhartha felt that material wealth was not the ultimate goal of life.^[19]

Departure and Ascetic Life

The Buddha travelled the plain of the Ganges river, where his philosophy attracted followers.

The Great Departure. Gandhara, 2nd century.

Prince Siddharta shaves his hair and become an ascetic. Borobudur, 8th century.

At the age of 29, Siddhartha left his palace in order to meet his subjects. Despite his father's effort to remove the sick, aged and suffering from the public view, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. Disturbed by this, when told that all people would eventually grow old by his charioteer Channa, the prince went on further trips where he encountered, variously, a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. Deeply depressed by these sights, he sought to overcome old age, illness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.

Siddhartha escaped his palace, accompanied by Channa aboard his horse Kanthaka, leaving behind this royal life to become a mendicant. It is said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods"^[20] to prevent guards from knowing the Bodhisatta's departure. This event is traditionally called "The Great Departure". Siddhartha initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. Having been recognised by the men of King Bimbisara, Bimbisara offered him the throne after hearing of Siddhartha's quest. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.

Siddhartha left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers. After mastering the teachings of Alara Kalama (Skr. Ārāḍa Kālāma), Siddhartha was asked by Kalama to succeed him, but moved on after being unsatisfied with his practices. He then became a student of Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Rāmaputra), but although he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness and was asked to succeed Ramaputta, he was still not satisfied with his path, and moved on.^[21]

Gandhara Buddha. 1st–2nd century CE, Tokyo National Museum.

Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya then set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through near total deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's plowing, and he had fallen into a naturally concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the jhana.

Enlightenment

Prince Siddhartha Gautama, Musée Guimet, Paris

After asceticism and concentrating on meditation and Anapana-sati (awareness of breathing in and out), Siddhartha is said to have discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way—a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. He accepted a little milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata, who wrongly believed him to be the spirit that had granted her a wish, such was his emaciated appearance. Then, sitting under a pipal tree, now known as the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, India, he vowed never to arise until he had found the Truth. Kaundinya and the other four companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After 49 days meditating, at the age of 35, he attained Enlightenment; according to some traditions, this occurred approximately in the fifth lunar month, and according to others in the twelfth. Gautama, from then on, was known as the Buddha or "Awakened One." Buddha is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One." Often, he is referred to in Buddhism as Shakyamuni Buddha or "The Awakened One of the Shakya Clan."

At this point, he is believed to have realized complete awakening and insight into the nature and cause of human suffering which was ignorance, along with steps necessary to eliminate it. This was then categorized into 'Four Noble Truths'; the state of supreme liberation—possible for any being—was called Nirvana. He then allegedly came to possess the Nine Characteristics, which are said to belong to every Buddha.

According to one of the stories in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1), a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons, immediately after his Enlightenment, the Buddha was wondering whether or not he should teach the Dharma to human beings. He was concerned that, as human beings were overpowered by greed, hatred and delusion, they would not be able to see the true dharma, which was subtle, deep and hard to understand. However, Brahmā Sahampati, interceded and asked that he teach the dharma to the world, as "there will be those who will understand the Dharma". With his great compassion to all beings in the universe, the Buddha agreed to become a teacher.

Formation of the sangha

Painting of the first sermon depicted at Wat Chedi Liem in Thailand.

After becoming enlightened, two merchants whom the Buddha met, named Tapussa and Bhallika became the first lay disciples. They are given some hairs from the Buddha's head, which are believed to now be enshrined in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Buddha intended to visit Asita, and his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta to explain his findings, but they had already died.

The Buddha thus journeyed to Deer Park near Vārāṇasī (Benares) in northern India, he set in motion the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the group of five companions with whom he had previously sought enlightenment. They, together with the Buddha, formed the first saṅgha, the company of Buddhist monks, and hence, the first formation of Triple Gem (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) was completed, with Kaundinya becoming the first stream-enterer. All five soon become arahants, and with the conversion of Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of arahants swelled to 60 within the first two months. The conversion of the three Kassapa brothers and their 200, 300 and 500 disciples swelled the sangha over 1000, and they were dispatched to explain the dharma to the populace.

It is unknown what the Buddha's mother tongue was, and no conclusive documentation has been made at this point. It is likely that he preached and his teachings were originally preserved in a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.

Travels and teaching

Buddha with his protector Vajrapani, Gandhara, 2nd century CE, Ostasiatische Kunst Museum

For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching his doctrine and discipline to an extremely diverse range of people— from nobles to outcaste street sweepers, mass murderers such as Angulimala and cannibals such as Alavaka. This extended to 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 Parinirvāna (Pāli: Parinibbāna) or "complete Nirvāna", and made thousands of converts. His religion was open to all races and classes and had no caste structure. He was also subject to attack from opposition religious groups, including attempted murders and framings.

A Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) Chinese silk landscape painting depicting the young Sakyamuni shaving his head. This is one of the earliest visual presentations of the Gautama Buddha in the history of painting

The sangha travelled from place to place in India, expounding the dharma. This occurred throughout the year, except during the four months of the vassana rainy season. Due to the heavy amount of flooding, travelling was difficult, and ascetics of all religions in that time did not travel, since it was more difficult to do so without stepping on submerged animal life, unwittingly killing them. During this period, the sangha would retreat to a monastery, public park or a forest and people would come to them.

The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was first formed. After this, he travelled to Rajagaha, the capital of Magadha to visit King Bimbisara, in accordance with his promise after enlightenment. It was during this visit that Sariputta and Mahamoggallana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples; they were to become the Buddha's two foremost disciples. The Buddha then spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, the capital of Magadha. The monastery, which was of a moderate distance from the city centre was donated by Bimbisara.

Upon hearing of the enlightenment, Suddhodana dispatched royal delegations to ask the Buddha to return to Kapilavastu. Nine delegations were sent in all, but the delegates joined the sangha and became arahants. Neglecting worldly matters, they did not convey their message. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend, resulted in the message being successfully conveyed as well as becoming an arahant. Since it was not the vassana, the Buddha agreed, and two years after his enlightenment, took a two month journey to Kapilavastu by foot, preaching the dharma along the way. Upon his return, the royal palace had prepared the midday meal, but since no specific invitation had come, the sangha went for an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana hastened to approach the Buddha, stating "Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms", to which the Buddha 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

Suddhodana invited the sangha back to the royal palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk, after which he became a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. His cousins Ananda and Anuruddha were to become two of his five chief disciples. His son Rahula also joined the sangha at the age of seven, and was one of the ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined the sangha and became an arahant. Another cousin Devadatta also became a monk although he later became an enemy and tried to kill the Buddha on multiple occasions.

Of his disciples, Sariputta, Mahamoggallana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha comprised the five chief disciples. His ten foremost disciples were completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.

In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali. Hearing of the impending death of Suddhodana, the Buddha went to his father and preached the dharma, and Suddhodana became an arahant prior to death. The death and cremation led to the creation of the order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that he was reluctant to ordain women as nuns. His foster mother Maha Pajapati approached him asking to join the sangha, but the Buddha refused, and began the journey from Kapilavastu back to Rajagaha. Maha Pajapati was so intent on renouncing the world that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, following the sangha to Rajagaha. The Buddha eventually accepted them five years after the formation of the Sangha on the grounds that their capacity for enlightenment was equal to that of men, but he gave them certain additional rules (Vinaya) to follow. This occurred after Ananda interceded on their behalf. Yasodhara also became a nun, with both becoming arahants.

Devadatta tries to attack the Buddha. Picture of a wallpainting in a Laotian monastery.

During his ministry, Devadatta (who was not an arahant) frequently tried to undermine the Buddha. At one point Devadatta asked the Buddha to stand aside to let him lead the sangha. The Buddha declined, and stated that Devadatta's actions did not reflect on the Triple Gem, but on him alone. Devadatta conspired with Prince Ajatasattu, son of Bimbisara, so that they would kill and usurp the Buddha and Bimbisara respectively. Devadatta attempted three times to kill the Buddha. The first attempt involved the hiring of a group of archers, whom upon meeting the Buddha became disciples. A second attempt followed when Devadatta attempted to roll a large boulder down a hill. It hit another rock and splintered, only grazing the Buddha in the foot. A final attempt by plying an elephant with alcohol and setting it loose again failed. Failing this, Devadatta attempted to cause a schism in the sangha, by proposing extra restrictions on the vinaya. When the Buddha declined, Devadatta started a breakaway order, criticising the Buddha's laxity. At first, he managed to convert some of the bhikkhus, but Sariputta and Mahamoggallana expounded the dharma to them and succeeded in winning them back.

When the Buddha reached the age of 55, he made Ananda his chief attendant.

Death / Mahaparinirvana

An artist`s portrayal of Buddha's entry into Parinirvana.

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 abandoning the 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.^[22] Mettanando and von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning.^[23] The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms; the Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom.

The sharing of the relics of the Buddha, Zenyōmitsu-Temple Museum, Tokyo

Buddha relics from Kanishka's stupa in Peshawar, Pakistan, now in Mandalay, Burma. Teresa Merrigan, 2005

The Mahayana Vimalakirti Sutra claims, in Chapter 3, that the Buddha doesn't really become ill or old but purposely presents such an appearance only to teach those born into samsara about the impermanence and pain of defiled worlds and to encourage them to strive for Nirvana.

