Buddhism

This is based on Encyclopaedia Britannica articles. For more detail, please find Encyclopaedia Britanica on the web at www.eb.com. Very many thanks to Anthony Murphy for ediiting various sections.

Introduction

Life of Buddha

Message

Doctrines

Foundations

The Life of
Buddha Gotama

The term buddha, literally meaning "awakened one" or "enlightened one," is not a proper name but rather a title, such as messiah (the Christ). Thus, the term should be accompanied by an article, such as "the Buddha" or "a buddha". The Buddha who belongs to the present world era was born into the Gotama clan and so is often referred to as Gotama. The following concentrates on Gotama the Enlightened One as depicted in the Buddhist scriptures and legends that developed about the man, his teachings, and his activities.

Birth and early life.

The Buddha was born in the 6th or 5th century BC in the kingdom of the Sakyas, on the borders of present-day Nepal and India. As the son of Suddhodana, the king, and Mahamaya, the queen, the Buddha thus came from a Khattiya family (i.e., the warrior caste or ruling class). The child was given the name Siddhattha (Sanskrit: Siddhartha), which means "one whose aim is accomplished." On the seventh day after his birth, his mother died, and the child was brought up by her sister Mahapajapati Gotami, Suddhodana's second consort. At the age of 16, Siddhattha married his cousin, a princess named Yasodhara, also 16 years old. Although Suddhodana tried his utmost to make Siddhattha content by providing him with luxury and comfort, the young prince's thoughts were generally elsewhere, occupied with other concerns.

The Four Signs.

The turning point in the prince Siddhattha's life came when he was 29 years old. One day, while out driving with his charioteer, he saw "an aged man as bent as a roof gable, decrepit, leaning on a staff, tottering as he walked, afflicted and long past his prime." The charioteer, questioned by the prince as to what had happened to the man, explained that he was old and that all men were subject to old age. The prince, greatly perturbed by this sight, went back to the palace and became absorbed in thought. Another day, again driving with his charioteer, he saw "a sick man, suffering and very ill, fallen and weltering in his own excreta." Because Siddhattha was perturbed, the charioteer explained, as before, that this was a sick man and that all men are subject to sickness. On a third occasion the prince saw a dead body and again the charioteer provided the explanation. Finally, Siddhattha saw "a shaven-headed man, a wanderer who has gone forth, wearing the yellow robe." Impressed with the man's peaceful demeanour, the prince decided to leave home and go out into the world to discover the reason for such a display of serenity in the midst of misery. On his way back to the palace after seeing the yellow-robed ascetic, Siddhattha received the news of the birth of his son, whom he named Rahula, meaning "Fetter" or "Bond."

The Great Renunciation.

Upon receiving this news, the prince decided to make what is known as the Great Renunciation: to give up the princely life and become a wandering ascetic. That night Siddhattha left the city of Kapilavatthu. By dawn he had crossed the Anoma River. He then assumed the guise of an ascetic, and went south, where centres of learning and spiritual discipline flourished, and arrived at Rajagaha (modern Rajgir), the capital of the Magadha kingdom. Bimbisara, the king of Magadha, was impressed by the handsome appearance and the serene personality of this strange ascetic and visited him when he was seated at the foot of a hill. The king, after he discovered that the ascetic was a former prince, offered him every comfort and suggested that he should stay with him to share his kingdom. Gotama, however, rejected the king's offer, saying that he had no need of those things that he had renounced and that he was in search of truth. Bimbisara then requested that, when Gotama obtained the Enlightenment, he return to visit Rajagaha again, to which Gotama agreed.

The search for the truth.

Leaving Rajagaha, Gotama went in search of teachers to instruct him in the way of truth. He first went to Alara Kalama, a renowned sage, and expressed his wish to follow Alara's system; Alara gladly accepted Gotama as his pupil. Gotama studied and rapidly mastered Alara's whole system and then asked his teacher how far the master himself had realized that teaching. Alara told him that he had attained the "sphere of no-thing." Gotama soon attained the same mystical state himself. He then went to Uddaka Ramaputta, another great teacher, who taught him to attain the "sphere of neither-perception-nor-nonperception," a higher mystical state than the sphere of no-thing. Gotama, however, was not satisfied with this either, and he continued his search for the truth. Gotama's real struggle in his search for the truth began in the area around Uruvela, near modern Gaya. Here, for nearly six years, he practiced various severe austerities and extreme self-mortifications. These austerities were vividly described in several discourses attributed to the Buddha himself. What he looked like and what happened to him is described in the following words from the ancient text: Because of so little nourishment, all my limbs became like some withered creepers with knotted joints; my buttocks like a buffalo's hoof; my back-bone protruding like a string of balls; my ribs like rafters of a dilapidated shed; the pupils of my eyes appeared sunk deep in their sockets as water appears shining at the bottom of a deep well; my scalp became shriveled and shrunk as a bitter gourd cut unripe becomes shriveled and shrunk by sun and wind; . . . the skin of my belly came to be cleaving to my back-bone; when I wanted to obey the calls of nature, I fell down on my face then and there; when I stroked my limbs with my hand, hairs rotted at the roots fell away from my body. As a consequence of these severe bodily austerities, Gotama became so weak that he once fainted and was believed by some to be dead. From these experiences, he realized that such mortifications could not lead him to what he sought; he therefore changed his way of life and again began to eat proper amounts of food.

