🧘 Gautama Buddha

Attributes & Domains

Biography: The Path to Enlightenment

Birth and Early Life

Born as Prince Siddhartha Gautama in Lumbini (present-day Nepal) around 563 BCE to King Suddhodana of the Shakya clan and Queen Maya. Seven days after his birth, his mother died, and he was raised by his maternal aunt Mahaprajapati Gotami. The sage Asita prophesied he would become either a great king (chakravartin) or a great spiritual teacher (buddha). His father, desiring him to be a king, surrounded him with luxury and shielded him from all suffering.

The Four Sights

At age 29, despite his father's efforts, Siddhartha ventured beyond the palace walls on four occasions with his charioteer Channa. He encountered:

• An Old Man: Revealing the inevitability of aging
• A Sick Person: Showing the reality of disease and suffering
• A Corpse: Demonstrating the certainty of death
• A Wandering Ascetic: Displaying serene dignity despite having renounced worldly life, inspiring the possibility of spiritual transcendence

These "Four Sights" shattered his sheltered worldview and awakened his quest for understanding the nature of suffering and its cessation.

The Great Renunciation

On the night of his son Rahula's birth, Siddhartha made the painful decision to leave the palace. He cut his long hair with his sword, exchanged his royal garments for simple robes, and sent his horse Kanthaka back with Channa. This "Great Going Forth" (Mahābhinishkramana) marked his complete renunciation of worldly life at age 29.

Years of Ascetic Practice

For six years, Siddhartha studied with renowned teachers including Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, mastering advanced meditation states. Finding these insufficient for complete liberation, he turned to extreme asceticism, reducing his food intake to a single grain of rice per day and practicing severe austerities that brought him to the brink of death. Five ascetic companions joined him in these practices.

Enlightenment at Bodh Gaya

Realizing that self-mortification was as futile as indulgence, Siddhartha discovered the Middle Way between extremes. He accepted milk-rice from a village woman named Sujata, regaining his strength. His five companions, thinking he had abandoned the path, left him.

At Bodh Gaya, he sat beneath a pipal tree (later known as the Bodhi Tree) on a grass mat offered by the grass-cutter Sotthiya, vowing: "Let my skin, sinews, and bones dry up, let my blood dry up, but I will not rise from this seat until I have attained supreme enlightenment."

During the night of the full moon in May (Vesak), he passed through progressively deeper states of meditation:

• First Watch: He recalled all his previous lives across countless eons
• Second Watch: He perceived the death and rebirth of all beings according to their karma
• Third Watch: He comprehended the Four Noble Truths and the chain of Dependent Origination

Before dawn, Mara, the demon of delusion, attacked with his armies and tempting daughters, attempting to prevent the awakening. Siddhartha touched the earth (Bhumisparsha mudra), calling the Earth Goddess Prithvi to witness his countless lifetimes of virtue. Mara was defeated.

At dawn, Siddhartha became the Buddha—"the Awakened One"—achieving complete liberation from suffering, ignorance, and the cycle of rebirth. He remained in meditation for 49 days, experiencing the bliss of liberation and contemplating whether to teach this profound truth.

The First Teaching

Initially, the Buddha hesitated to teach, thinking the Dharma too subtle for others to comprehend. Brahma Sahampati, lord of the gods, descended to request that he teach for the welfare of beings "with little dust in their eyes." Moved by compassion, the Buddha agreed.

He traveled to the Deer Park at Sarnath near Varanasi and found his five former companions. To them, he delivered his first sermon, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dharma), teaching the Middle Way, the Four Noble Truths, and the Noble Eightfold Path. Kondañña became the first to achieve enlightenment, exclaiming "I understand!" All five became arhats and formed the first Sangha (monastic community).

45 Years of Teaching

For 45 years, the Buddha wandered throughout the Gangetic plain teaching all who would listen— kings and beggars, brahmins and outcasts, men and women, monastics and laypeople. Notable events:

• Converted Sariputta and Moggallana, who became his chief disciples
• Ordained his son Rahula and his cousin Ananda (his personal attendant)
• After initial reluctance, established the Bhikkhuni Sangha (order of nuns) for his stepmother Mahaprajapati and other women
• Converted the mass murderer Angulimala, demonstrating that even the worst criminals could be redeemed
• Survived attempts by his jealous cousin Devadatta to kill him and split the Sangha
• Taught kings like Bimbisara and Pasenadi

Parinirvana (Final Liberation)

At age 80, the Buddha accepted a meal from the blacksmith Cunda that caused severe food poisoning. Despite intense pain, he insisted Cunda bore no fault—this was simply the natural time for his physical death. He instructed Ananda to tell Cunda his offering was of great merit, as it preceded the Buddha's final liberation.

He traveled to Kushinagar and lay down between two sal trees in the "lion's posture" (lying on his right side). Surrounded by grieving disciples and gods, he gave final instructions:

• "All conditioned things are subject to decay. Strive with diligence!" (vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādetha)
• "Be a lamp unto yourselves. Be a refuge unto yourselves. Take the Dharma as your lamp and refuge."
• After his death, the Sangha should follow the Dharma and Vinaya (monastic code) as their teacher
• Minor rules of the Vinaya could be amended if the Sangha agreed

He passed through the jhanas (meditative absorptions) in ascending and descending order, finally entering parinirvana—complete extinction of the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion. The earth shook, and the gods wept.

His body was cremated with royal honors. His relics were divided into eight portions and enshrined in stupas throughout India, becoming objects of veneration and pilgrimage.

Core Teachings

The Four Noble Truths

The foundation of all Buddhist teaching, realized during the Buddha's enlightenment:

• Dukkha (Suffering): Life involves suffering—birth, aging, sickness, death, separation from loved ones, contact with the unloved, not obtaining desires. The five aggregates (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness) subject to clinging are suffering.
• Samudaya (Origin): Suffering arises from craving (taṇhā)—desire for sensual pleasures, desire for existence, desire for non-existence. This craving, combined with ignorance, binds beings to the wheel of Samsara.
• Nirodha (Cessation): Suffering can end completely. Nirvana is the cessation of craving and the liberation from cyclic existence.
• Magga (Path): The Noble Eightfold Path leads to the cessation of suffering.

Three Marks of Existence (Tilakkhana)

• Anicca (Impermanence): All conditioned phenomena are in constant flux
• Dukkha (Unsatisfactoriness): All conditioned phenomena are ultimately unsatisfying due to impermanence
• Anatta (Non-self): No permanent, unchanging self exists within or outside the five aggregates

Dependent Origination (Paticca-samuppada)

The Buddha's profound insight into causality, showing how suffering arises and ceases through a chain of 12 links. See Dependent Origination for details.

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