How did Siddhartha Gautama become Buddha?

Answer 1

In the year 534 BCE, a young Indian prince named Siddhartha Gautama (age 29) was deeply troubled about the fact that so many people suffer. So he left his wife and child and renounced his throne to find out the answer to why there was suffering. Now it should be noted when Buddhists speak of suffering this includes dissatisfaction (unhappiness) with the way things are. Siddhartha went to study with various gurus to try to find the answer to his question. Theses gurus had him do various types of yoga and meditation to try to help him with his quest. None of them seem to have an answer to his question though.

Siddhartha left these various gurus and joined in with a group of ascetics. Asceticism is a path in which you deprive the body in order to conquer and control the mind. He practiced asceticism fiercely, almost to the point of death. At that point he realized that giving in to pleasure, as he did when he was a prince, nor trying to punish the body, was the proper path to finding the answer. So he sat down and meditated under a pi-pal tree. During this meditation he discovered the root of all suffering and the path to how to overcome suffering and became enlightened.

After his enlightenment he meets up with his ascetic friends, who by now were critical of him for leaving the path of asceticism. But he explains to them what he had discovered and they were instantly converted. From there The Buddha taught for 45 years until his death at 85 converting many to his teachings and now Buddhism is the 4th largest religion in the world.

Answer 2

Buddha means the Fully Enlightened One. He became the Buddha through the realisation of the intrinsic / true nature of all things in the universe, including existence / mind & body / life.

The historical Buddha was born in the Himalayas (Nepal, year 623 BC), as Prince Siddhartha of the Sakya Kingdom. The natives of ancient Nepal were the Kirat people / Kiratis (better known today as the Gurkhas), comprising of Tamang, Gurung, Sherpa, Rai etc.

At age 29 years old, Prince Siddhartha left Nepal in search of a way to end rebirth, old age, disease and death. After 6 years of spiritual pursuit, at age 35 years old, he realised the Four Noble Truths:

1) Life is Dukkha (i.e. worldly existence is insatisfactory as all conditioned things are subjected to change, including self, heavenly existence and even the sun)

2) Cause of Dukkha (due to ignorance of point 1, which leads to craving, grasping and therefore, endless rebirth)

3) End of Dukkha (by getting rid of ignorance and therefore, grasping)

4) Way to end of Dukkha (The Noble Eightfold Path which leads to Enlightenment and therefore, Nibbana)

Nibbana is the ending of rebirth (and therefore, decay and death) and state of Highest Happiness. The Buddha describes Nibbana as Beyond the Worldly (beyond space-time continuum), Unique, Not Existence Nor Extinction, Freedom and Peace.

Answer 3

Here's the whole story of how he became the Buddha. One night, while Siddhartha's mother, Queen Maya, was pregnant with Siddhartha, she had a dream. (sorry, I don't know what the dream was, you'll have to search elsewhere for that info.) Queen Maya went to ask the holy men what her dream meant. They said that it meant her son-to-be-born, Siddhartha, could become the ruler of the universe if he stayed in the royal life, but if he left the royal life, he would become the Buddha. Siddhartha's father wanted him to become the ruler of the world, so he gave Siddhartha the best of everything. The best education, food, clothes, anything. When Siddhartha was 16 (I think that's the right age.) he got married, and at age 29 (I'm pretty sure that's the right age. Sorry about this, but I am 98% sure that I have the ages right.) he had a son. During all this time, Siddhartha hadn't been outside the palace walls, and when he was married and had a son, Siddhartha's father decided that he was now too attached to the royal life to leave, so he let him outside the palace walls. On three of his trips outside the palace, Siddhartha saw three kinds of suffering. On the first trip he saw an old man. On the second trip, he saw a sick man, and on the third trip he saw a dead man. Then, on his fourth trip he saw an ascetic. (which is a very peaceful person.) Siddhartha was impressed with how peaceful the ascetic was, so he decided to become an ascetic, too. Siddhartha gave up all his riches, all his fancy clothes, all his good food, and he shaved his head. He fasted for a very long time, and did everything the asectics did, but he never reached enlightenment, or nirvana, (which is the extreme state of happiness and peace.) and he realized that he was not happy being an ascetic, so he decided to take the middle path. Which was the cross between being an extremely poor asctic, and being a rich prince. (kind of like out middle class today.) Then Siddhartha went to meditate under the Buddhi tree, and he meditated for forty days without food, and while he was meditating, he reached nirvana and he became the Buddha. So, that's how he became the Buddha, and I'm sorry if I forgot some detail, but I did get the major parts. It's been a while since I studied Buddhism. Well, I hope that my answer was satisfying.

Answer 4

He tried out all lives. He tried to became really rich and got anything he wanted and still suffered. Then he gave up everything and became a poor man but he still wasnt happy. Then he chose the middle path which is not too poor and not too rich. He sat on the Bohdi tree afetr experienceing all three and then was enlightned cause he foudn out what stops suffering. The middle path.

