The Life of Buddha
Birth
Siddhartha Gautoma, the Buddha-to-be, was born in the sixth century BC in Lumbini, to the North of the holy
Indian city of Varanasi. His father Suddhodana was King of the Shakya clan, and ruler of one of several kingdoms
that existed in India at the time.
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Childhood
Queen Mayadevi died soon after the birth and Siddhartha was brought up by his aunt. From earliest childhood
he showed compassionate and meditative qualities. When a great sage by the name of Asita came to visit the
Shakya court, he told the King that Siddhartha would not become a universal monarch but a Buddha, an Enlightened
One. The sage showed that the child was endowed with the thirty-two auspicious marks of spiritual awareness,
such as a broad forehead, large eyes, thick eyelashes and so on, which indicated a life of spiritual achievement.
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Discovering Sorrow
One day Siddhartha went out riding with his charioteer Chandaka. As he left the palace, he came upon an old
man with bent body and legs trembling with the decrepitude of age. Slowly, painfully and leaning heavily upon
his stick the old man was struggling down the road. Siddhartha had never before seen the infirmity of old age.
He pulled his chariot to a halt and asked Chandaka what ailed the man. Chandaka replied that the man was old
and his body was failing. In an anguished voice, Prince Siddhartha asked if all human beings were fated to
grow old as such and Chandaka replied this was a fact of life. Siddhartha returned to the palace in a troubled
state of mind.
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Search for truth
Siddhartha travelled through the Gangetic plain in search of truth. He paused now and again to study with
renowned teachers and in time came to the city of Vaishali. He had heard of a great teacher living there named
Kalapa Arada who lived with 300 disciples in strict monastic discipline. Siddhartha listened and practiced
the instructions of the sage but remained unsatisfied. He realised that Kalapa Arada's path was not the one
he wished to pursue and so he moved on.
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Realisation
Choosing a pipal tree close to the river, he undertook to meditate until he attained the knowledge he sought.
A local grass cutter offered him some soft green kusha grass for a cushion and he walked around the tree seven
times and then he prepared his seat. Sitting down facing eastwards he began to meditate, vowing that he would
not get up from that spot until he had attained enlightenment.
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Teaching
After attaining enlightenment, the Buddha remained seated for seven days. In all, it was forty-nine days
before he would first teach the true path that he had discovered.
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Passing Away
When the Buddha was eighty years of age, he announced that his time was at an end, and he prepared his followers
for his Paranirvana, the great cessation of his earthly being. His constant attendant during this time was
his disciple Ananda. The Buddha told Ananda that after his death the Sangha should not think their master's
words had come to an end. The truth of the Dharma and the Sangha would continue to guide and teach those who
came after he had died.
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