The Life and Teachings of Buddha Siddhartha Gautama

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All the stages of Buddha's life, his birth, his enlightenment, his death and how his teachings then spread throughout the world.

Presentation

The Buddha, whose personal name was Siddhartha and family name Gotama, lived in northern India in the 6th century BC.

His father, Suddhodana, ruled the Sakya kingdom (in modern Nepal).

His mother was Queen Maya (Māyādevī).

The Buddha "the Awakened One", Siddhartha Gautama is also called Shakyamuni "sage of the Śākyas".

He is sometimes called Shakyamuni Buddha to distinguish him from other Buddhas.

The Birth of Buddha

He was born in Lumbinî, on the road to Kapilavastu, the capital of the family clan, in the present-day Nepalese Terai.

The stories of Siddhartha's birth are filled with mythical details: his mother Maya (whose name means "illusion") is said to have conceived him in a dream, penetrated in the womb by a six-tusked white elephant.

She is said to have given birth standing up, clinging to a tree branch, while Brahmanic deities showered flower petals on her.

As soon as it left its mother's side, the child stood up and "took possession" of the Universe by turning towards the four cardinal points, then took seven steps towards the north.

Māyādevī reportedly died a week later, entrusting her son to her sister and co-wife Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī.

The sage Ashita, former guru of Suddhodana (Buddha's father) and then a hermit in the Himalayas.

He is said to have seen, thanks to his powers, the birth of Siddhartha and came himself to examine the child, on whose body he recognized the marks of a Buddha.

At the choosing of the name on the fifth day, eight eminent Brahmins were present; seven predicted that the child would be either a great king or an ascetic, but the youngest, Kondañña, also saw clearly that he was the next Buddha.

The first name given to him is not specified in the accounts of the ceremony.

Palace Life and Marriage of Prince Siddhartha

Some texts in the Pali canon claim that he had his first experience of meditation and attained the first degree of jhana (states of concentration, meditation) when he was still a young child, sitting under a jambu tree during a plowing ceremony performed by his father.

Other texts place the event later in his life.

According to the Jatakas, it was at the age of sixteen that he married the young princess Yaśodharā who gave him a son, Rāhula.

According to André Bareau, Rahula's mother was unknown in the first four Nikayas and the Agamas, but her legend developed in many details from the 1st century BC onwards.

The Buddha is said to have spent his first twenty-nine years in observance of Hinduism and trained in the handling of the bow like a true kṣatriya (warrior caste), yet kept safe from the sight of suffering and death, and even kept according to some versions within the confines of the family palace.

The Brahmins who had predicted a future for him as a king or ascetic had, in fact, recommended to his father to take this precaution if he wanted to avoid the second option coming true.

Śuddhodana of course hoped that his son would become a king and thought that a life of ease would prevent him from reflecting on difficulties and suffering.

Prince Siddhartha discovers suffering

The young prince Siddhartha lived in his palace, which was equipped with all the luxuries at his disposal.

But, he finds himself confronted with the reality of life and the suffering of humanity and then decides to find a solution.

The Four Encounters That Changed the Life of the Future Buddha

Meeting an old man makes him aware of the suffering of passing time and the decline of the aging body.

Meeting a sick person teaches him that the body also suffers regardless of time.

The encounter with a corpse being led to the stake reveals death to him in all its sordid character.

Finally, the encounter with a hermit shows him what wisdom can be.

According to various sources in the canon, after the first encounter, he shares his astonishment with his coachman, Channa, who takes him out of the palace where he discovers the other signs and becomes fully aware of the many facets of suffering.

He then decides to find a solution to put an end to it.

Renunciation and Asceticism of Prince Siddhartha

At the age of twenty-nine, shortly after the birth of his only son, Rahula, he abandoned his kingdom and became an ascetic in search of a solution.

According to Pali tradition, it was on a full moon night in the month of āsālha (July) that he left the kingdom of Kapilavastu on his horse Kanthaka accompanied by his charioteer Channa, the four celestial guardians stifling the galloping and neighing of the horse so that no one would notice anything.

For six years the ascetic Gotama wandered in the Ganges Valley, meeting famous religious masters, studying and following their systems and methods, and submitting to rigorous ascetic practices.

His master was the Brahmin Arada Kalama, but what he learned – mastering the seventh dhyāna, the sphere of nothingness – did not seem enough to him.

