Gautam Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit; Devanāgarī सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from ancient India and the historical founder of Buddhism. He is universally
recognized by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha of our age. The time of his birth and death are uncertain; most modern historians by the end of the nineteenth century and during the first half of the twentieth date his lifetime from about 563 BCE to 483 BCE, but more recently the majority of scholars advocate dates around 410 or 400 for his passing away nirvana, though some leading scholars continue to maintain the earlier dates, while others argue for even later ones.[1]Gautama, also known as Shakyamuni (“sage of the Shakyas”), is the key figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules were summarized after his death and memorized by the saṅgha. Passed down by oral tradition, the Tripiṭaka, the collection of discourses attributed to Gautama, was committed to writing about 400 years later.Siddhartha was born in Lumbini in modern day Nepal.[2] His father was King Suddhodana, the chief of the Shakya nation, one of several ancient tribes in the growing state of Kosala; Gautama was the family name. His mother, Queen Maha Maya (Māyādevī) and Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. On the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten lunar months later Siddhartha was born from her right side (see image right). As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya fell pregnant, she returned to her father's kingdom to give birth, but after leaving Kapilavastu, she gave birth along the way at Lumbini in a garden beneath a sal tree.TeachingsMain article: Buddhist philosophy"The original teachings of the historical Buddha are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to recover or reconstruct."[9] While there is disagreement amongst various Buddhist sects over more esoteric aspects of Buddha's teachings and over disciplinary rules for monks, there is generally agreement over these points, among many others:The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an inherent part of existence; that the origin of suffering is ignorance and the main symptoms of that ignorance are attachment and craving; that attachment and craving can be ceased; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path will lead to the cessation of attachment and craving and therefore suffering.The Noble Eightfold Path: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.The concept of dependent origination: that any phenomenon 'exists' only because of the ‘existence’ of other phenomena in a complex web of cause and effect covering time past, present and future. Because all things are thus conditioned and transient (anicca), they have no real independent identity (anatta).Rejection of the infallibility of accepted scripture: Teachings should not be accepted unless they are borne out by our experience and are praised by the wise. See the Kalama Sutta for details.Anicca (Sanskrit: anitya): That all things are impermanent.Anatta (Sanskrit: anātman): That the perception of a constant "self" is an illusion.Dukkha (Sanskrit: duḥkha): That all beings suffer from all situations due to unclear mind.According to tradition, the Buddha emphasized ethics and correct understanding. He questioned the average person's notions of divinity and salvation. He stated that there is no intermediary between mankind and the divine; distant gods are subjected to karma themselves in decaying heavens; and the Buddha is solely a guide and teacher for the sentient beings who must tread the path of Nirvāṇa (Pāli: Nibbāna) themselves to attain the spiritual awakening called bodhi and see truth and reality as it is. The Buddhist system of insight, thought, and meditation practice is not believed to have been revealed divinely, but by the understanding of the true nature of the mind, which could be discovered by anybody.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha
