The journey of a prince from Siddhartha Gautama to BUDDHA!

He was born into a royal family in the village of Lumbini in present-day Nepal around the year 563 BCE, from his mother Maya and his father Suddhodana Gautama who was the head of the clan and the king of the country called Shakyas. According to ancient tradition, Queen Maya first had a dream of white elephant coming down into her womb which was interpreted as a sign that Buddha the universal emperor was about to be born.When her time came, Maya gave painless birth to the bodhisattva who immediately walked,spoke and was received by Brahma. Shortly after the birth of young prince Siddhartha Gautama, an astrologer visited the young prince's father and prophesied that Siddhartha would either become a great king or renounce the material world to become a holy man, depending on whether he saw what life was like outside the palace walls. 

Wanting his son to be universal monarch instead, the king surrounded the palace with a triple enclosure and guard and proclaimed that the use of the words death and grief were forbidden. At the age of 16 he was married to the most beautiful princcess in the land, Yasodhara and the age of 29 they gave birth to their son Rahula. 

As Siddhartha continued living in the luxury of his palaces, he grew increasing restless and curious about the world beyond the palace walls. He finally demanded that he be permitted to see his people and his lands. The king carefully arranged that Siddhartha should still not see the kind of suffering that he feared would lead him to a religious life, and decried that only young and healthy people should greet the prince. As he was lead through Kapilavatthu, the capital, he chanced to see a couple of old men who had accidentally wandered near the parade route. Amazed and confused, he chased after them to find out what they were. Then he came across some people who were severely ill. And finally, he came across a funeral ceremony by the side of a river, and for the first time in his life saw death. He asked his friend and squire Chandaka the meaning of all these things, and Chandaka informed him of the simple truths that Siddhartha should have known all along: That all of us get old, sick, and eventually die. 

Siddhartha also saw an ascetic, a monk who had renounced all the pleasures of the flesh. The peaceful look on the monks face would stay with Siddhartha for a long time to come. It made him realize he could not be happy living as he had been. He had discovered suffering, and wanted more than anything to discover how one might overcome suffering. After kissing his sleeping wife and newborn son Rahula goodbye, he snuck out of the palace with his squire Chandara and his favorite horse Kanthaka. He gave away his rich clothing, cut his long hair, and gave the horse to Chandara and told him to return to the palace. 

He first tried meditation, which he learned from two teachers but found this practices lacking.He then began to practice the austerities and self-mortifications practiced by a group of five ascetics. For six years, he practiced. The sincerity and intensity of his practice were so astounding that, before long, the five ascetics became followers of Siddhartha. But the answers to his questions were not forthcoming. He redoubled his efforts, refusing food and water, until he was in a state of near death. 

One day, a peasant girl named Sujata saw this starving monk and took pity on him. She begged him to eat some of her milk-rice. Siddhartha then realized that these extreme practices were leading him nowhere, that in fact it might be better to find some middle way between the extremes of the life of luxury and the life of self-mortification. So he ate, and drank, and bathed in the river. The five ascetics saw him and concluded that Siddhartha had given up the ascetic life and taken to the ways of the flesh, and left him. 

In the town of Bodh Gaya, Siddhartha decided that he would sit under a certain fig tree as long as it would take for the answers to the problem of suffering to come. He sat there for many days, first in deep concentration to clear his mind of all distractions, then in mindfulness meditation, opening himself up to the truth. He began, they say, to recall all his previous lives, and to see everything that was going on in the entire universe. On the full moon of May, with the rising of the morning star, Siddhartha finally understood the answer to the question of suffering and became the Buddha, which means “he who is awake.” 

It is said that Mara, the evil one, tried to prevent this great occurrence. He first tried to frighten Siddhartha with storms and armies of demons. Siddhartha remained completely calm. Then he sent his three beautiful daughters to tempt him, again to no avail. Finally, he tried to ensnare Siddhartha in his own ego by appealing to his pride. That, too, failed. Siddhartha, having conquered all temptations, touched the ground with one hand and asked the earth to be his witness. 

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. 

At Sarnath near Benares, about one hundred miles from Bodh Gaya, he came across the five ascetics he had practiced with for so long. There, in a deer park, he preached his first sermon, which is called “setting the wheel of the teaching in motion.” He explained to them the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. They became his very first disciples and the beginnings of the Sangha or community of monks. Donations permitted the community of converts to continue their practice throughout the years, and gave many more people an opportunity to hear the teachings of the Buddha. Over time, he was approached by members of his family, including his wife, son, father, and aunt. The Buddha said that it didn’t matter what a person’s status in the world was, or what their background or wealth or nationality might be. All were capable of enlightenment, and all were welcome into the Sangha. The first ordained Buddhist monk, Upali, had been a barber, yet he was ranked higher than monks who had been kings, only because he had taken his vows earlier than they! 

Buddha had achieved his enlightenment at the age of 35. He would teach throughout northeast India for another 45 years. When the Buddha was 80 years old, he told his friend and cousin Ananda that he would be leaving them soon. And so it came to be that in Kushinagara, not a hundred miles from his homeland, he ate some spoiled food and became very ill. He went into a deep meditation under a grove of sala trees and died. His last words were...

Impermanent are all created things;
Strive on with awareness.

Simply Buddhism

Many people interpret Buddha as a big fat guy, that will give you luck if you rub his belly. This may be true, but Buddhism is much bigger than that. Buddhism is the journey towards a rise above suffering. Buddhism, achieved by the enlightened one-“Buddha” suggests how to make the journey, what to look for, and assures that the journey indeed is a tough and demanding one. It is not something to follow unquestioningly but is a truth to be realized by an individual in his own way.

Buddhism is the path discovered by a man as ordinary as any of us, who, 2500 years ago saw clearly into the true nature of reality but who became divine by his thoughts and actions and assures every other ordinary person that it is possible to attain the same divinity. Siddhartha Gautama born as a prince realized that wealth and luxury did not guarantee happiness, so he explored the different teachings religions and philosophies of the day, to find the key to human happiness. He was on the search for was the cause and cessation of human suffering. After six years of study and meditation he finally found 'the middle path' and was enlightened. After enlightenment, the Buddha spent the rest of his life teaching the principles of Buddha until his death at the age of 80. The four truths that Gautama Buddha propounded are that: Suffering is universal; It is caused by desire. Suffering can be uprooted if desire is uprooted. That can be done by following the famous Eight Fold Path which includes: Right Understanding, Right Motives, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Meditation.

Real Buddhism is very tolerant and not concerned with labels like 'Christian', 'Muslim', 'Hindu' or 'Buddhist'; that is why there have never been any wars fought in the name of Buddhism. That is why Buddhists do not preach and try to convert, only explain if an explanation is sought. Buddhism is a path towards knowledge and living with the knowledge that life does not exist without suffering and one must rise above it to live successfully with it. One must break the shackles of the cycle of desire, temptation, temporariness, disappointment, because these lead to suffering. And the most interesting part is Buddhism is accessible to everyone who really wants it and thus is very democratic in nature.