Siddhartha Gautama Buddha

Gautama Buddha Wallpaper

Gautama Buddha Statue

Gautam Buddha

Buddha, meaning 'one who is awake' in the sense of having 'woken up to reality' was the title first given to Lord Buddha. It was about 2500 years ago when Prince Siddhartha Gautam left all the worldly pleasures to attain the reality of life, and became the Buddha - the enlightened one. It was a state in which the Buddha gained an insight into the deepest workings of life and therefore into the cause of human suffering, the problem that had set Him on his spiritual quest in the first place

Gautama Siddhartha

Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, was born in the sixth century B.C. in what is now modern Nepal. His father, Suddhodana, was the ruler of the Sakya people and Siddhartha grew up living the extravagant life of a young prince. According to custom, he married at the young age of sixteen to a girl named Yasodhara. His father had ordered that he live a life of total seclusion, but one day Siddhartha ventured out into the world and was confronted with the reality of the inevitable suffering of life. The next day, at the age of twenty-nine, he left his kingdom and newborn son to lead an ascetic life and determine a way to relieve universal suffering.

For six years, Siddhartha submitted himself to rigorous ascetic practices, studying and following different methods of meditation with various religious teachers. But he was never fully satisfied. One day, however, he was offered a bowl of rice from a young girl and he accepted it. In that moment, he realised that physical austerities were not the means to achieve liberation. From then on, he encouraged people to follow a path of balance rather than extremism. He called this The Middle Way.

That night Siddhartha sat under the Bodhi tree, and meditated until dawn. He purified his mind of all defilements and attained enlightenment at the age of thirty-five, thus earning the title Buddha, or "Enlightened One". For the remainder of his eighty years, the Buddha preached the Dharma in an effort to help other sentient beings reach enlightenment.

Lord Buddha Wallpaper

Gautama Buddha

This week on 27th May was Buddha Purnima – the birth anniversary of the great Prophet from India - Gautama Buddha. Buddha meaning ‘the Enlightened One’. Most of us know about the life story of the prince Gautama who became the prophet of compassion and founder of Buddhism and it’s best to know the real teachings that will benefit us rather than the legend. Gautama Buddha is said to have been born around 563 BCE and passed away around 483 BCE. Most modern scholars agree on these dates.

In Buddhist tradition Gautama Buddha's birth name was Siddhartha Gautama, which was changed after he went on a quest for the truth behind life and death. Gautama, also known as Sakyamuni or Shakyamuni ("sage of the Shakyas clan"), is the key figure in Buddhism.

The story of the prince who awakened to become the Buddha is one of the most dramatic and compelling stories of all time. Buddha’s teachings are fundamental to a spiritual revolution in the East that took place some 500 years before Common Era (BCE), some 2500 years ago from today.

Buddha’s self discovery of the ultimate universal truth under the Bodhi Tree was that the cause of human suffering is ignorance. Forty-nine days after Buddha attained enlightenment he was requested to teach. As a result of this request, Buddha rose from meditation and taught the first Wheel of Dharma (Dhamma). The teachings include the Sutra of the Four Noble Truths and his prescribed eightfold noble path, among other teachings.

The Four Noble Truths are:
1. Suffering is an inherent part of living in this world
2. The origin of this suffering is ignorance and that is due to attachment and craving
3. Attachment and craving can be ceased
4. Following the Noble Eightfold Path will lead to the end of suffering.