BUDDHA

flourished 4th century BC, ; b. Kapilavastu, Sakya republic, Kosala kingdom died , Kusinara, Malla republic, Magadha kingdom original name Gautama, also called Siddhartha founder of Buddhism, the religion and philosophical system that produced a great culture throughout much of southern and eastern Asia. Buddha, meaning Awakened One, or Enlightened One, is a title, not a proper name. According to the traditional account, Gautama was the son of the rulers of the kingdom of the Sakyas, and was thus a member of the Kshatriya, or warrior, caste. There are various legends about his birth and upbringing. He married at the age of 16 and lived in luxury and comfort. The turning point in his life came when he was 29, when he realized the inevitability of old age, sickness, and death. He thus became aware of the suffering implicit in existence. He resolved on the great renunciation: to give up the princely life and become a wandering ascetic. He departed from the palace, leaving his wife and infant son behind, and went south to the Magadha kingdom in search of teachers to instruct him in the way of truth. With two of them he attained mystical states of elevated consciousness, but, unsatisfied with these states, he continued his search for truth. He was joined by five ascetics at a beautiful grove near Uruvela, where he practiced severe austerities and self-mortifications for nearly six years. When he fainted away in weakness, he abandoned ascetic practices to seek his own path to enlightenment. This he accomplished soon afterward, and, at the age of 35, Gautama became a supreme buddha. He resolved to teach other men what he had discovered about the nature of reality and the means of transcending the human condition. The Buddha spent the rest of his life spreading his teachings, making converts to the religious truths and beliefs he propounded, and training large numbers of learned, well-disciplined followers to continue the work after his death. flourished c. 6th4th century, b. Kapilavastu, Sakya republic, Kosala kingdom died , Kusinara, Malla republic, Magadha kingdom original name (Sanskrit) Gautama, or (Pali) Gotama, also called Siddhartha founder of Buddhism, the predominant religious and philosophical system of much of Asia. The term buddha, literally meaning awakened one or enlightened one, is not a proper name but rather a title, such as messiah (the Christ). Thus, the term should be accompanied by an article, such as the Buddha or a buddha (because of a belief that there will be innumerable buddhas in the future as there have been in the past). The Buddha who belongs to the present world era was born into the Gotama (in Pali), or Gautama (in Sanskrit), clan and is often referred to as Gotama. When the term the Buddha is used, it is generally assumed that it refers to Gotama the Buddha. According to virtually all Buddhist traditions, the Buddha lived many lives before his birth as Gotama; these previous lives are described in stories called Jatakas that play an important role in Buddhist art and education. Most Buddhists also affirm that the Buddha's life was continued in his teachings and his relics. The following account, however, focuses on the Buddha's historical life from his birth as Gotama to his death some 80 years later. The version of the story presented here is based on the Pali Tipitaka, which is recognized by scholars as the earliest extant record of the Buddha's discourses, and on the later Pali commentaries. The style and technique of these ancient texts, followed in this biography, provide a recordsometimes symbolic, sometimes legendary, and always graphicof the life of the revered Teacher. Just as there has been a vigorous search for the historical Jesus by Christian and other Western-oriented scholars, so also among some Western Orientalists there has been a scholarly search for the historical Buddha, the history of whom the Buddhists themselves never questioned and which had never interested them as a historical problem. This section concentrates on Gotama the Enlightened One as depicted in the Buddhist scriptures and legends that developed about the man, his teachings, and his activities. Additional reading A short but helpful introduction for those new to Buddhism is Michael Carrithers, The Buddha (1983). A more extensive treatment that is based on artistic as well as textual evidence is provided in Alfred Foucher, La Vie du Bouddha (1949), available also in an abridged English translation, The Life of the Buddha (1963, reissued 1972); it may be supplemented by his Les Vies antrieures du Bouddha (1955), a survey of the Buddha's previous lives. An excellent though technical study of the earliest sources is Andr Bareau, Recherches sur la biographie du Buddha dans les Sutrapitaka et les Vinayapitaka anciens, 2 vol. in 3 (196370).In addition to works on the Buddha Gotama, readers may wish to consult three important books on related topics: Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature (1932, reissued 1978), a classic; Marie-Thrse De Mallmann, Introduction l'tude d'Avalokitevara (1948, reissued 1967); and Alan Sponberg and Helen Hardacre (eds.), Maitreya, the Future Buddha (1988). Frank E. Reynolds