The Buddha: the story on HearLore

The Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama, known to history as the Buddha, was not born a god but a prince who chose to become a wandering ascetic in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains during the 6th or 5th century BCE. While later traditions would deify him as an eternal, omniscient being, the earliest texts depict a human man who struggled with the same fears of aging, sickness, and death that plague all people. He was born in Lumbini, in what is now Nepal, to royal parents of the Shakya clan, yet he rejected the throne to live as a mendicant. His journey from a sheltered life of luxury to the harsh realities of the forest was not a sudden epiphany but a gradual, painful process of stripping away the illusions of his privileged existence. The title Buddha, meaning Awakened One, was not a personal name but a designation for those who had pierced the veil of ignorance and seen the world as it truly is. This awakening, achieved under the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, marked the beginning of a forty-five-year teaching career that would reshape the spiritual landscape of ancient India. The Buddha did not claim to be the creator of the universe or a savior who could grant salvation by his own power; instead, he presented himself as a guide who had found the path out of suffering and invited others to walk it themselves. His core message was radical in its simplicity: the cycle of rebirth and suffering could be ended through the cultivation of wisdom, ethical conduct, and mental discipline. This was a Middle Way between the sensual indulgence of the court and the severe asceticism of the forest, a path that required neither self-torture nor self-pity. The historical Buddha was a man of flesh and blood who experienced physical pain, back problems in his old age, and the grief of losing his closest disciples. He was a reformist within the śramaña movement, challenging the rigid social stratification of Brahminism while engaging with the diverse philosophical schools of his time. His teachings were not written down during his lifetime but were passed down orally in Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, eventually compiled into the Vinaya Piñaka and the Sūtra Piñaka. The earliest attestation of the title Buddha appears in the 3rd century BCE Edicts of Ashoka, which mention the Buddha and Buddhism, confirming his existence as a historical figure who influenced the Mauryan Empire. The Buddha's life was a testament to the power of human potential, showing that liberation was accessible to anyone willing to undertake the rigorous training of the mind. He was known by many names, including Tathāgata, which suggests one who has thus gone or thus come, transcending the dualities of existence. His epithets, such as Bhagavato, the Blessed One, and Lokavidu, the Knower of the many worlds, reflect the profound respect he commanded among his followers. Yet, beneath the layers of later mythology, the historical Siddhartha Gautama remains a figure of immense courage and compassion, a man who faced the darkest aspects of human existence and found a way to transcend them.

Common questions

Who was Siddhartha Gautama known as the Buddha?

Siddhartha Gautama was a prince who chose to become a wandering ascetic in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains during the 6th or 5th century BCE. He was born in Lumbini in what is now Nepal to royal parents of the Shakya clan and rejected the throne to live as a mendicant. The title Buddha meaning Awakened One was a designation for those who had pierced the veil of ignorance and seen the world as it truly is.

When did Siddhartha Gautama achieve his awakening under the Bodhi tree?

Siddhartha Gautama achieved his awakening under the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya during the 6th or 5th century BCE. This event marked the beginning of a forty-five-year teaching career that would reshape the spiritual landscape of ancient India. The earliest attestation of the title Buddha appears in the 3rd century BCE Edicts of Ashoka which confirm his existence as a historical figure.

Where did Siddhartha Gautama spend the majority of his teaching career?

Siddhartha Gautama spent the majority of his teaching career travelling in the Gangetic Plain in what is now Uttar Pradesh Bihar and southern Nepal. He settled in Sravasti the capital of the Kingdom of Kosala for the last 20 years of his life. His travels ranged from Kosambi on the Yamuna to Campa 40 km east of Bhagalpur and from Kapilavatthu 95 km north-west of Gorakhpur to Uruvela south of Gaya.

Why did Siddhartha Gautama decide to teach the Dharma to others?

Siddhartha Gautama initially hesitated to teach because he believed humans were overpowered by ignorance greed and hatred. The god Brahma Sahampati convinced him that at least some with little dust in their eyes would understand the path. He relented and agreed to teach after this persuasion and began his ministry by visiting his five former companions.

How did Siddhartha Gautama die and what were his final words?

Siddhartha Gautama died in Kushinagar after eating his last meal from a blacksmith named Cunda and falling violently ill. His final words were All sankharas decay. Strive for the goal with diligence appamada. He entered his final meditation and reached parinirvana final nirvana where the five aggregates of physical and mental phenomena cease to occur.

What were the core teachings of Siddhartha Gautama regarding suffering and liberation?