"Reverend Ánanda, the Tathágatas have the body of the Dharma—not a body that is sustained by material food. The Tathágatas have a transcendental body that has transcended all mundane qualities. There is no injury to the body of a Tathágata, as it is rid of all defilements. The body of a Tathágata is uncompounded and free of all formative activity. Reverend Ánanda, to believe there can be illness in such a body is irrational and unseemly!' Nevertheless, since the Buddha has appeared during the time of the five corruptions, he disciplines living beings by acting lowly and humble."[14]

Ananda protested Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kuśināra (present-day Kushinagar, India) of the Malla kingdom. Buddha, however, reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:

44. Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds—the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of "Eat, drink, and be merry!"

Buddha then asked all the attendant Bhikshus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. He then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddha's final words were, "All composite things pass away. Strive for your own liberation with diligence." 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. For example, The Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.

According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa, the coronation of Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of Buddha. According to one Mahayana record in Chinese (十八部論 and 部執異論), the coronation of Aśoka is 116 years after the death of Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is 544 or 543 BCE, because the reign of Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates.

At his death, the Buddha told his disciples to follow no leader, but to follow his teachings (dharma). However, at the First Buddhist Council, Mahakasyapa was held by the sangha as their leader, with the two chief disciples Mahamoggallana and Sariputta having died before the Buddha.

Physical characteristics

Main article: Physical characteristics of the Buddha

Buddha is perhaps one of the few sages for whom we have mention of his rather impressive physical characteristics. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".

The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive."(D,I:115).

"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A,I:181)

A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an Arahant, was so obsessed by Buddha's physical presence that Buddha had to tell him to stop and reminded Vakkali to know Buddha through the Dhamma and not physical appearances.

Although the Buddha was not represented in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), the physical characteristics of fully-enlightened Buddhas are described by the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D,I:142).^[24] In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").^[25]

Many Westerners associate the name "Buddha" with figurine depictions of a certain fat, bald, smiling person. This is inaccurate, as the person in these figurines is not Buddha at all, but Budai, a Chinese Buddhist monk who lived in the 10th century CE.

Teachings

Main article: Buddhist philosophy

Seated Buddha, Gandhara, 2nd century CE.

Some scholars believe that some portions of the Pali Canon and the Agamas could contain the actual substance of the historical teachings (and possibly even the words) of the Buddha.^[26][27] This is not the case for the later Mahayana sutras.^[28] The scriptural works of Early Buddhism precede the Mahayana works chronologically, and are treated by many Western scholars as the main credible source for information regarding the actual historical teachings of Gautama 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.
• Dependent origination: that any phenomenon 'exists' only because of the ‘existence’ of other phenomena in a complex web of cause and effect covering time past, present and future. Because all things are thus conditioned and transient (anicca), they have no real independent identity (anatta).
• Rejection of the infallibility of accepted scripture: Teachings should not be accepted unless they are borne out by our experience and are praised by the wise. See the Kalama Sutta for details.
• Anicca (Sanskrit: anitya): That all things are impermanent.
• Dukkha (Sanskrit: duḥkha): That all beings suffer from all situations due to unclear mind.
• Anatta (Sanskrit: anātman): That the perception of a constant "self" is an illusion.

However, in some Mahayana schools, these points have come to be regarded as more or less subsidiary. There is some disagreement amongst various schools of Buddhism over more esoteric aspects of Buddha's teachings, and also over some of the disciplinary rules for monks.

According to tradition, the Buddha emphasized ethics and correct understanding. He questioned the average person's notions of divinity and salvation. He stated that there is no intermediary between mankind and the divine; distant gods are subjected to karma themselves in decaying heavens; and the Buddha is solely a guide and teacher for the sentient beings who must tread the path of Nirvāṇa (Pāli: Nibbāna) themselves to attain the spiritual awakening called bodhi and see truth and reality as it is. The Buddhist system of insight and meditation practice is not believed to have been revealed divinely, but by the understanding of the true nature of the mind, which must be discovered by personally treading a spiritual path guided by the Buddha's teachings.

See also

• Iconography of the Buddha
• Buddha as an Avatar of Vishnu
• Buddha as viewed in other religions
• Buddhahood
• List of the 28 Buddhas
• Maitreya Buddha (Future Buddha)
• History of Buddhism
• The Light of Asia

