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The Buddha:

Traditional accounts

Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563-483 BC) was born in the ancient kingdom of

Modern Nepal. His father, Suddhodana, was king of the Sakya clan. His

mother was named Maya.

In common with many other great religious leaders, many miraculous stories

were associated with his birth. He emerged from his mother's side without

causing her any pain. The earth shook as he was born. As a newborn, he was

miraculously showered with water.

He was given the name SiddhArtha Gautama. SiddhArtha means "one whohas achieved his aim." Gautama was his clan name. He was sometimes

referred to as Aakyamuni which means "the sage of the Sakyas."

His parents raised him in a state of luxury in the hope that he would become

attached to earthly things and to pleasure

Four Sights

At the age of 16, he was married to his wife Yasodhara. When he was 29, his

wife had a son, Rahula. Shortly after his son's birth, he took four journeys of

the city. Simply we can say that he had four sights. During the first sight he

was deeply disturbed by seeing an elderly, helpless, old man. On the second,

he saw an emaciated and depressed man suffering from disease. On the

third, he spotted a grieving family carrying the dead body of one of their own

to a cremation site. He reflected deeply upon the suffering brought about by

old age, illness and death. On his fourth sight, he saw a religious mendicant

a Monk -- who led a reclusive life of meditation, and was calm and serene.

The four encounters motivated him to follow the path of the mendicant and

find a spiritual solution to the problems brought about by human suffering.

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Quest for truth

Siddhartha struggled to find an answer for these miseries of human. He first

tried meditation, which he learned from his teachers. He then joined a group

of similarly-minded students of Brahmanism in a forest where he practiced

breath control and fasted intensely for six years. He is said to did fasting for

whole day. Even he tried to take only one piece of rice in a day, only to

protect his health from dying. Later! He rejected this path. He determined

that a better path to achieve the state of Nirvana -- a state of liberation and

freedom from suffering -- was to pursueMiddle Way."

Enlightenment of Buddha

One night, at the age of 35, he was seated underneath a large tree -- later

known as the Bodhi tree. He began to experience some major spiritual

breakthroughs:

During the first watch of the night, he developed the ability to recall the

events of his previous reincarnations in detail.

During the second watch, he was able to see how the good and bad deeds

that many living entities performed during their lifetimes led to the nature of

their subsequent reincarnation into their next life.

During the third watch, he learned that he had progressed beyond "spiritual

defilements," craving, desire, hatred, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, fear, doubt,

and delusions. He had attained nirvana. He would never again be

reincarnated into a future life.

He had attained enlightenment! "He became a savior, deliverer, andredeemer."

After his enlightenment:

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He assumed the title Lord Buddha (one who has awakened; the one who has

attained enlightenment by himself).

His name is pronounced differently in various countries. In the West, it is

often pronounced "Boo-duh;" in India: "Boo-the" with the stress on the "th."

For seven days, he puzzled over his future: whether to withdraw from the

world and live a life of seclusion, or whether to reenter the world and teach

his Middle Way. He decided on the latter course: to proclaim his Dharma

(teachings) to other humans so that they could also attain enlightenment.

He located five of his fellow seekers with whom he had earlier fasted, and

rejoined them near Benares. They quickly became aware of the changes

brought about by his enlightenment. It was to them that he preached his firstsermon. It contained the essential teachings of Buddhism. All five accepted

his teachings and were ordained as monks. After the Buddha's second

sermon, all five achieved enlightenment. They are referred to as Arhants

(saints).

The Buddha's later life:

He wandered around Northeast India for decades, teaching all who would

listen. He covered a "territory some 150 miles long by 250 miles wide, an

area somewhat smaller than Ireland or the state of Pennsylvania." He had

tens of thousands of disciples and accumulated a large public following. He

later established an order of monks and a corresponding order of nuns. His

wife Yasodhara became the first nun.

His health began to fail when he was in this late 70s. After forty-five years of

teaching, he died in a small town named Kusinagara, at the age of 80,

apparently of natural causes. His final words were: "Decay is inherent in all

things. Be sure to strive with clarity of mind" for Nirvana. The traditional date

of his death used by Theravadin Buddhists is 544 or 543 BCE. However,

dates have been suggested from 544 to 380 BCE.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/bce.htmhttp://www.religioustolerance.org/bce.htm

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He did not choose a successor. He felt that the Dharma -- his teachings --

plus the Vinaya his code of rules for the monks and nuns -- would be a

sufficient guide. Two and a half centuries later, a council of Buddhist monks

collected his teachings and the oral traditions of the faith into written form,

called the Tripitaka. This included a very large collection of commentaries

and traditions; most are called Sutras (discourses).

Biblography:

1: Richard Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient

Benres to Modern Colombo. Routledge

2: "Buddhism". (2009). In Encyclopdia Britannica. Retrieved November 26,

2009, from Encyclopdia Britannica Online Library Edition.

3: Keown, Buddhism, Oxford University Press, 1996

4: Kogen Mizuno, Essentials of Buddhism, Shunju-sha, 1972, English

translation, Kosei, Tokyo, 1996,

5: Zen Buddhism: A History (India and China) by Heinrich Dumoulin, James

W. Heisig, Paul F. Knitter

6: Alexander Wynne, The Origin of Buddhist Meditation. Routledge, 2007.

7: Goldstein, Joseph (2002), One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism,

HarperCollins

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Dumoulinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Dumoulin