Who is Buddha?
The historical Buddha was born in approximately 570 BC in Northern India. As a young man he spent six years searching and meditating. He then recognized the true nature of mind, thus becoming Buddha – the “awakened one.” His teachings, which make beings fearless, joyful and kind, are the main religion of several East Asian countries. Since the early seventies, Buddhism’s profound view and vast number of methods have inspired and fascinated a growing number of people in Western cultures. Buddha is seen as a timeless mirror of mind’s inherent potential.
A Buddha is one who has attained bodhi. By bodhi is meant an ideal state of intellectual and ethical perfection, which can be attained by man, by purely human means. In order to make clear how the Buddha attained bodhi, let me narrate a brief summary of the Buddhas life. About 623 years before the Christian era, there was born in Lumbini Park in the neighborhood of Kapilavatthu, now known as Padaria in the district of modern Nepal, an Indian Sakyan prince, Siddhttha Gotama by name. To make the spot as the birthplace of the greatest teacher of mankind and as a token of his reverence for him, the Emperor Asoka in 239 B.C. erected a pillar bearing the inscription, Here was the Enlightened One born. Gotamas father was Suddhodana, king of Kapilavatthu, the chief town of the Sakyan clan; and his mother, who died seven days after his birth, was Queen Maya who also belonged to the same clan. Under the care of his maternal aunt, Pajapati Gotami, Siddattha spent his early years in ease, luxury a
Buddha is a person who has achieved the spiritual state of bodhi. The word buddha literally means “the awakened one” – someone who has no ignorance and can see the universe as it really is. People who have achieved this state can be called a buddha. There are many buddhas, and no one has the right to say, “I am the one and only buddha.” The religion of Buddhism takes its teaching from spiritual guidance. It holds that everything in the universe is linked and related, but it is to ourselves that we must ultimately answer. If we harm another person, we are harming ourselves, because everything is linked. This is also where the idea of karma comes into play; what we give out, we shall receive, and vice versa. Siddattha Gotama, an Indian prince, is considered the original teacher of Buddhism. During his lifetime, he reached an enlightened state. Until his 29th birthday, Siddattha led a luxurious life, as befits royalty. Slowly, up until that age, he began to realize that everything in the
