The story of Buddha, an awakened sage from the Shakya clan, the legendary founder of the world religion of Buddhism and a spiritual teacher, dates back to the 5th-6th centuries BC (the exact date is unknown). Blessed, revered by the world, walking in good, completely perfect ... He is called differently. Buddha lived a rather long life, about 80 years, and went an amazing way during this time. But first things first.
Biography reconstruction
Before telling the story of Buddha, one important nuance should be noted. The fact is that modern science has very little material for the scientific reconstruction of his biography. Therefore, all the information known about the Blessed is taken from a number of Buddhist texts, from a work called “Budddacharita” for example (translated as “Life of the Buddha”). Its author is Ashwaghosh - an Indian preacher, playwright and poet.
Also, one of the sources is the work of Lalitavistar. Translated as "Detailed Description of the Games of the Buddha." Several authors worked on the creation of this work. It is interesting that it is Lalitavistara that completes the process of deification, deification of the Buddha.
It is also worth mentioning that the first texts relating to the Awakened Sage began to appear only four centuries after his death. By that time, stories about him were already slightly changed by monks to hyperbolize his figure.
And we must remember: in the writings of the ancient Indians, chronological moments were not covered. Attention was focused on philosophical aspects. Having become acquainted with many Buddhist texts, one can understand this. There, the description of the thoughts of Buddha prevails over the tales of the time at which all events took place.
Life before birth
If you believe the stories and legends about the Buddha, then his path to enlightenment, a holistic and full awareness of the nature of reality began tens of millennia before his real birth. This is called the wheel of alternating lives and deaths. The concept is more commonly known as samsara. This cycle is limited to karma - the universal law of cause and effect, according to which a person’s sinful or righteous actions determine his fate, his enjoyment and suffering.
So, it all began with the meeting of Dipankara (the first of 24 Buddhas) with a learned and wealthy brahmana, a representative of the upper class, named Sumedhi. He was simply struck by his calm and serenity. After this meeting, Sumedhi promised himself to achieve exactly the same state. So they began to call him the Bodhisattva - those who seek enlightenment for the benefit of all beings in order to get out of the state of samsara.
Sumedi died. But his strength and desire for enlightenment is not. It was she who caused his multiple births in various bodies and images. All this time the bodhisattva continued to perfect his mercy and wisdom. They say that in his penultimate time, he was born among the gods (devas), and got the opportunity to choose the most favorable place for his final birth. Therefore, his decision was the family of the venerable king Shakyev. He knew that people would have greater confidence in the sermons of someone of such a noble birth.
Family, Conception and Birth
If you believe the traditional biography of Buddha, his father's name was Shuddhodana, and he was a raja (sovereign man) of the small Indian principality and the head of the Shakya tribe - the royal family of the foothills of the Himalayas with the capital Kapilavatthu. Interestingly, Gautama is his gotra, an exogamous clan, an analogue of his surname.
True, there is another version. According to her, Shuddhodana was a member of the meeting of the Kshatriyas, an influential estate in the ancient Indian society, which included the sovereign warriors.
The mother of Buddha was Queen Mahamaya from the kingdom of the kolii. On the night of the conception of Buddha, she dreamed that a white elephant with six light tusks entered her.
In accordance with the Shakyev tradition, for the birth the queen went to her parents' house. But Mahamaya did not reach them - everything happened on the road. I had to stay in the Lumbini grove (the current location is the state of Nepal in South Asia, a settlement in the district of Rupandehi). It was there that the future Sage was born - right under the ashoka tree. This happened in the month of Vaishakha - the second from the beginning of the year, lasts from April 21 to May 21.
According to most sources, Queen Mahamaya died a few days after giving birth.
To bless the baby, the hermit seer Asita from the mountain monastery was invited. He found 32 signs of a great man on the child’s body. The seer said - the baby will become either chakravartin (the great king) or a saint.
The boy was called Siddhartha Gautama. The naming ceremony was held on the fifth day after his birth. "Siddhartha" is translated as "one who has achieved his goal." To predict his future, eight brahmana scholars were invited. All of them confirmed the dual fate of the boy.
Youth
Talking about the biography of Buddha, it should be noted that the younger sister of Mahamaya was engaged in his upbringing. Her name was Maha Prajapati. Father also took a certain part in the upbringing. He wanted his son to become a great king, and not a religious sage, therefore, remembering the dual prediction for the future of the boy, he tried his best to protect him from teachings, philosophy and knowledge of human suffering. Especially for the boy, he ordered the construction of as many as three palaces.
Future God Buddha overtook all his peers in everything - in development, in sports, in science. But most of all he was attracted to thoughts.