He went to Rajagriha and took as his second master Udraka Ramaputra, who taught him the eighth dhyāna, the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception.

Here again, the Buddha felt that he had not found the path to Nirvana.

For six years he practiced austerities with five other meditating ascetics, including Kondañña who had identified him as the future Buddha at his birth.

Weakened by his abstinence, he one day almost drowned while taking a bath.

Realizing that these practices had not led him to a greater understanding of the world, he decided to find another path.

He then recalled the past episode when he had attained the first jhāna (enlightenment) under a jambu.

He decided to abandon extreme austerities and concentrate on meditation, tracing the middle path which consists of denying excesses, refusing laxity as well as excessive austerity.

His companions thought he was abandoning the practice and abandoned him.

The Buddha's Awakening

On the same day, meditating under a banyan tree at Uruvelā near Bodh-Gaya, he ended his mortifications by accepting a bowl of rice pudding from the village woman Sujāta.

Then, after a ritual bath and an afternoon of meditation in a sal wood, he sits under a pipal tree and vows not to move from that place until he has reached the ultimate truth.

Several legendary versions tell how Mara, the demon of death and passions, frightened by the power that the Buddha was about to gain against him, tried to pull him out of his meditation by unleashing hordes of terrifying demons against him.

In fact, the fight with Mara can also be likened to Buddha's mental fight against bad thoughts, desires and distraction.

But Mara's attacks are in vain: it is with the gesture often represented in the iconography of "taking the earth to witness" of his past merits (bhûmisparshamudra) that Siddhārtha repels them, simply denying the demonic presences without fighting them, in all serenity.

He can thus continue his night of meditation and achieve awakening at dawn.

The following four to seven weeks, depending on the version, saw the sporadic return of Māra and her seductive daughters, always without effect.

The Buddha meditates in various places, including a shelter made from the body of the Naga king Muchalinda.

In fact, a terrible downpour took place, causing the nearby lake to flood.

Entirely absorbed in his meditation under a tree, the Buddha did not notice this and continued to meditate despite the danger.

Muchalinda, the naga king living in the tree or lake, raised it or surrounded it with seven rings and sheltered it from the rain with his seven hoods.

Thus one evening, sitting under a tree (since known as the Bodhi or Bo tree, "the tree of wisdom") on the bank of the Neranjara River, at Buddha-Gaya (near Gaya, in modern Bihar), aged thirty-five, Gotama attained Enlightenment, after which he became known as the Buddha, "the Awakened One."

Having become Gautama Buddha, he hesitates to teach, wondering if such a word will be heard.

Tradition involves a Naga who convinces him to share his knowledge with humanity.

In another Buddhist legend, a Naga who has taken the appearance of a man attempts to follow the teaching and Buddha discovers him and explains to him that this teaching is only for men.

The Naga then asked him for a favor: that all those who wanted to follow his teachings be called Naga before becoming a monk and the Buddha would have accepted.

This is why in Thailand candidates for ordination are first called " nak " Nâga.

Buddha preached his first sermon to a group of five ascetics, his former companions, in the Park of Gazelles at Isipatana (modern Sarnath) near Benares.

In Gautama's first sermon, The Turning of the Wheel of the Law, he enunciates the four noble truths.

He claims to have achieved enlightenment or full understanding of the nature and causes of human suffering and the steps necessary for its elimination.

This enlightenment, possible for all beings, is called bodhi and gives Siddhārtha his new name: he who has attained bodhi is a Buddha.

Gautama Buddha made it clear that he was neither a god nor the messenger of a god, and that enlightenment was not the result of a supernatural process or agent, but rather the result of careful attention to the nature of the human mind, and could be rediscovered by anyone for their own benefit.

Two different interpretations of this statement distinguish ancient Buddhism from Mahāyāna Buddhism.

The first is that it is possible for everyone, as a listener of Gautama's teaching, to attain enlightenment and emerge from Samsara.

The second is that every sentient being possesses within itself the Buddha nature (tathāgatagarbha), the true nature of the mind, sometimes called the "seed of awakening."

This interpretation, which postulates the existence of a universal ontological or transcendent nature, is rejected by orthodox Theravada.

The teaching of Buddha

From that day on, for forty-five years, Buddha taught all classes of men and women—king and peasant, Brahmin and outcast, banker and beggar, religious and bandit—without making the slightest distinction between them.

