Buddha Gautama

Buddha Gotama

(fl. c. 6th–4th century BCE, Lumbini, near Kapilavastu, Śākya republic, Kosala kingdom [India]—d. Kusinārā, Malla republic,

Magdha kingdom [India])

Buddha Gotama (also called Siddhārtha) was the founder of Buddhism. The term buddha, literally meaning “awakened one” or “enlightened one,” is not a proper name but rather a title, and Buddhists traditionally believe that there will be innumerable buddhas in the future as there have been in the past and that there are other buddhas in other presently existing cosmos as well. The Buddha who belongs to the present era of the cosmos in which we are living is often referred to as Gotama. When the term the Buddha is used, it is generally assumed that it refers to the Buddha Gotama.

According to virtually all Buddhist traditions, the Buddha lived many lives before his birth as Gotama; these previous lives are described in Jātakas (birth stories), which play an important role in Buddhist art and education. Most Buddhists also affirm that the Buddha’s life was continued in his teachings and his relics. The Pāli Tipitaka, which is recognized by scholars as the earliest extant record of the Buddha’s discourses, and the later Pāli commentaries are the basis of the following account in which history and legend are inextricably intertwined.

The Buddha was born in the 6th or 5th century BCE in the kingdom of the Śākyas, on the borders of presentday Nepal and India. Gotama is said to have been born of the king and queen of the Śākyas, Suddhodna and Mahāmāyā. The Buddha’s legend, however, begins with an account of a dream that his mother, Mahāmāyā, had one night before he was born. A beautiful elephant, white as silver, entered her womb through her side. Brahmins (Vedic priests) were asked to interpret the dream, and they foretold the birth of a son who would become either a universal monarch or a buddha. The purported site of his birth, now called Rummindei, lies within the territory of Nepal. (A pillar placed there in commemoration of the event by Aśoka, a 3rd-century BCE Buddhist emperor of India, still stands.) The child was given the name Siddhattha (Siddhārtha in Sanskrit), which means

“one whose aim is accomplished.”

Gotama is said to have led a sheltered life of great luxury, which was interrupted when, on three excursions outside of the palace, he encountered an old man, an ill man, and a corpse. Each time he asked a servant to explain the phenomenon and was told that all men are subject to such conditions. Gotama then met up with a wandering ascetic and decided that he must discover the reason for the man’s display of serenity in the midst of such misery. Renouncing his princely life, Gotama went in search of teachers who could instruct him in the way of truth. He took up the practice of various austerities and extreme self-mortifications, including severe fasting. These experiences eventually led Gotama to the conviction that such mortifications could not lead him to what he sought.

Buddhist mythology states that the Buddha went to meditate beneath a pipal tree (Ficus religiosa), now known as the bodhi tree. There he was tempted by Mara (the Buddhist Lord of the Senses), but Gotama remained unmoved. Later that night the Buddha realized the Four Noble Truths, achieving enlightenment during the night of the full moon day of the month of May (Vesakha) at a place now called Bodh Gayā.

After this enlightenment, the story continues that the Buddha sought out five companions and delivered to them his first sermon, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (“Sermon on Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth”), at Sarnath. An ancient stupa marks the spot where this event is said to have occurred. The Buddha taught that those in search of enlightenment should not follow the two extremes of self-indulgence and selfmortification. Avoiding these two extremes, the Thatāgata (“He Who Has Thus Attained”) discovers the middle path leading to vision, knowledge, calmness, awakening, and nirvana.

This middle path is known as the Noble Eightfold Path and consists of right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right living, right endeavor, right mindfulness, and right concentration. The First Noble Truth is that sentient existence is dukkha, always tainted with conflict, dissatisfaction, sorrow, and suffering. The Second Noble Truth is that all this is caused by selfish desire— craving or tanha, “thirst.” The Third Noble Truth is that there is nirvana—emancipation, liberation, and freedom for human beings from all this. The Fourth Noble Truth, the Noble Eightfold Path, is the way to this liberation.

After this sermon the five companions became the Buddha’s first disciples, were admitted by him as monks (bhikkhus), and became the first members of the sangha (“community,” or “order”). After the Buddha had trained followers, his mission was fulfilled. At Kusinara (now called Kasia) on the full moon day of the month of Vesakha (May), the Buddha Gotama entered parinirvān· a—an end to the cycle of being reborn. His body was cremated by the Mallas in Kusinara, but a dispute over the relics of the Buddha arose between the Mallas and the delegates of rulers of several kingdoms. It was settled by a venerable Brahmin on the basis that they should not quarrel over the relics of one who preached peace. Stupas were then built over these relics.