Life of Buddha

"Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, 
at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful." - Buddha

Prince Siddhartha Gautama was born around 563 B.C.E. in the small town of Lumbini what is now the south of Nepal. His father was the king, or the head, of the clan ‘the Shakyas’. His name was Shuddodana Gautama, and his wife was named Mahamaya.

Nine months before the birth of Siddhartha, his mother had a dream: an elephant with six tusks, carrying a lotus flower in its trunk, touched her right side.

When the time came near for queen Mahamaya, it was a custom to go to her father’s home to prepare for the birth. The queen stopped to rest, or stopped because the birth came. Her handmaidens assisted her, when Siddhartha was born when she leant against a Sal tree. Siddhartha means ‘he whose aim is accomplished’.

The legend says that without any help, the infant walked seven steps, each of the four directions of the compass. In his footprints lotus flowers sprouted from the earth.

Some of the stories say that he spoke right after his birth, he would have said ‘No further births have I to endure, for this is my last body. Now shall I destroy and pluck out by the roots the sorrow that is caused by birth and death’

Seven days after the birth, the queen Maya died. Hence Mahaprajapati, Maya’s sister, looked after Siddhartha.

When Siddhartha was still very young, king Shuddodana consulted the Brahims, learned men, concerning the future of his son. They said that he could become either the greatest king in the world, or he could become a great sage and savior of humanity. The king was concerned about his future, and he encouraged his son to become a king from the day he was born. He made sure that Siddhartha would never see any poor or any kind of suffering in the outside world. He lived in the palaces, surrounded with all kind of pleasures. When he left the palaces, the king’s guard went ahead to clear the streets of anything unpleasant.

When Siddhartha was sixteen, he married to his wife Yasodhara, who was also sixteen. When he was 29, they got a son, Rahula. Shortly after his son birth, he asked his charioteer, Chandara, to take him for a ride without the consent of the king. This was the first time he ‘escaped’ from the palace. Some sources say he took four journeys or he had four visions on one journey. On his journey or on his four journeys/visions, he saw the following situations; a decrepit old man, a diseased person, a dead body and a religious mendicant, who led a life of mediation and looked calm and peaceful. After seeing the first three sights, he asked Chandara to explain what he saw. He said that old, sickness and eventually death would come to all people. The first three sights proved him the 'inescapable nature of life' and the ‘illness’ of humanity. But the fourth side proved him that you can overcome the ills of life, that you can be happy, calm and peaceful, without having any luxury. The four situations he saw helped him to follow the path of the mendicant and to find a spiritual solution for the human suffering.

He left his wife, child and luxuries life in order to seek the truth and eternal peace. He asked Chandara to ride him out the city. He cut off his hair and put on the robe of a holy man. He asked Chandara to bring all his old belongings back to his father. This period is called ‘the Great Renunciation’.

Siddhartha wandered through northeastern India, seeking out holy men. They taught him old Indian techniques of meditation.

He wanted to know why people suffered and how this suffering could end. He studied the teachings of Hinduism, the most important religion in India in that time. One of the beliefs of Hinduism is Samsara, or reincarnation. Reincarnation is a belief that after the death, the soul transmits into a new body, and is born again.

He started practicing for a while with two men in the forest, but he found their practices lack. After that he spent six years practicing of extreme self-denial and he meditate constantly with a group of five ascetics. He ate and drank only enough to stay alive, but he became physically very weak. This period is called ‘the Great Retirement’.

These practices didn’t give Siddhartha an answer to his questions. He realized that all these years had only weakened his body. He decided that it was better to lead a middle life, and started eating again. The ascetics, who had became his pupils, left him.

Siddhartha sat down under a fig tree, known to Buddhists as the bodhi tree; ‘the Tree of Enlightenment’. He resolved that he would stay under the tree until he had found the answer he had sought for so long. He entered a state of deep meditation, and he recalled all his previous rebirths. Some legends say that Mara, the evil one, tried to prevent his enlightenment, and tried to tempt him with pleasures. But Siddhartha didn’t listen to him. When he saw all his previous lives, he realized that people were never happy with what they have, but that they always want more. Siddhartha sat down under the bodhi tree for many days, and when he finally realized everything, he became enlighten.

This was the beginning of Buddhism, from that moment Siddhartha became Buddha, the ‘enlightened one’. Buddha experienced the nirvana while he was sitting under the tree. Nirvana is for Buddhists the ultimate goal, it literally means extinguishing or unbinding. It means that you get freedom from whatever binds you, desire, jealousy, ignorance. If you have overcome these, there is no longer a need for samsara, the cycle of birth and death.

Buddha was 35 years old when he reached the nirvana. He decided to stay at the world to teach others how to reach the nirvana. He taught people for forty-five years, throughout north-east India. The five ascetics, who first left him, became his first disciples. He taught many people, with help from gifts from others, for example monasteries, what made it easier to teach. Also his family, his father, son, wife and aunt became followers. His son became a monk. Buddha’s wife and aunt had to ask permission to join the Sangha. In that time women were far below the men, and the sangha was only for men. But the Buddha permitted his wife and aunt to become the first Buddhist nuns.

It is impossible to describe the life from Buddha exactly; there are different sources who tell different aspects of his life. The first biography was not recorded until 500 years after Buddha’s dead. The first time the people who knew and saw Buddha told their stories to others, and so it became a tradition to pass the story. There is no way to know for sure how everything exactly happened, and what the words of Buddha were. The life story of Buddha contains myths and legends, which probably came up after he died. By the time they were written down, Buddhism was also split in different ways. But if the stories are all true or if there are some myths in it, it is still an inspirational story, for Buddhists and for others.