And in the Buddhist religion, we are not asked to believe stupidly, Buddha Sakyamuni said to his disciples:

“Do not accept my teachings without having truly studied them.

If you are given a gold nugget, you will naturally check in every possible way whether it is really gold.

In the same way, act in this way with my teachings to recognize their validity and accept them.

The "Discourse of Benares", the first public teaching of the Buddha

The Doctrine (Dharma) was expounded by the Buddha in a teaching known as the “Four Noble Truths.”

This is the main teaching of his first public speech, in Benares, shortly after his Awakening.

It is presented as a medical presentation:

1st Truth: the symptom – dissatisfaction is inherent in human existence;

2nd Truth: the diagnosis – this dissatisfaction has its origins in ignorance and the desire for appropriation, specific to the ego;

3rd Truth: Therapeutic – there exists a state of health where, ignorance being abolished, desire is not expressed and does not give rise to dissatisfaction;

4th Truth: the remedy – to regain this state of health, one must follow a Way (a discipline of life divided into eight “branches”: “the Eightfold Noble Path”) which puts an end to ignorance and desire.

If the observation made by the Buddha seems pessimistic (all existence is subject to dissatisfaction), his teaching is optimistic since he affirms that everyone can regain health, where all dissatisfaction is abolished.

To achieve health (one's own "Buddha nature"), one must devote oneself to study and training.

The first three "Truths" invite study, which allows us to understand the origin of dissatisfaction (the nature of mind and phenomena), explains why our usual experience is "erroneous" and proclaims the possibility of putting an end to Ignorance.

These first three “Truths”, developed, explained and commented on, constitute the doctrine.

The fourth "Truth" advocates training through the concrete application of methods capable of transforming habitual experience into an experience of awakening, free from all distortion and confusion.

This fourth “Truth” sets out the principles which will give rise to the different forms of practice.

The doctrine taught by Buddha

The Buddha begins by setting out "our" vision of reality, then he proposes a new analysis of it and, finally, teaches how to come to see things as he himself sees them, that is to say "as they are"...

The “Self” and the ego

In our usual experience, we regard the world and its phenomena, our body and mind, or our feelings and ideas... as if they were related to each other, but fundamentally independent of each other and as shaped on models – what we call an “essence,” a “Self.”

To explain the variety of the world, we imagine that each individual, each phenomenon is in fact only a sort of "variation" on the theme of this "Self": horse, tree, rain, mountain, star, anger, freedom, love...

As far as our mind is concerned, we firmly believe in the existence of an insubstantial and permanent "ego" (atman), which, through the body, apprehends the world, experiences feelings, reasons, and conceives ideas.

The ego, even more than the body, is what seems to constitute our personality, our individuality, what belongs to us.

Impermanence and Suffering

At every moment of our lives, we can see that everything in nature is subject to death.

Everything that appears will disappear one day or another.

This is also the case with our own bodies, as with all living beings and all material things.

This is also the case with our feelings and ideas: like stars or mountains, our love appears one day and one day will disappear, and we change our ideas and opinions.

It is this impermanence that makes us suffer.

Because we see that everything dies – everything that, for us, has a “Self” – we fear that our own ego is also mortal!

But it is like the ego: nothing exists "in Itself," independently.

Everything—including our ego—is born and dies. It is because we reject this reality of things, "as they are," because we maintain the illusion of the existence of a "Self," that we suffer.

Karma and rebirth

In our daily lives, all our actions (karma) are closely dependent on this view of things: our actions, our reactions, our desires and our fears are determined by this belief in the ego.

It is to maintain, protect and develop it that we act or react, depending on our ideas and feelings or external events.

Every time someone or something seems to call us into question, we act as if to prove to ourselves that we exist, that this ego exists.

Each of our actions, thus, is born from this intention to prove its existence and, once the act is done, we rejoice in having proven it.

Whenever our ego is in danger of dying, we do everything to revive it, to keep it alive...

It is the belief in the ego that fuels the intention of each of our actions and it is the attachment to the result of these actions that maintains our belief in the ego.

Each act thus brings about a “new birth” – a rebirth – of the ego.

Interdependence

But, in fact, all phenomena exist only in interdependence.

Physical objects are compounds.

Just as the mountain is an aggregate of stone, earth and plant or animal residues, our body is composed of cells that come to us from our parents, from the food we ingest, from the air we breathe.

Our perceptions, too, are “composite.”