As soon as he was 16 years old, he was married to a princess named Yashodhara, the daughter of King Sauppabudda of the same age. A few years later they had a son, who was named Rahula. He was the only child of Shakyamuni Buddha. Interestingly, his birth coincided with a lunar eclipse.
Looking ahead, it is worth saying that the boy became a pupil of his father, and later an arhat - those who have achieved complete liberation from flares (obscuration and affects of consciousness) and left the state of samsara. Rahula was enlightened even when he simply walked next to his father.
For 29 years, Siddhartha lived as the prince of the capital Kapilavastu. He received everything he could wish for. But he felt: material wealth is far from the ultimate goal of life.
What changed his life
Once, in the 30th year of his life, Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha in the future, went outside the palace, accompanied by a chariot of Channah. And he saw four spectacles that changed his life forever. These were:
- Beggar old man.
- Sick person.
- Decaying corpse.
- Hermit (ascetic denied worldly life).
It was at that moment that Siddhartha realized the harsh reality of our reality, which remains relevant to this day, despite the past two and a half millennia. He understood - death, aging, suffering and disease are inevitable. Neither nobility nor wealth will protect them. The path to salvation lies only through self-knowledge, since it is through it that one can comprehend the causes of suffering.
That day really changed a lot. What he saw prompted Shakyamuni Buddha to leave his home, family and all property. He abandoned his former life in order to go in search of a way to get rid of suffering.
Knowledge acquisition
From that day, a new history of Buddha began. Siddhartha left the palace with Channah. Legends say that the gods muffled the sound of his horse's hooves in order to keep the departure secret.
As soon as the prince left the city limits, he stopped the first beggar he met and exchanged clothes with him, the field of which released his servant. This event even has a name - "Great Departure".
Siddhartha began the ascetic life in Rajagriha - a city in the district of Nalanda, which is now called Rajgir. There he asked for alms on the street.
Naturally, they found out about it. King Bimbisar even offered him a throne. Siddhartha refused him, but made a promise to go to the kingdom of Magadha after attaining enlightenment.
So the life of Buddha in Rajagriha did not work out, and he left the city, eventually arriving at two hermit brahmanas, where he began to study yoga meditation. Having mastered the doctrine, he came to a sage named Udaka Ramaputta. He became his student, and upon reaching the highest level of meditative concentration he set off again.
His goal was southeast India. There, Siddhartha, along with five other people who were searching for the truth, tried to come to enlightenment under the leadership of the monk Kaundinyi. The methods were the most severe - asceticism, self-torture, all kinds of vows and mortification of the flesh.
Being on the verge of death after as many as six (!) Years of such an existence, he realized that this does not lead to clarity of mind, but only clouding it and exhausting the body. Therefore, Gautama began to rethink his path. He recalled how, in childhood, he plunged into a trance during the holiday of plowing, felt that refreshing and blissful state of concentration. And plunged into Dhyana. This is a special state of contemplation, concentrated thinking, which leads to a calming of consciousness and in the future - to a complete stop of mental activity for a while.
Enlightenment
After renouncing self-torture, Buddha’s life began to develop differently - he went to wander alone, and his path continued until he reached a grove located near the town of Gaia (Bihar state).
By chance, he came across the house of a village woman, Sujata Nanda, who considered Siddhartha to be the spirit of a tree. So exhausted he looked. A woman fed him rice with milk, after which he sat under a large ficus (now called the Bodhi tree) and vowed not to get up until he came to the Truth.
This was not to the liking of the demon tempter Mare, who led the kingdom of the gods. He seduced the future God Buddha with various visions, showed him beautiful women, trying in every possible way to distract him from meditation by demonstrating the attractiveness of earthly life. However, Gautama was unshakable, and the demon retreated.
He spent 49 days under ficus. And on the full moon, in the month of Vaisakha, on the same night that Siddhartha was born, he attained Awakening. He was 35 years old. That night he received a complete picture of the causes of human suffering, of nature, as well as what other people need to achieve the same state.
This knowledge was later called the “Four Noble Truths.” They can be summarized as follows: “There is suffering. And there is his reason, which is desire. The cessation of suffering is nirvana. And there is a path that leads to its achievement, called the Eightfold. "
For a few more days, Gautama was thinking, being in a state of samadhi (the disappearance of the idea of his own individuality), whether to teach the others the knowledge gained. He doubted whether they would be able to come to Awakening, because they are all overwhelmed with deception, hatred and greed. And the ideas of Enlightenment are very subtle and deep for understanding. But for the people, the supreme dev Brahma Sahampati (god) stood up, who asked Gautama to bring the Doctrine to this world, because there will always be those who understand him.
