Intro to Buddhism

“Are you a god?” they asked.
“No.”
“An angel?”
“No.”
“A saint?”
“No.”
“Then what are you?”
Buddha answered, “I am awake.”


Buddhism begins with a man. In his later years people came to him even as they would to Jesus asking what he was. His answer became his title. The Sanskrit root budh means both “to wake up” and “to know.” Then Buddha means the “enlightened one” or the “awakened one.” He was born around 563 B.C.E. in what is now Nepal. His full name was Siddhartha (first name) Gautama (surname) of the Sakyas. Sakyas being the clan to which his family belonged. His father was a king, but since there were many kingdoms in subcontinent of India It is only accurate to say his father was more of a feudal lord. He was said to have been exceptionally handsome. At sixteen he married a neighboring princess, Yasodhara, who bore him a son to whom they called Rahula.

In short, he was the man with everything, family, wealth, a fine appearance, and a model wife. In his twenties a discontent settled over him. This discontent is impounded in the legend of the Four Passing Sights. When Siddhartha was born his father summoned fortune-tellers to find out the future of his heir. All of them agreed that this was no usual child. His career was crossed with one ambiguity. If he remained in the world he would unify India and become its greatest conqueror. But if he abandoned the world he would become a world redeemer, not a conqueror. So, his father, firmly set on steering his son to his former destiny, ordered that three palaces and thousands of dancing girls be put at the heir’s disposal. Orders were given that no ugliness may intrude upon the courtly pleasures.

Even when he went riding these sights were cleared from the road. One day, however an old man was overlooked, some say this was a man incarnated by the gods to teach a lesson. This man was old, trembling, and had a bent, crooked body, that day Siddhartha learned of old age. The second day when he was riding he saw on the side of the road a body racked with disease; and on a third journey a corpse. Finally on the fourth occasion he saw a monk with a shaven head, ochre robe, and a bowl; and on that day he learned of the life of withdrawal from the world in search of freedom. Every rich thing in his life lost its charm. Then one night in his twenty-ninth year he made his Great Going Forth. While his wife and son were sleeping bade them a silent goodbye. He ordered the gatekeeper to bridle his white horse and they both rode off into the night. Riding towards the forest they reached the edge at daybreak. Then Siddhartha shaved his head and dressed in ragged clothes plunged into the forest in search of enlightenment.


Six years followed; his first act was to seek two of the foremost Hindu masters of the day and pick their minds for the wisdom in their vast tradition. In time he concluded that his teachers knew nothing more. His next step was to join a band of ascetics and give their way an honest try; but that did not bring him enlightenment. Later one evening in Gaya in northeast India he sat under a peepul tree that now is known as a Bo tree, short for bodhi, which means enlightenment. This place was later named the Immovable Spot because legend says the Buddha, sensing a breakthrough was near, vowed to stay there until he was enlightened. The records offer as the first event of the night a temptation scene reminiscent of Jesus’ on the eve of his ministry. But someone didn’t want him to succeed.


The Evil One knowing that the Buddha was going to succeed rushed to stop him. He attacked first in the form of Kama, the God of Desire and sent three women to try to disrupt him. Seeing that he still didn’t move, he struck in the form of Mara, the Lord of Death. He sent hurricanes, torrential rains, and showers of flaming rocks. But as they came into his field of concentration they turned into flower petals. As morning appeared he pierced through the last bubble of the universe; the Great Awakening had occurred. Freedom was his. His being was transformed and he emerged the Buddha. He had stayed there for forty-nine days; yet he had one more fight from Mara. Mara challenged the Buddha’s strong point: his reason. In short, how to show what can only be found; teach what can only be learned. This argument carried on for the whole day and finally the Buddha answered, “There will be some whose eyes are only slightly dimmed by dust, and they will understand.” With this Mara was banished forever.
A half a century later walked the dusty paths of India preaching his redeeming message. He founded an order of monks and nuns-now the oldest historical institution on this planet. The Buddha then withdrew for six years then returned for forty-five. After a very long ministry of forty-five years, around the age of eighty and around 483 B.C.E., the Buddha died from dysentery after eating dried boar’s flesh in the home of Cunda the smith. Even on his deathbed he thought of others. It occurred to him Cunda might feel responsible for his death. His last request was that Cunda be told that of all the meals he had ever eaten only two stood out as having blessed him the most. One was the meal that gave him strength to reach enlightenment under the Bo tree and the other that opened him to the final gates to nirvana.