The Story of the Buddha and the Roots of Buddhism

The Story of The Buddha and the Roots of Buddhism Born in Nepal in the 6th (500’s) century B.C., Buddha was a spiritual leader and teacher whose life serves as the foundation of the Buddhist religion. A man named Siddhartha Gautama and he had achieved full awareness -- would one day become known as Buddha. thereby becoming Buddha. Buddha means "enlightened one" or "the awakened.” Siddhartha lived in Nepal during Early Years of His Life the 6th to 4th century B.C. While scholars The Buddha, or "enlightened one," was agree that he did in fact live, the events of his born Siddhartha (which means "he who life are still debated. According to the most achieves his aim") Gautama to a large clan widely known story of his life, after called the Shakyas in Lumbini in modern day experimenting with different teachings for Nepal in the 500’s B.C. His father was king years, and finding none of them acceptable, who ruled the tribe, known to be economically Gautama spent a fateful night in deep poor and on the outskirts geographically. His meditation. During his meditation, all of the mother died seven days after giving birth to answers he had been seeking became clear him, but a holy man prophesized great things explained that the ascetic had renounced the for the young Siddhartha: He would either be world to seek release from the human fear of a great king or military leader or he would be death and suffering. Siddhartha was a great spiritual leader. overcome by these sights, and the next day, To keep his son from witnessing the at age 29, he left his kingdom, wife and son miseries and suffering of the world, to lead an ascetic life, and determine a way Siddhartha's father raised him in extreme to relieve the universal suffering that he now luxury in a palace built just for the boy and understood to be one of the defining traits of sheltered him from knowledge of religion and humanity. human hardship. According to custom, he married at the age of 16, but his life of total Ascetic Definition: characterized by or seclusion continued for another 13 years. suggesting the practice of severe self-discipline and staying away from all forms of worldly pleasure, typically for religious Beyond the Palace Walls reasons. The prince reached his late 20s with little experience of the world outside the walls The Ascetic Life and of his incredibly expensive palaces, but one day he ventured out beyond the palace walls Enlightenment and was quickly confronted with the realities For the next six years, Siddhartha lived of human suffering. an ascetic life and partook in its practices, He saw a very old man, and studying and meditating using the words of Siddhartha's charioteer explained that all various religious teachers as his guide. He people grow old. Questions about all he had practiced his new way of life with a group of not experienced led him to take more five ascetics, and his dedication to his quest journeys of exploration, and on these trips he was so stunning that the five ascetics encountered a diseased man, a decaying became Siddhartha's followers. When corpse and an ascetic. The charioteer answers to his questions did not appear he tried even harder, enduring pain, fasting He remained there for several days, purifying nearly to starvation, and refusing water. his mind, seeing his entire life, and previous Whatever he tried, Siddhartha could lives, in his thoughts. During this time, he had not reach the level of satisfaction he sought, to overcome the threats of Mara, an evil until one day when a young girl offered him a demon, who challenged his right to become bowl of rice. As he accepted it, he suddenly the Buddha. When Mara attempted to claim realized that denying the pleasures of the the enlightened state as his own, Siddhartha world was not the means to achieve inner touched his hand to the ground and asked enlightenment, and that living under harsh the Earth to bear witness to his physical constraints was not helping him enlightenment, which it did, banishing Mara achieve spiritual release. So he had his rice, the demon. And soon a picture began to form drank water and bathed in the river. The five in his mind of all that occurred in the ascetics decided that Siddhartha had given universe, and Siddhartha finally saw the up the ascetic life and would now follow the answer to the questions of suffering that he ways of the flesh, and they promptly left him. had been seeking for so many years. From then on, however, Siddhartha In that moment of pure encouraged people to follow a path of enlightenment, Siddhartha balance instead of one characterized by Gautama became the Buddha extremism. He called this path the ("he who is awake"). Middle Way. Armed with his new knowledge, the Buddha was initially hesitant to teach, The Buddha Emerges because what he now knew could not be communicated to others in words. According That night, Siddhartha sat under the Bodhi tree, vowing to not get up until the truths he sought came to him, and he meditated until the sun came up the next day. to legend, it was then the king of gods, Brahma, who convinced Buddha to teach, and he got up from his spot under the Bodhi tree and set out to do just that. About 100 miles away, he came across the five ascetics he had practiced with for so long, who had abandoned him on the eve of his enlightenment. To them and others who had gathered, he preached his first sermon (henceforth known as Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma), in which he explained the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, which became the pillars of Buddhism. The ascetics then became his first disciples and formed the foundation of the Sangha, or community of monks. Women were admitted to the Sangha, and all barriers of class, race, sex and previous background were ignored, with only the desire to reach enlightenment through the banishment of suffering and spiritual emptiness considered. .

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