Siddhartha Gautama taught that the cycle of rebirth and suffering could be ended through the cultivation of wisdom ethical conduct and mental discipline. He presented a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and severe asceticism that required neither self-torture nor self-pity. His core message included the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path as the means to achieve liberation from samsara.

The Prince And The Four Sights

Immediately after his awakening, the Buddha hesitated on whether or not he should teach the Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were overpowered by ignorance, greed, and hatred that it would be difficult for them to recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, the god Brahma Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some with little dust in their eyes will understand it. The Buddha relented and agreed to teach. According to Anālayo, the Chinese parallel to MN 26, Mā 204, does not contain this story, but this event does appear in other parallel texts, such as in an Ekottarika-āgama discourse, in the Catusparisat-sūtra, and in the Lalitavistara. According to MN 26 and Mā 204, after deciding to teach, the Buddha initially intended to visit his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, to teach them his insights, but they had already died, so he decided to visit his five former companions. MN 26 and Mā 204 both report that on his way to Vārānasī, Benares, he met another wanderer, an Ajivika ascetic named Upaka in MN 26. The Buddha proclaimed that he had achieved full awakening, but Upaka was not convinced and took a different path. MN 26 and Mā 204 continue with the Buddha reaching the Deer Park, Sarnath, Mrigadāva, also called Rishipatana, site where the ashes of the ascetics fell, near Vārānasī, where he met the group of five ascetics and was able to convince them that he had indeed reached full awakening. According to Mā 204, but not MN 26, as well as the Theravada Vinaya, an Ekottarika-āgama text, the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, the Mahisaka Vinaya, and the Mahavastu, the Buddha then taught them the first sermon, also known as the Benares sermon, i.e., the teaching of the noble eightfold path as the middle path aloof from the two extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification. The Pali text reports that after the first sermon, the ascetic Kaundinya became the first arhat, liberated being, and the first Buddhist bhikkhu or monastic. The Buddha then continued to teach the other ascetics and they formed the first, the company of Buddhist monks. Various sources such as the Mahavastu, the Mahakhandhaka of the Theravada Vinaya and the Catusparisat-sutra also mention that the Buddha taught them his second discourse, about the characteristic of not-self, Anatmalaksana Sutra, at this time or five days later. After hearing this second sermon the four remaining ascetics also reached the status of arahant. The Theravada Vinaya and the Catusparisat-sutra also speak of the conversion of Yasa, a local guild master, and his friends and family, who were some of the first laypersons to be converted and to enter the Buddhist community. The conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, who brought with them five hundred converts who had previously been matted hair ascetics, and whose spiritual practice was related to fire sacrifices. According to the Theravada Vinaya, the Buddha then stopped at the Gayasisa hill near Gaya and delivered his third discourse, the Adittapariyaya Sutta, The Discourse on Fire, in which he taught that everything in the world is inflamed by passions and only those who follow the Eightfold path can be liberated. At the end of the rainy season, when the Buddha's community had grown to around sixty awakened monks, he instructed them to wander on their own, teach and ordain people into the community, for the welfare and benefit of the world. For the remaining 40 or 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have travelled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, ascetics and householders, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. According to Schumann, the Buddha's travels ranged from Kosambi on the Yamuna, 25 km south-west of Allahabad, to Campa, 40 km east of Bhagalpur, and from Kapilavatthu, 95 km north-west of Gorakhpur, to Uruvela, south of Gaya. This covers an area of 600 by 300 km. His sangha enjoyed the patronage of the kings of Kosala and Magadha and he thus spent a lot of time in their respective capitals, Savatthi and Rajagaha. According to the Theravada view, the Buddha spoke the language of Magadha or the speech that was current in the Magadha region. The sangha wandered throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vassa rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely travelled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to flora and animal life. The health of the ascetics might have been a concern as well. Bhikkhu Khantipalo, 1995, Lay Buddhist Practice, The Shrine Room, Uposatha Day, Rains Residence. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them. The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. According to the Pali texts, shortly after the formation of the sangha, the Buddha travelled to Rajagaha,

