Buddha (c. 563–483 BCE) is the title given to Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual leader who founded Buddhism, one of the world’s great religions. The word Buddha means "the enlightened one" or "the awakened one." Buddha lived and taught in northern India. After his death, his followers spread the Buddhist faith to many parts of southern and eastern Asia and beyond.
Early Life
Most scholars believe Siddhartha Gautama lived from 563 to 483 BCE, but some claim he lived about a century later. He was born near the village of Lumbini in the foothills of the Himalaya mountains, on the border between India and Nepal. Siddhartha’s father, Suddhodhana, was the local ruler and a Hindu prince of the Sakya clan. His mother, Maya, died soon after her son’s birth, and so Siddhartha was brought up by his aunt.
Suddhodhana was a caring father, anxious about protecting his son from pain and hardship. The young prince grew up in the luxury of his father’s palace. At the age of twenty, he married a local princess, Yasodhara. Soon the young couple had a baby son.
Siddhartha’s Search for Truth
Having spent his whole life inside the palace, Siddhartha knew nothing of the poverty and sufferings of ordinary people. At the age of twenty-nine, however, he persuaded his charioteer to drive him beyond the palace walls. In the outside world Siddhartha met with suffering for the first time. He saw an old man bent double over his walking stick, a sick man suffering from a horrible disease, and a corpse being carried along in a funeral procession. Finally he saw a wandering holy man with yellow robes and a shaved head.
The suffering he saw filled the prince with horror and pity. He felt he could not continue with his former life but must set out on a quest to understand the reason for suffering in the world. One night he left the palace in secret, abandoning his wife and son. He cut off his long black hair, gave away his fine robes and jewelry, and set out with just a bowl so he could beg enough food to survive.
Siddhartha spent the next six years in the forests of northern India, learning from the Hindu teachers of his day. He lived a life of harsh self-denial, eating just one grain of rice a day, until his body grew very thin. Still he was no nearer to finding the answer to his quest. At last he decided to abandon the life of extreme self-discipline and take a middle course between luxury and denial. He continued his journey.
Understanding
Around 528 BCE Siddhartha’s wanderings led him to the village of Bodh Gaya, near Bihar in northern India. There he resolved to sit in silent meditation under an ancient fig tree until he reached the understanding he sought. He sat cross-legged through the night. As dawn broke, he finally understood that suffering is caused by a person’s own greedy desires and ignorance. Through this understanding he achieved nirvana, a state of peace and mental freedom. From then on, he was known as the Buddha, or Enlightened One.
Teachings
Soon after his enlightenment, Buddha began teaching. He gave his first sermon to five holy men at the deer park at Sarnath, near the city of Varanasi. The holy men became his first followers. Buddha’s teaching, called the dharma, involves four principles, or Noble Truths. The first truth is that all life involves suffering; the second, that the cause of suffering is ignorance and attachment to worldly things; the third truth is that suffering will end when a person reaches the state of nirvana (blissful peace), which is beyond desire and selfishness; and the fourth, that nirvana can be achieved by living life in the correct way, according to a set of rules called the Noble Eightfold Path.
