(1) Siddhartha Gautama
born BC 563, Lumbini, near Kapilavastu, Shakya republic, Kosala kingdom
died BC 487-86, Kusinara,
Malla republic, Magadha kingdom
Spiritual leader and
founder of Buddhism.
The term buddha
(Sanskrit: “awakened one”) is a title rather than a name, and Buddhists believe
that there are an infinite number of past and future buddhas. The historical
Buddha, referred to as the Buddha Gautama or simply as the Buddha, was born a
prince of the Shakyas, on the present-day India-Nepal border. He is said to
have lived a sheltered life of luxury that was interrupted when he left the
palace and encountered an old man, a sick man, and a corpse. Renouncing his
princely life, he spent six years seeking out teachers and trying various ascetic
practices, including fasting, to gain enlightenment. Unsatisfied with the
results, he meditated beneath the bodhi tree, where, after temptations by Mara,
he realized the Four Noble Truths and achieved enlightenment. At Sarnath he
preached his first sermon to his companions, outlining the Eightfold Path,
which offered a middle way between self-indulgence and self-mortification and
led to the liberation of nirvana. The five ascetics who heard this sermon
became not only his first disciples but also arhats who would enter nirvana
upon death. His mission fulfilled, the Buddha died, after eating a meal that
may accidentally have contained spoiled pork, and escaped the cycle of rebirth;
his body was cremated, and stupas were built over his relics.
(2)
Buddhism
Major world religion and philosophy
founded in northeastern India between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE.
Based on the
teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha, Buddhism takes as its goal
the escape from suffering and from the cycle of rebirth: the attainment of
nirvana. It emphasizes meditation and the observance of certain moral precepts.
The Buddha's teachings were transmitted orally by his disciples; during his
lifetime he established the Buddhist monastic order (sangha). He adopted some
ideas from the Hinduism of his time, notably the doctrine of karma, but also
rejected many of its doctrines and all of its gods. In India the emperor Ashoka
promoted Buddhism during the 3rd century BCE, but it declined in succeeding
centuries and was nearly extinct there by the 13th century. It spread south and
flourished in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and it moved through Central Asia
and China (including Tibet; see Tibetan Buddhism), Korea, and Japan (see Pure
Land Buddhism; Zen). In the 19th century Buddhism spread to Europe and the
United States, and it became increasingly popular in the West in the second
half of the 20th century. Buddhism's main teachings are summarized in the Four
Noble Truths, of which the fourth is the Eightfold Path. Buddhism's two major
branches, Mahayana and Theravada, have developed distinctive practices and unique
collections of canonical texts. In the early 21st century the various
traditions of Buddhism together had more than 375 million followers.
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