The Middle Way And The Bodhi Tree

capital of Magadha, and met with King Bimbisara, who gifted a bamboo grove park to the sangha. The Buddha's sangha continued to grow during his initial travels in north India. The early texts tell the story of how the Buddha's chief disciples, Sariputta and Mahamoggallana, who were both students of the skeptic sramana Sañjaya Belañtiputta, were converted by Assaji. They also tell of how the Buddha's son, Rahula, joined his father as a bhikkhu when the Buddha visited his old home, Kapilavastu. Over time, other Shakyans joined the order as bhikkhus, such as Buddha's cousin Ananda, Anuruddha, Upali the barber, the Buddha's half-brother Nanda and Devadatta. Meanwhile, the Buddha's father Suddhodana heard his son's teaching, converted to Buddhism and became a stream-enterer. The early texts also mention an important lay disciple, the merchant Anathapindika, who became a strong lay supporter of the Buddha early on. He is said to have gifted Jeta's grove, Jetavana, to the sangha at great expense, the Theravada Vinaya speaks of thousands of gold coins. The formation of a parallel order of female monastics, bhikkhuni, was another important part of the growth of the Buddha's community. As noted by Anālayo's comparative study of this topic, there are various versions of this event depicted in the different early Buddhist texts. According to all the major versions surveyed by Anālayo, Mahaprajapati Gautami, Buddha's step-mother, is initially turned down by the Buddha after requesting ordination for her and some other women. Mahaprajapati and her followers then shave their hair, don robes and begin following the Buddha on his travels. The Buddha is eventually convinced by Ananda to grant ordination to Mahaprajapati on her acceptance of eight conditions called gurudharmas which focus on the relationship between the new order of nuns and the monks. According to Anālayo, the only argument common to all the versions that Ananda uses to convince the Buddha is that women have the same ability to reach all stages of awakening. Anālayo also notes that some modern scholars have questioned the authenticity of the eight gurudharmas in their present form due to various inconsistencies. He holds that the historicity of the current lists of eight is doubtful, but that they may have been based on earlier injunctions by the Buddha. Anālayo notes that various passages indicate that the reason for the Buddha's hesitation to ordain women was the danger that the life of a wandering sramana posed for women that were not under the protection of their male family members, such as dangers of sexual assault and abduction. Due to this, the gurdharmas injunctions may have been a way to place the newly founded order of nuns in a relationship to its male counterparts that resembles as much as possible the protection a laywoman could expect from her male relatives. After the first 20 years of his teaching career, the Buddha seems to have slowly settled in Sravasti, the capital of the Kingdom of Kosala, spending most of his later years in this city. As the sangha grew in size, the need for a standardised set of monastic rules arose and the Buddha seems to have developed a set of regulations for the sangha. These are preserved in various texts called Pratimoksa which were recited by the community every fortnight. The Pratimoksa includes general ethical precepts, as well as rules regarding the essentials of monastic life, such as bowls and robes. In his later years, the Buddha's fame grew and he was invited to important royal events, such as the inauguration of the new council hall of the Shakyas, as seen in MN 53, and the inauguration of a new palace by Prince Bodhi, as depicted in MN 85. The early texts also speak of how during the Buddha's old age, the kingdom of Magadha was usurped by a new king, Ajatashatru, who overthrew his father Bimbisara. According to the Samaññaphala Sutta, the new king spoke with different ascetic teachers and eventually took refuge in the Buddha. However, Jain sources also claim his allegiance, and it