Octal path
Talking about who the Buddha is, one cannot but mention the Noble Eightfold Path, which the Awakened himself walked. This is the road leading to the cessation of suffering and liberation from the state of samsara. You can talk about this for hours, but in short, the Eightfold Path of the Buddha is 8 rules, following which you can come to Awakening. Here is what they are:
- The correct view. It implies comprehension of the four truths that were mentioned above, as well as other provisions of the doctrine that you need to survive and form what is felt in motivation for your behavior.
- The right intention. One must firmly assure one's decision to follow the eightfold path of Buddha, leading to nirvana and liberation. And to start cultivating a metta in oneself - friendliness, benevolence, loving kindness and kindness to all living things.
- Correct speech. Refusal of profanity and lies, slander and stupidity, obscenity and meanness, idle talk and contention.
- The correct behavior. Do not kill, do not steal, do not commit immorality, do not get drunk, do not lie, do not commit any other atrocities. This is the path to social, contemplative, karmic and psychological harmony.
- The right way of life. We must abandon everything that can cause suffering to any living thing. Choose the appropriate type of activity - earn in accordance with Buddhist values. Refuse luxury, wealth and excesses. This will relieve envy and other passions.
- The right effort. The desire to realize oneself and learn to distinguish between dharma, joy, peace and tranquility, concentrate on the attainment of truth.
- The right mindfulness. To be able to realize one’s own body, mind, sensations. Trying to learn to see oneself as an accumulation of physical and mental states, to distinguish between the "ego", to destroy it.
- The right concentration. Departure into deep meditation or dhyana. Helps to achieve ultimate contemplation, free oneself.
And that is in brief. First of all, the name of Buddha is connected with these concepts. And by the way, they also formed the basis of the Zen school.
About the spread of teaching
From the moment Siddhartha realized enlightenment, people began to know who the Buddha is. He took up the dissemination of knowledge. The first students were merchants - Bhallika and Tapussa. Gautama gave them a few hairs from his head, which, according to the allegations, are stored in a 98-meter gilded stupa in Yangon (Shwedagon Pagoda).
Then the story of the Buddha develops in such a way that he goes to Varanasi (a city that for Hindus means the same as the Vatican for Catholics). Siddhartha wanted to tell his former teachers about his achievements, but it turned out that they had already died.
Then he went to the suburb of Sarnath, where he held the first sermon in which he told his companions of austerities about the Eightfold Path and the Four Truths. Everyone who listened to him soon became an arhat.
Over the next 45 years, the name of Buddha became more recognizable. He traveled around India, taught the Teaching to everyone, no matter who they were - even cannibals, even warriors, even janitors. Gautama was accompanied by the sangha, his community.
All this was discovered by his father, Shuddhodana. The king sent as many as 10 delegations for his son to bring him back to Kapilavastu. But in ordinary life, Buddha was a prince. Everything has long been a thing of the past. Delegations came to Siddhartha, and as a result, 9 out of 10 joined his sangha, becoming arhats. The tenth Buddha accepted and agreed to go to Kapilavastu. He went there on foot, preaching the Dharma on the way.
Returning to Kapilavastu, Gautama learned about the upcoming death of his father. He came to him and spoke about the Dharma. Before his death, Shuddhodana became an arhat.
After that, he returned to Rajagaha. Maha Prajapati who raised him asked to be accepted into the sangha, but Gautama refused. However, the woman did not accept this, and went after him along with several noble girls of the Koliya and Shakya families. As a result, the Buddha nobly accepted them, seeing that their ability to enlightenment is on a par with the male.
Death
The years of Buddha's life were intense. When he was 80 years old, he said that he would soon reach Parinirvana, the final stage of immortality, and free his earthly body. Before entering this state, he asked his students if they had any questions. There were none. Then he said his last words: “All the constituent things are short-lived. Strive for your own release with special zeal. ”
When he died, he was cremated according to the rules of the rite for the universal ruler. The remains were divided into 8 parts and placed at the base of the stupas, specially erected for this. It is believed that some monuments have survived to this day. The temple of Dalad Maligawa, for example, in which the tooth of the great sage is stored.
In ordinary life, Buddha was just a status person. And having traveled a difficult path, he became the one who was able to achieve the highest state of spiritual perfection and put knowledge into the minds of thousands of people. He is the founder of the oldest world teaching, which has indescribable significance. It is not surprising that the celebration of Buddha’s birthday is a large-scale and high-profile holiday, celebrated in all countries of East Asia (except Japan), and in some it is official. The date changes annually, but always falls in April or May.