They are the combined result of the existence of external objects, their contact with our body, the impression they leave on our senses and the interpretation our brain makes of them.

Our ideas, likewise, are composite.

They depend on the education we received, our perception of the outside world, the events we have experienced, the ideas other people have expressed.

And our ego – the idea we have of ourselves – is an idea like any other…

Emptiness and Mind

Reality appears to us as a relationship of duality: there would exist a subject (the ego) which would experience objects (external phenomena).

According to the Buddha, this "objective" reality does not exist, it is an illusion.

It is she who maintains desire and suffering.

In fact, the phenomena we experience in our daily lives do not exist "in Itself", independently of the experience we have of them.

They have only a "relative" existence. This is what the study of the Buddha's teachings can help us understand.

In reality – the “absolute” reality – all phenomena are “empty” because they exist only in interdependence.

This is called the 'emptiness' of phenomena (shunyata) and it is this emptiness that can be experienced in the practice of meditation.

See also: Learning to meditate

It is not then an experience lived by the ego, in desire and attachment, but a direct and intuitive knowledge of reality, "as it is", lived by the Spirit, our "Buddha nature".

The practice

The "practice" includes different "trainings" and "spiritual exercises" that the disciples of the Buddha implement to verify, through their own personal experience, the veracity of the teachings and their effectiveness, with a view to progressing on the spiritual path and thus achieving its goal: Awakening and Liberation.

What does the practice consist of?

Practice is defined as a set of means made available to disciples to facilitate and make possible the direct and individual experience of Reality.

Everyone is invited to verify its effectiveness for themselves, but, if it is made available to all, it is only effective if it is put into practice and this verification is only possible to the extent that the disciple commits himself individually, that he has or develops the required capacities and that he strictly and faithfully follows the proposed method.

The Noble Eightfold Path

Set forth in the Fourth Noble Truth, the Way – or Path – is presented in eight categories (Eightfold Noble Path), grouped under three headings:

sîla, ethical conduct, samâdhi, discipline of the mind, and prajñâ, “intuitive” wisdom (to distinguish it from intellectual wisdom).

Sîla allows one to act in the domain of samsâra, to reduce “negative” karma and to develop “positive” karma, in order to create an environment favorable to practice, one’s own and that of others.

It includes three categories: right speech, right action and right livelihood.

Samadhi allows each person, individually, to calm the mind, to know and master its functioning and its “powers”.

It includes right effort, right attention and right concentration (or recollection).

This is what is generally called “meditation” in the West.

Prajñâ is the access to ultimate reality, and its development increases as attachment decreases.

It comes from listening, personal reflection and putting teachings into practice.

It consists of right thinking and right understanding.

The basis of practice is therefore discipline.

It focuses on external behavior, physical and verbal actions, but also internal thinking and therefore directly contributes to meditation training.

And meditation, in turn, supports discipline…

The Buddha founded the community of Buddhist monks and nuns (the sangha) to perpetuate his teachings after his passing.

The Death of the Buddha

At the age of 80, the Buddha died in Kusinara (in modern Uttar Pradesh).

He expired while meditating, lying on his right side, smiling: he was considered to have attained parinirvāṇa, the voluntary extinction of the self, complete and definitive.

The Buddha's last words are:

“All constructive energies are impermanent; work efficiently without ceasing; be of well-focused intention; watch the thought!”

After his death, differences of opinion were expressed which, over the course of eight centuries, resulted in very different schools.

Four councils were held successively until the 3rd century AD to attempt to define the essential texts common to all Buddhists, regardless of their order.

Each time they were failures: the essential principles were therefore retained: the four Noble Truths and the three jewels.

And so today there are different forms of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, contrary to what some people think, is not the religious leader of all Buddhists, but a representative of Tibetan Buddhism which is very different from Theravada Buddhism practiced in Thailand.

Personality and Character of the Buddha

The Buddha presented in Buddhist scriptures possesses the following characteristic traits:

• A complete education and training in the areas appropriate for an aristocratic warrior, such as martial arts, farm management, and literature, but also a deep understanding of the religious and philosophical ideas of his culture and time.
  Siddhārtha Gautama was an athletic man, skilled in martial arts such as wrestling and archery, and could travel for miles without difficulty and camp in the wilderness.
  Images of the fat “Gay Buddha” or Laughing Buddha are not depictions of Siddhārtha Gautama;
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• An ideal teacher, who always finds the appropriate metaphor, and who perfectly adapts his message to his audience, whoever it may be;
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• Courageous and calm in all circumstances, whether during a religious discussion, or when faced with a parricidal prince or a murderer. However, he becomes overcome with exasperation when he sees monks distorting his teachings;
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• Moderate in all bodily appetites, he lived a celibate life from the age of twenty-nine until his death.
  He was as indifferent to hunger as to the rigors of the climate.