The First Sermon And The Sangha

is likely he supported various religious groups, not just the Buddha's sangha exclusively. As the Buddha continued to travel and teach, he also came into contact with members of other śrama sects. There is evidence from the early texts that the Buddha encountered some of these figures and critiqued their doctrines. The Samaññaphala Sutta identifies six such sects. The early texts also depict the elderly Buddha as suffering from back pain. Several texts depict him delegating teachings to his chief disciples since his body now needed more rest. However, the Buddha continued teaching well into his old age. One of the most troubling events during the Buddha's old age was Devadatta's schism. Early sources speak of how the Buddha's cousin, Devadatta, attempted to take over leadership of the order and then left the sangha with several Buddhist monks and formed a rival sect. This sect is said to have been supported by King Ajatashatru. The Pali texts depict Devadatta as plotting to kill the Buddha, but these plans all fail. They depict the Buddha as sending his two chief disciples, Sariputta and Moggallana, to this schismatic community in order to convince the monks who left with Devadatta to return. All the major early Buddhist Vinaya texts depict Devadatta as a divisive figure who attempted to split the Buddhist community, but they disagree on what issues he disagreed with the Buddha on. The Sthavira texts generally focus on five points which are seen as excessive ascetic practices, while the Mahasamghika Vinaya speaks of a more comprehensive disagreement, which has Devadatta alter the discourses as well as monastic discipline. Bhikkhu Sujato, 2012, Why Devadatta Was No Saint, A critique of Reginald Ray's thesis of the condemned saint. At around the same time of Devadatta's schism, there was also war between Ajatashatru's Kingdom of Magadha, and Kosala, led by an elderly king Pasenadi. Ajatashatru seems to have been victorious, a turn of events the Buddha is reported to have regretted. The main narrative of the Buddha's last days, death and the events following his death is contained in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, DN 16, and its various parallels in Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan. According to Anālayo, these include the Chinese Dirgha Agama 2, Sanskrit fragments of the Mahaparinirvanasutra, and three discourses preserved as individual translations in Chinese. The Mahaparinibbana sutta depicts the Buddha's last year as a time of war. It begins with Ajatashatru's decision to make war on the Vajjika League, leading him to send a minister to ask the Buddha for advice. The Buddha responds by saying that the Vajjikas can be expected to prosper as long as they do seven things, and he then applies these seven principles to the Buddhist Sangha, showing that he is concerned about its future welfare. The Buddha says that the Sangha will prosper as long as they hold regular and frequent assemblies, meet in harmony, do not change the rules of training, honour their superiors who were ordained before them, do not fall prey to worldly desires, remain devoted to forest hermitages, and preserve their personal mindfulness. He then gives further lists of important virtues to be upheld by the Sangha. The early texts depict how the Buddha's two chief disciples, Sariputta and Moggallana, died just before the Buddha's death. The Mahaparinibbana depicts the Buddha as experiencing illness during the last months of his life but initially recovering. It depicts him as stating that he cannot promote anyone to

Travels And The Growth Of The Order

be his successor. When Ananda requested this, the Mahaparinibbana records his response as follows. After travelling and teaching some more, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ananda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his death and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha. Bhikkhu Mettanando and Oskar von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning. The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms. The Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns. Modern scholars also disagree on this topic, arguing both for pig's flesh or some kind of plant or mushroom that pigs like to eat. Whatever the case, none of the sources which mention the last meal attribute the Buddha's sickness to the meal itself. As per the Mahaparinibbana sutta, after the meal with Cunda, the Buddha and his companions continued travelling until he was too weak to continue and had to stop at Kushinagar, where Ananda had a resting place prepared in a grove of Sala trees. After announcing to the sangha at large that he would soon be passing away to final Nirvana, the Buddha ordained one last novice into the order personally. His name was Subhadda. He then repeated his final instructions to the sangha, which was that the Dhamma and Vinaya was to be their teacher after his death. Then he asked if anyone had any doubts about the teaching, but nobody did. The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: All sankharas decay. Strive for the goal with diligence, appamada, Pali: vayadhamma sankhara appamadena sampadetha. He then entered his final meditation and died, reaching what is known as parinirvana, final nirvana; instead of a person being reborn, the five aggregates of physical and mental phenomena that constitute a being cease to occur. The Mahaparinibbana reports that in his final meditation he entered the four dhyanas consecutively, then the four immaterial attainments and finally the meditative dwelling known as nirodha-samapatti, before returning to the fourth dhyana right at the moment of death. According to the Mahaparinibbana sutta, the Mallians of Kushinagar spent the days following the Buddha's death honouring his body with flowers, music and scents. The sangha waited until the eminent elder Mahakassapa arrived to pay his respects before cremating the body. The Buddha's body was then cremated and the remains, including his bones, were kept as relics and they were distributed among various north Indian kingdoms like Magadha, Shakya and Koliya. These relics were placed in monuments or mounds called stupas, a common funerary practice at the time. Centuries later they would be exhumed and enshrined by Ashoka into many new stupas around the Mauryan realm. Many supernatural legends surround the history of alleged relics as they accompanied the spread of Buddhism and gave legitimacy to rulers. According to various Buddhist sources, the First Buddhist Council was held shortly after the Buddha's death to collect, recite and memorise the teachings. Mahakassapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the council. However, the historicity of the traditional accounts of the first council is disputed by modern scholars. Harvey, Peter, 2013, An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices, 2nd ed., New York: Cambridge University Press, p. 88, Teachings and views. Intuiting the original doctrines of the Buddha, and to what extent the precepts of contemporary Buddhism reflect these teachings, is a difficult task. Many of the core principles of Buddhism, including the Eightfold Path, Four Noble Truths, and the concept of moksha, appear to have come after the Buddha himself, and the extent to which the Buddha engaged in philosophical inquiry is uncertain. Smith, Douglass, and Justin Whitaker, Reading the Buddha as a Philosopher. Philosophy East and West 66, no. 2, 2016, pp. 515, 538. The earliest surviving Buddhist texts are already