The Great Enlightenment.

One morning Gotama sat cross-legged at the base of a pipal tree (Ficus religiosa), determined not to rise without attaining Enlightenment. At that point, the greatest of Gotama's struggles began: Mara, the evil one, the tempter who is the lord of the world of passion, determined to defeat him and prevent him from attaining Enlightenment; he approached Gotama with his hideous demonic hordes. Gotama, however, sat unmoved in meditation, supported only by the 10 paramitas ("great virtues" charity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, effort, patience, truth, determination, universal love, and equanimity) that he had perfected during innumerable past lives as a bodhisattva in order to attain Enlightenment. Mara was vanquished and fled headlong with his armies of evil spirits. Having defeated Mara, Gotama spent the rest of the night in deep meditation under the tree. During the first part of the night he gained the knowledge of his former existences. During the second part of the night he attained the "superhuman divine eye," the power to see the passing away and rebirth of beings. In the last part of the night he directed his mind to the knowledge of the destruction of all cankers and defilements and realized the Four Noble Truths. In words attributed to the Buddha himself: "My mind was emancipated, . . . Ignorance was dispelled, science (knowledge) arose; darkness was dispelled, light arose." Thus Gotama, at the age of 35, attained the Enlightenment, or Awakening, and became a supreme buddha during the night of the full-moon day of the month of Vesakha (May) at a place now called Bodh Gaya.

Contemplation on the truth.

After his Enlightenment the Buddha spent several weeks in Uruvela, meditating on the various aspects of the dhamma that he had realized, particularly on the most important and difficult doctrine of causal relations, known as the dependent origination or the conditioned genesis (paticca-samuppada). This doctrine views everything as relative and interdependent and teaches that there is no eternal, everlasting, unchanging, permanent, or absolute substance, such as the soul, the self, or the ego, within or without man.

The Buddha determined to proclaim the insight he had gained.

The founding of the sangha.

In due course, the Buddha had 60 disciples who were perfected ones. The 60 disciples went in various directions to spread the teaching of the Buddha. The Buddha himself set out for Uruvela. On the way he converted 30 young men, who then entered the order. In the region of Uruvela he also converted three leading ascetics along with a large number of their disciples. From Uruvela the Buddha went on to Rajagaha, the capital of Magadha, fulfilling his promise to visit King Bimbisara after his Enlightenment. Many people, including the king, became his lay disciples. At the request of his father, the Buddha visited Kapilavatthu with a large number of his disciples. The Buddha's father, his aunt Mahapajapati, his former wife Yasodhara, and large numbers of Sakyans (who were fellow members of the Gotama clan) became his followers. The Buddha and his new teaching became so popular that monasteries were built for him and his sangha in almost all the important cities in the valley of the Ganges, and the number of his followers among all classes of people increased rapidly.

The death of the Buddha.

After the Buddha had trained learned, well-disciplined followers and his mission was fulfilled, at the age of 80, with a group of monks, he set out on his last journey, from Rajagaha toward the north. The Buddha became seriously ill in a village called Beluva, near Vesali. He thought, however, that it was not right for him to die without preparing his disciples, who were dear to him. Thus, with courage, determination, and will, he bore all his pains, got the better of his illness, and recovered; but his health was still poor. The Buddha told Ananda, his most devoted attendant, that he had decided to die after three months and asked him to assemble in the hall at Mahavana all the monks who were at that time residing in the neighbourhood of Vesali. At this meeting, the Buddha advised the monks to follow what he had taught them and to spread it abroad for the good of the many, out of compassion for the world. He then announced that he had decided to die after three months. The Buddha left Vesali, arrived at Pava and stayed in the park of Cunda the goldsmith, who was already one of his devoted followers. At his invitation the Buddha and the monks went to his house for a meal. This was the Buddha's last meal. After it the Buddha became sick and suffered violent pains but bore them without complaint. He set out for Kusinara, accompanied by Ananda and other monks. The Buddha arrived at Kusinara (the modern Kasia, known in Sanskrit as Kushinagara) toward evening, and, on a couch between two sal trees in the park Upavattana of the Mallas, he "laid himself down on his right side, with one leg resting on the other, mindful and self-possessed." A wandering ascetic named Subhadda asked for permission to see the Buddha, but Ananda refused, saying that the Blessed One was tired and that he should not be troubled. The Buddha, overhearing the conversation, called Ananda and asked him to allow Subhadda to see him. After an interview with the Buddha, Subhadda joined the order the same night, thus becoming his last direct disciple. The Buddha then addressed the monks: "Then, bhikkhus, I address you now: transient are all conditioned things. Try to accomplish your aim with diligence." These were the last words of the Tathagata. A week later, his body was cremated by the Mallas in Kusinara.

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