Birthplace

Buddha was born around 563 BCE in Kapilavatsu/Kapilavattu, Lumbini. His home state was Khosala.

Names

Family

Legends

Jātakas

The Jātaka Tales are part of the Pali Cannon and tell of the 550 previous lives of the Buddha. In each life the Buddha brought about happiness. The Vessantara Jātaka is one of the most popular stories, where a Buddha lived previously as a prince who gave away everything he owned including his children which displays perfect generosity. It is also known as the Great Birth Sermon.

Tushita

Tushita Heaven is the fourth of the six deva realms. It is where the Buddha resided as Bodhisattva Svetaketu before being born on Earth. Tushita is said to be reachable by advanced meditation practices known as Sādhanā. One deva month is said to be twelve thousand years.

Mahamaya's Dream

Queen Mahamaya was the birth mother of Buddha. Maya (माया) in Sanskrit means "illusion". After not having children for twenty years, Mahamaya had a dream where four devas took her to bathe in a Himalayan Lake a white elephant with six tusks and holding a lotus flower entered her right side. After being pregnant for ten lunar months, she gave birth to Buddha standing upright under a sal tree. She died seven days later.

Childhood

Siddhartha was shielded from exposure to the world by his father, until Siddhartha went on four trips outside the palace where he witnessed aging, sickness, death and the acetic practice respectively. Troubled by this, Siddhartha entered the forest leaving his family and renouncing life at the palace in order to look for the solution to suffering.

Training and Awakening

Dissatisfied with the extremes of self-mortification performed by the ascetics, Siddhartha vowed to sit under a Bodhi tree in May in meditation and not rise until he achieved enlightenment. Seeing this, the demonic king Mara (Sanskrit: मार, Japanese: マーラ, Thai: มาร) attempted to falter Siddhartha's efforts. Mara showered Siddhartha with wind, ran and ashes but they were turned into flowers. Mara tempted Siddhartha with his three daughters to no avail. Finally, Mara challenged Siddhartha on his right to reside under the Bodhi tree and Siddhartha called upon the goddess of the earth to banish him.

Visions

The first vision Siddhartha had was of his past lives and his actions during all of them. The second vision was of all beings caught in a cycle of rebirth due to their past actions. On the forty-ninth day of meditation, Siddhartha saw the four truths or the sequence of dependent origination, finally becoming liberated as the Buddha.

Sangha

After awakening in Bodh Gaya, the Buddha would go on find disciples and host his first sermon in Sarnath. He would eventually find the Sangha or the monastic order first formed by his disciples.

History

The first historical universities stemmed from the creation of the Sangha in India. The first sixty missionaries came out of the creation of the Sangha. They were able to convert many kings and rich merchants. The Sangha opposed the caste system and let anyone join the community, even criminals. The rational was that whatever actions were committed by the criminals were also committed by everyone at some point in their respective past lives. The Buddha affirmed the equal spiritual capacity of both men and women. The monks became those who left behind their regular lifestyle to join the Sangha and follow the religious path.

Structure

A monk is referred to as a Bhikshu/bhikkhu. The states of ordination are the novice, a full monk and seniority. Ordination is necessary. Male and female lay followers are referred to as Upasaka and Upasika respectively. Buddha is acknowledged by the community, not self-appointed. During the early period of the Sangha only one Buddha existed in the world.

Opposition

Devadatta, Buddha’s cousin believed that he should be the Buddha’s replacement and attempted to assassinate Buddha several times. According to legend, Devadatta released a mad elephant at Buddha which is very dangerous. However, the elephant was merely calmed by the Buddha’s presence and bowed down to him. Devadatta also attempted to hurl a boulder down at Buddha, however Buddha only received a scratch from this. Devadatta then engineers a schism in the Sangha and leads half of the existing Sangha to his own temple, which he claims is superior. Devadatta eventually realizes his wrong-doings. There are also legends of Mara or the God of desire reappearing to attack the order.

Death

The Buddha predicted his death and after wrapping up his affairs, seemingly voluntarily died of food poisoning at the age of eighty in Kusinigara. Pieces of his bones were distributed to different communities and were buried in monuments called Stupas which even now house relics of the Buddha. The eastern architectural form of a Stupa is referred to as a Pagoda.