Physical Characteristics of Gautama Buddha

Although representations of Gautama were initially symbolic, only depicting him in human form from the 1st century onwards, his physical characteristics are described in the Pali Canon.

The Buddha is portrayed as tall, robust, and handsome.

His eyes are blue, his skin golden, his ears abnormally elongated.

He would have asked his disciples not to be represented in the form of a statue or image so as not to be idolized, only his teaching should remain.

But, men being what they are, we know the rest...

Buddha in Hinduism, Islam and Christianity

In India, all places associated with the life of the Buddha are still centers of pilgrimage, not only for Buddhists, but also for Hindus of all backgrounds, because, as an avatar of Vishnu, he is considered a great guru "spiritual master."

In Muslim and Christian texts, we find the life of Barlaam and Josaphat or Joasaph, it is a legendary life of the Bodhisattva Siddhartha Gautama, a Buddhist story in Sanskrit.

This Life of the Bodhisattva gave rise to a very large number of versions in different languages ​​spoken in the 1st millennium in the Indo-Persian space.

The history of this legendary tale can be traced from a Mahayana Buddhist text in Sanskrit dating from the 2nd-4th century, to a Manichaean version, which then found its way into Muslim culture in Arabic as the Kitab Bilawhar wa-Yudasaf (Book of Bilawhar and Yudasaf), a text well known in 8th-century Baghdad.

It was then translated into Georgian in the 9th or 10th century, where it was then Christianized.

This Christian version was then translated into Greek in the 10th-11th century by Saint Euthymius the Hagiorite (en) and then into Latin in the middle of the 11th century.

From the 13th century onwards, The Golden Legend, a book in French by Jacques de Voragine, ensured its widest distribution.

Evidence of the legend in Sogdian leads some authors to believe it originated in Central Asia.

Buddha, Christian saint!

In the Christian version, King Abenner or Avenier of India persecuted the Church founded in his kingdom by the Apostle Thomas.

When astrologers predicted that his own son would one day be a Christian, Abenner took the young prince Ioasaf (Jehoshaphat) and isolated him from all outside contact.

Despite this confinement, Josaphat met the hermit Saint Barlaam and converted to Christianity.

Jehoshaphat kept his faith, even in the face of his father's anger or his attempts to convince him.

Eventually Abenner himself converted, handed over his throne to Jehoshaphat, and withdrew into the wilderness to become a hermit.

Jehoshaphat himself later abdicated and went into hiding with Barlaam, his former teacher.

In the Middle Ages, both Barlaam and Josaphat were considered Christian saints and included in 16th-century editions of the Roman Martyrology.

They appear in the calendar of the Orthodox Church of Greece on August 26 and appeared in that of the Roman Catholic Church on November 27.

In the Slavic tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, both saints are commemorated on December 2 (November 19 in the Julian calendar).

Documentary on the life of Buddha

Some Dharma Teachings

Just some wonderful wisdom teachings to ponder.

A recommended book to learn more

Today, there are many different schools of Buddhism and different teachings that sometimes deviate greatly from the original teaching.

If you want to know more about the true teachings of Buddha, I advise you to read this book, the essentials are there and the bravest or wisest can certainly achieve enlightenment with:

"The Teachings of the Buddha from the Most Ancient Texts" by Walpola Rahula

“Reverend Rahula received the traditional training of a Buddhist monk in Ceylon according to all the rules.

[…] The book that he kindly asked me to present to the Western public is a luminous and accessible exposition of the fundamental principles of Buddhist doctrine, as found in the most ancient texts, those called in Sanskrit

"the Tradition" (Agama) and in Pali "the Canonical Corpus" (Nikdya), and to which the Reverend Rahula, who has an incomparable knowledge of them, refers constantly and almost exclusively."

Paul Demiéville

Find it on Amazon.fr

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See also:
Theravada Buddhism
Representation of Buddha, the fat and the thin
Buddhism and politics

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Source: wikipedia.org ; buddhism-universite.org[