Answer 5

The Founder of Buddhism was the historical Buddha (which means the Fully Enlightened One), born in Nepal (year 623 B.C.) as Prince Siddhartha of the Sakya Kingdom. The natives of ancient Nepal were the Kirat people (Tamang, Sherpa, Rai, Gurung etc.), better known as the Gurkhas today.

Prince Siddhartha left Nepal (in the Himalayan mountain range) at the age of 29 years old, crossed over to ancient India and eventually gained Enlightenment (Bodhi) at the age of 35 years old, at a place subsequently named as Bodhi Gaya. He became the Buddha.

The key teachings of the Buddha, encapsulated in the Four Noble Truths, are:

1. Living a simple life of love, non-violence and compassion will result in a person getting reborn in heaven, or in good circumstances as a human being. The former is consistent with Christ's Teachings. For the latter, clinical cases of human rebirth have been extensively researched and published by Dr. Ian Stevenson, MD and university Professor.

2. Practising meditation / yoga / Zen together with point 1, will bring about spiritual happiness here and hereafter. This is consistent with Laozi's Teachings.

3. Practising points 1 and 2, together with the initial knowledge of the intrinsic nature of all worldly things (impermanence, insubstantiality and insatisfactoriness) will lead to the end of rebirth, and go beyond heavenly existence. This is termed as Nibbana (Nirvana), which the Buddha has described to us as Highest Happiness, Freedom, Unique and Beyond Space-Time Continuum. Nibbana is not existence nor extinction.

4. The precise method for point 3 is known as the Noble Eight-fold Path.

At the age of 80 years old, the historical Buddha entered into Final Nibbana (Parinibbana). 500 years later (year 57 A.D.), the Buddha appeared in a dream to the Han Emperor Mingdi, which prompted the Emperor to ask his Court the next day about 'a golden man with light shining from his neck'. This account is recorded in China's historical archives. One of the official said he had heard of a holy man in the western region, who had find immortality and whose skin was golden. Subsequently, Han Mingdi sent an expedition to found out more. This marked the spread of Buddha's Teachings from the western region (Himalayas), and also India, into the central plains of ancient China.

2600 years later, Albert Einstein said:

"There is a third stage of religious experience…the individual feels the futility of human desires…beginnings of cosmic religious feeling already appear at an early stage of development, e.g., in many of the Psalms of David and in some of the Prophets. Buddhism…contains a much stronger element of this."

Robert Oppenheimer said:

"If we ask, for instance, whether the position of the electron remains the same, we must say 'no'. If we ask whether the electron's position changes with time, we must say 'no'. If we ask whether it is in motion, we must say 'no'. The Buddha has also given such answers when asked (about Parinibbana)."

Niels Bohr said:

"For a parallel to the lesson of atomic theory...(we must turn) to those kinds of epistemological problems with which already thinkers like the Buddha and Laozi have been confronted, when trying to harmonize our position as spectators and actors in the great drama of existence."

The Buddha was born into the royal family.

He was married for 16 years when he realised he had to face the real world.

He went outside the palace gates and saw

A DEAD MAN A SICK MAN A HOLY MAN AN OLD MAN

Answer 6

Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, was born in Northern India (now Nepal) about 563 BCE to King Suddhodana and his wife Queen Maha Maya, so he was born a Prince. His mother died shortly after childbirth. The hermit seer Asita told his father, the King, that his son would either grow up to be a great ruler or a great holy man. The King didn't want his son to be a Holy man so he made it that the prince was only surrounded by luxury and beauty and hid from him sickness, old age and death. At 16 Siddhartha married his cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā. They had a child named Rāhula which means fetter (think ball and chain).

At the age of 29, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen what the real world for the first time and was deeply troubled about the fact that so many people suffer. So he left his wife and child and renounced his throne to find out the answer to why there was suffering. Now it should be noted when Buddhists speak of suffering this includes dissatisfaction (unhappiness) with the way things are. Siddhartha went to study with various gurus to try to find the answer to his question. Theses gurus had him do various types of yoga and meditation to try to help him with his quest. None of them seem to have an answer to his question though.

Siddhartha left these various gurus and joined in with a group of ascetics. Asceticism is a path in which you deprive the body in order to conquer and control the mind. He practiced asceticism fiercely, almost to the point of death. At that point he realized that neither giving in to pleasure, as he did when he was a prince, nor trying to punish the body, was the proper path to finding the answer. So he sat down and meditated under a pi-pal tree. During this meditation he discovered the root of all suffering and the path to how to overcome suffering and became enlightened.

After his enlightenment he meets up with his ascetic friends, who by now were critical of him for leaving the path of asceticism. But he explains to them what he had discovered and they were instantly converted. From there The Buddha taught for 45 years until his death at 85 converting many to his teachings and now Buddhism is the 4th largest religion in the world.

Answer 7

Perhaps in order to bring about a permanent end to suffering through an understanding of the true nature of phenomena.