The Last Days And Parinirvana

sectarian in nature, and reconstructing the beliefs of pre-sectarian Buddhism is rife with difficulties and disagreements among scholars, not all of whom believe a meaningful reconstruction is possible. Historicity Scholarly views on the earliest teachings. One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest versions of the Pali Canon and other texts, such as the surviving portions of Sarvastivada, Mulasarvastivada, Mahisasaka, Dharmaguptaka, and the Chinese Agamas. The reliability of these sources, and the possibility of drawing out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Lambert Schmithausen, there are three positions held by modern scholars of Buddhism with regard to the authenticity of the teachings contained in the Nikayas: Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials. Scepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism. Cautious optimism in this respect. Scholars such as Richard Gombrich, Akira Hirakawa, Alexander Wynne and A.K. Warder hold that these Early Buddhist Texts contain material that could possibly be traced to the Buddha. Richard Gombrich argues that since the content of the earliest texts presents such originality, intelligence, grandeur and, most relevantly, coherence...it is hard to see it as a composite work. Thus he concludes they are the work of one genius. Peter Harvey also agrees that much of the Pali Canon must derive from his teachings. Harvey, Peter, 1990, An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices, p. 3. Introduction to Religion. Cambridge University Press. Likewise, A. K. Warder has written that there is no evidence to suggest that it, the shared teaching of the early schools, was formulated by anyone other than the Buddha and his immediate followers. According to Alexander Wynne, the internal evidence of the early Buddhist literature proves its historical authenticity. Other scholars of Buddhist studies have disagreed with the mostly positive view that the early texts reflect the teachings of the historical Buddha, arguing that some teachings contained in the early texts are the authentic teachings of the Buddha, but not others. Ainslie Embree writes that many sermons credited to the Buddha are the works of later teachers, so there is considerable doubt about his original message. According to Tilmann Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies. According to Tilmann Vetter, the earliest core of the Buddhist teachings is the meditative practice of dhyana, but liberating insight became an essential feature of the Buddhist tradition only at a later date. He posits that the Fourth Noble Truths, the Eightfold path and Dependent Origination, which are commonly seen as essential to Buddhism, are later formulations which form part of the explanatory framework of this liberating insight. Lambert Schmithausen similarly argues that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting liberating insight, which is attained after mastering the four dhyanas, is a later addition. Johannes Bronkhorst also argues that the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of liberating insight. Edward Conze argued that the attempts of European scholars to reconstruct the original teachings of the Buddha were all mere guesswork. Conze, Edward, 2000, Buddhism: A Short History. From Buddhism to Sufism Series. Oneworld. Core teachings. A number of teachings and practices are deemed essential to Buddhism, including: the samyojana, fetters, chains or bounds, that is, the sankharas, formations, the kleshas, unwholesome mental states, including the three poisons, and the asavas, influx, canker, that perpetuate sasara, the repeated cycle of becoming and rebirth. According to the Pali suttas, the Buddha stated that this samara is without discoverable beginning. A first point is not discerned of beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving. In the Dutiyalokadhammasutta sutta, AN 8:6, the Buddha explains how eight worldly winds keep the world turning around... Gain and loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame, pleasure and pain. He then explains how the difference between a noble, arya, person and an uninstructed worldling is that a noble person reflects on and understands the impermanence of these conditions. This cycle of becoming is characterised by dukkha, commonly referred to as suffering, dukkha is more aptly rendered as unsatisfactoriness or unease. It is the unsatisfactoriness and unease that comes with a life dictated by automatic responses and habituated selfishness, and the unsatifacories of expecting enduring happiness from things which are impermanent, unstable and thus unreliable. The ultimate noble goal should be liberation from this cycle. Samsara is dictated by karma, which is an impersonal natural law, similar to how certain seeds produce certain plants and fruits. Karma is not the only cause for one's conditions, as the Buddha listed various physical and environmental causes alongside karma. The Buddha's teaching of karma differed to that of the Jains and Brahmins, in that on his view, karma is primarily mental intention, as opposed to mainly physical action or ritual acts. The Buddha is reported to have said By karma I mean intention. Richard Gombrich summarises the Buddha's view of karma as follows: all thoughts, words, and deeds derive their moral value, positive or negative, from the intention behind them. The six sense bases and the five aggregates. The ayatana, six sense bases, and the five skandhas, aggregates, describe how sensory contact leads to attachment and dukkha. The six.