The Buddha: Siddhartha Gautama

Buddhism is one of the greatest religions worldwide. It came from India it spread to Asia, China, Japan, and eventually the whole world. It originated in India by an Indian Prince: Siddhartha Gautama, also called The Buddha. Buddhism mainly taught about escaping the cycle of suffering to achieve enlightenment. Buddhism impacted a great number of people and taught them to eliminate suffering and achieve Nirvana. Not everyone can say they are gods, but Buddha himself said everyone was Buddha if we can but realize it.

(Encyclopedia of Philosophy) In order to understand Buddhism, we must understand the life of the Buddha first. This paper mainly talks about buddha’s life.

The Buddha was born in Kapilavastu. He was born into a royal family, his father being King Suddhodana, the leader of the Shakya state. There is one saying that the day his mother had him, she dreamed that a white elephant with six white tusks entered on her right side. The buddha born to be a legend.

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Ten months later he was born. Siddhartha’s mother died seven days after his birth. By tradition, he was born to be a King after his father (William, Buddha). His father wanted him to be a king and political and military ruler rather than a spiritual one. He isolated Siddhartha live in the palace, raised him by a life of great luxury: three palaces built just for him, infinity gold and jewelry, and “king of destiny” title. During Siddhartha’s life in his palaces, he was not familiar with the outside world.

After 29 years of isolation, he finally got a chance to see the outside world. He took an outside trip which shocked him and influenced the rest of his life. On this trip he saw an old, arthritic, and diseased leper; a decaying corpse, who told him that the world is all about suffering and pain. At last, he saw a monk, who seemed very relieved and happy. The revelation of pain shocked Siddhartha so much that it drove him into a depression. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. Lastly, he determined to find a way to overcome death, sickness, and pain. He didn’t come back to his palace to continue his luxury life. He ran away from his palace and begin to live an ascetic life. This is known as the Great Departure (William, Buddha). He learns with gurus for six years, seeking knowledge, finding enlightenment, and learning wisdom. At this point, he was asked to become the king of the Shakya. He declined and continue to seek enlightenment. Even more, he left the mendicant life to studying yoga. After a while of learning yoga, he achiever high levers of meditative consciousness, but still unsatisfied. Then he strives himself. However, this is also not the right path to finding enlightenment (Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

Finally, he created his own method, which called the Jhana. This time he succeeded. He gets enlightenment by sating under a pipal tree for 49 days. He finally becomes his buddha in his mind. Then he invented steps for people to find the suffering and eliminate it. Which is called Four Noble Truth. They are the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of end suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to end the suffering (William, Buddha). People could achieve Nirvana by following the Four Noble Truth.

By following the Four Noble Truth himself, Siddhartha realized his suffering, eliminated them, and became Awakening. After the Awakening, he became the Buddha. He taught teach Dharma to his followers, to everyone (Saunders). He traveled through the subcontinent and taught the Dharma with his follower. He spread his thinking to everyone he met, everywhere he traveled for the remaining 45 years. At the age of 80, he died, but he's thinking, the Dharma was deeply carved into people’s hearts. His thinking has influence lots of people and becomes his followers. Though he was dead, his followers continued to do his work. They wrote down the Dharma on the paper and passed to more areas. After years, Buddhism has spread all over Asia and becoming more and more worldwide (Saunders). While Buddhism used to be in Asian religion, it is now in American, Europe, and even the world. And now, Buddhism is one of the world’s fourth-largest religions.
As the founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama needs to be remembered and his total worth to be remembered.

Work sited

1. Saunders, E. Dale. "Buddha and Buddhism." Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, 2013. Web. 4 June 2013
2. “Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.” Buddha Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
3. Williams, Joseph."Buddha." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 2 Jan. 2012 . Williams, Joseph.