References

1. ^ The Buddha
2. ^ L. S. Cousins (1996), "The dating of the historical Buddha: a review article", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (3)6(1): 57–63.
3. ^ "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." Paul Dundas, The Jains, 2nd edition, (Routledge, 2001), p. 24.
4. ^ Lopez (1995). Buddhism in Practice. Princeton University Press. pp. 16. 
5. ^ Michael Carrithers, The Buddha, 1983, pages 13, 14. Found in Founders of Faith, Oxford University Press, 1986.
6. ^ Sue Hamilton, Identity and Experience. LUZAC Oriental, 1996, pages 110-111.
7. ^ Michael Carrithers, The Buddha, 1983, pages 13, 14. Found in Founders of Faith, Oxford University Press, 1986.
8. ^ Carrithers, page 15.
9. ^ Carrithers, page 10.
10. ^ http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhistworld/lumbini.htm
11. ^ Richard Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988, page 49.
12. ^ Romila Thapar, The Penguin History of Early India: From Origins to AD 1300. Penguin Books, 2002, page 137.
13. ^ Richard Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988, pages 49-50.
14. ^ Romila Thapar, The Penguin History of Early India: From Origins to AD 1300. Penguin Books, 2002, page 146.
15. ^ http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/lob/lob04.htm
16. ^ Turpie, D. 2001. Wesak And The Re-Creation of Buddhist Tradition. Master's Thesis. Montreal, Quebec: McGill University. (p. 3). Available from: http://www.mrsp.mcgill.ca/reports/pdfs/Wesak.pdf. Accessed 17 November 2006.
17. ^ ^{a b} Narada (1992). A Manual of Buddhism. Buddha Educational Foundation. p. 9–12. ISBN 967-9920-58-5. 
18. ^ Narada (1992), p11-12
19. ^ ^{a b} Narada (1992), p14
20. ^ Narada (1992), pp15-16
21. ^ Narada (1992), pp19-20
22. ^ Maha-parinibbana Sutta (DN 16), verse 56
23. ^ Mettanando Bhikkhu and Oskar von Hinueber, "The Cause of the Buddha's Death"; Vol. XXVI of the Journal of the Pali Text Society, 2000. See also this article by Mettanando saying the same thing: [1].
24. ^ Maurice Walshe, The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya, 1995, Boston: Wisdom Publications, "[DN] 30: Lakkhaṇa Sutta: The Marks of a Great Man," pp. 441-60.
25. ^ Ven. Elgiriye Indaratana Maha Thera, Vandana: The Album of Pali Devotional Chanting and Hymns, 2002, pp. 49-52, retrieved 2007-11-08 from "BuddhaNet" at http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/vandana02.pdf.
26. ^ It is therefore possible that much of what is found in the Suttapitaka is earlier than c.250 B.C., perhaps even more than 100 years older than this. If some of the material is so old, it might be possible to establish what texts go back to the very beginning of Buddhism, texts which perhaps include the substance of the Buddha’s teaching, and in some cases, maybe even his words. How old is the Suttapitaka? Alexander Wynne, St John’s College, 2003, p.22 (this article is available on the website of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies: [www.ocbs.org/research/Wynne.pdf]
27. ^ It would be hypocritical to assert that nothing can be said about the doctrine of earliest Buddhism ... the basic ideas of Buddhism found in the canonical writings could very well have been proclaimed by him [the Buddha], transmitted and developed by his disciples and, finally, codified in fixed formulas. J.W. De Jong, 1993: The Beginnings of Buddhism, in The Eastern Buddhist, vol. 26, no. 2, p. 25
28. ^ The Mahayana movement claims to have been founded by the Buddha himself. The consensus of the evidence, however, is that it originated in South India in the 1st century CE–Indian Buddhism, AK Warder, 3rd edition, 1999, p. 335.

Further reading

• Armstrong, Karen. Buddha. (New York: Penguin Books, 2001).
• Bechert, Heinz (ed.) (1996) When Did the Buddha Live? The Controversy on the Dating of the Historical Buddha. Delhi: Sri Satguru.
• Sathe, Shriram: Dates of the Buddha. Bharatiya Itihasa Sankalana Samiti, Hyderabad 1987.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gautama Buddha

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• A sketch of the Buddha's Life
• Critical Resources: Buddha and Buddhism
• What Was The Buddha Like? by Ven S. Dhammika

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Persondata
NAME	Gautama Buddha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Siddhārtha Gautama (birth name); Siddhattha Gotama (Pali); Śākya-muni (honorific); Sakyamuni (honorific); Tathāgata (honorific)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Founder of Buddhism
DATE OF BIRTH	c. 563 BCE
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lumbini, Nepal
DATE OF DEATH	c. 483 BCE
PLACE OF DEATH	Kusinagara, India

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - Buddha

Nederlands (Dutch)
boeddha

Français (French)
n. - Bouddha

Deutsch (German)
n. - Buddha, (Titel der Buddhismuslehrer), (Titel des Buddhismusgründer, Gautama)

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - Βούδας

Italiano (Italian)
Buddha

Português (Portuguese)
n. - Buda (m)

Русский (Russian)
Будда

Español (Spanish)
n. - Buda

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - Buddha

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
佛陀, 佛像, 佛

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 佛陀, 佛像, 佛

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 부처

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 釈迦, 仏陀, 仏像

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) البوذا, لقب مؤسس البوذيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮תואר שניתן למורי הבודהיזם, בייחוד למייסד הדת גאוטאמא, בודהא‬

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