Buddha

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Buddha, the A title meaning "awakened" or"enlightened." It is most commonly applied to SiddhartaGautama (c. 560–c. 480 B.C.E.), the personwho founded the religion of BUDDHISM. Buddhistmythology actually identifi es many different Buddhas.Siddhartha Gautama is the historical Buddha,that is, the Buddha who has appeared in ourworld's history. In some traditions he is known asSakyamuni, "sage of the Sakyas," because he wasborn in northeast India among a people known asthe Sakyas.LIFEBuddhists believe that when people die, they arereborn (see SAMSARA). In keeping with this belief,they believe that Siddhartha Gautama had manybirths prior to the birth in which he became theBuddha. Texts known as jatakas, "birth stories,"recount events from some of these prior births.Siddhartha's birth into our world was to be hislast. It is said that he carefully chose the time andlocation of that birth, to a princely family in northeastIndia in the sixth century B.C.E. According tolegend, his mother, Queen Maya, dreamed thatfour deities were carrying her bed to the HimalayaMountains. They were followed by a whiteelephant. The white elephant circled the bed,then plunged his tusk into Maya's side. When sheawoke, she discovered she was pregnant.During the sixth month of her pregnancy,Maya went to visit her cousin. Along the way, shestopped in a grove at Lumbini (today in Nepal).There she gave birth to Siddhartha prematurely.Astrologers who read the body marks predicted adouble destiny for the baby: He would either conquerthe world or renounce it. Siddhartha's fatherwanted to ensure that his son chose to conquer theworld, so they protected him from the EVILS of theworld and saw that his every wish was fulfi lled. Asa result, Siddhartha lived the life of pleasure thatmany people only dream about, but in living thatlife, he found that it was insuffi cient.Siddhartha married and had a son. Then,at the age of 29, he made the fateful decision toexplore the world outside his palaces. On successivetrips he encountered four new "sights": anolder person, a sick person, a decaying corpse,and a wandering ascetic. Siddhartha had fi nallyconfronted the realities of duhkha or suffering: oldage, sickness, and death. He resolved to renouncehis life of pleasure and search for the solution tothese problems.First he tried various techniques of MEDITATION.He mastered the skills quickly but found thatthey did not provide the answers he was seeking.Then, for fi ve years he practiced various asceticexercises, denying his body until he was so thinit was said one could feel his backbone throughhis abdomen. Close to death from these exercises,Siddhartha resolved to fi nd a middle waybetween indulgence and denial. After sitting for anextended period under the so-called bodhi-tree inBodh Gaya (today in Bihar state, India), he spentan entire night in meditation. During that night hediscovered the principles that govern the processes of rebirth (see KARMA) as well as the path to releasefrom suffering (see NIRVANA). As morning dawned,he achieved enlightenment (bodhi) and becamethe Buddha.Out of compassion for the sufferings of allsentient, or conscious, beings and at the urgingof a Hindu god, the Buddha remained in hishuman body to teach others the path he had discovered.He gave his fi rst sermons at the deerpark in Sarnath (near BANARAS, India) to ascetics—persons who deprive themselves of luxuriesfor religious purposes—with whom he had beenliving. Hearing his teachings, they too quicklyattained liberation (nirvana) and became the fi rstBuddhist ARHATS.During the remaining years of his life, theBuddha wandered widely over northeast India,teaching his path and ordaining followers—men atfi rst, later women, too—into the SANGHA, the orderof wandering mendicants. At the age of 79 he atesome spoiled food offered by a lay (unordained)follower and died or, as Buddhists say, enteredthe ultimate nirvana (parinirvana) in Kushinagara(today Kasia, India). His closest followersdecided to treat his body the way they would aroyal corpse: They cremated the Buddha's remainsand gave portions of his ashes to several kings.Portions of these remains were later enshrined inSTUPAS throughout the Buddhist world.TEACHINGSUnlike MOSES, JESUS, and MUHAMMAD, the Buddhadid not advocate the worship of any particulargod. He did not deny that gods existed, but hethought that because gods are living beings, they,too, ultimately need to escape from suffering. (Inthe Buddhist view nothing is eternal, not evengods.) Like a compassionate physician, the Buddhadiagnosed and prescribed the cure for the sufferingthat plagues all sentient existence.The Buddha's diagnosis and prescriptionare formulated most compactly in his FOUR NOBLETRUTHS. The Buddha identifi ed the symptoms of ourillness as duhkha, suffering, but suffering in thesense that ultimate satisfaction is unavailable inthis life. The cause of duhkha is craving, longing,or desire, brought about by ignorance of reality.The disease, however, can be cured. The Buddhataught that duhkha disappears once one eliminatescraving. But that requires an entire transformationof one's thought, practice, and perceptions,a transformation that results from practicing theBuddha's eightfold path.Several principles underlie the Buddha's teaching.One of them is "no-self" (Sanskrit, anatman).This principle denies that people have an eternalsoul or an unchanging self or essence, such as onefi nds, for example, in the teachings of CHRISTIANITYand HINDUISM (see ATMAN). A related principle, "nopermanence"(Sanskrit, anitya), emphasizes thatchange characterizes all existence. A third principle,"co-dependent origination" (Sanskrit, pratityasamutpada),highlights the interrelatedness of allthings. According to this teaching, everything istied together in a complex net of causes, so thatthere can be no "fi rst cause" from which all beingsderive.Many religions have worried about the originof the universe or the fate of human beings afterdeath (see COSMOGONY and AFTERLIFE IN WORLD RELIGIONS).The Buddha urged his followers to ignorethese questions, not unlike the teachings of JUDAISM.In the image of his famous "Fire Sermon,"human beings have awakened to fi nd themselvesin a house on fi re. They should not worry abouthow the fi re started, nor should they be concernedwith what they will do after the fi re has been extinguished.They should direct all their efforts to puttingthe fi re out.SIGNIFICANCEThe Buddha is known as the Tathagata, Sanskritfor "the one who went that way." The historicalBuddha, Siddhartha Gautama, is important notbecause he revealed the messages of a god butbecause he discovered and taught the path thathuman beings can follow to attain release fromsuffering. He is most revered in the tradition ofBuddhism known as Theravada, predominant insoutheast Asia. A formula that Theravada ofteninvokes signals the Buddha's importance: "I takerefuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the teachings [Sanskrit, DHARMA]. I take refuge in the monasticcommunity [Sanskrit, sangha]."The other major tradition of Buddhism, predominantin east Asia, is Mahayana; it assignsthe historical Buddha a somewhat lesser place.It reveres the Buddha Sakyamuni principally forhaving revealed the teachings and deeds of otherBuddhas and BODHISATTVAS, such as AMIDA andAVALOKITESVARA, known in Chinese as Kuan Yin.ZEN BUDDHISM goes so far at to caution peopleagainst becoming overly attached to the personof the Buddha. (Recall that attachment and cravingproduce suffering.) A well-known KOAN orZen riddle states: "If you meet the Buddha on theroad, kill him."