Siddharta Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, also known as the "awakened one" or "enlightened one"
Siddharta Gautama
Born a prince around 500 BCE in southern Nepal
His parents were King Suddhodana and Queen Maya
The name Siddharta means "perfect fulfillment"
Sources of information about the Buddha's life
Legends and miraculous events
Written hundreds of years after his death
Siddharta's birth was extraordinary, expressing important spiritual truths for Buddhists
Siddharta's life of luxury
He grew up in a palace surrounded by luxury, with three mansions, a canopy always held over him, musicians and dancers to entertain him, and the finest clothes, food, and education
Siddharta's father
Prepared Siddharta as a child to become a king, not a holy man
Tried to make Siddharta's life so luxurious that he would want to remain in the palace
Despite being spoiled, Siddharta was said to be a good, kind person
The Four Sights
Siddharta saw an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a holy man, which made him realize that life is full of suffering and he needed to seek enlightenment
Siddharta's "Letting Go" or Renunciation
1. He left his wife and newborn son
2. Abandoned his possessions
3. Cut off his long hair
4. Swapped his rich clothes for a poor man's robes
Asceticism
Living a strict and simple lifestyle with few possessions, such as living in dangerous forests, sleeping on a bed of thorns, and eating very little
Siddharta became dangerously thin while living an ascetic lifestyle
Siddharta realized that neither a life of luxury nor strict self-denial was the right path to spiritual enlightenment
Siddharta's Meditation
He followed a "middle way" of meditation, refusing to stop until he found enlightenment
Tactics used by the demon Mara to distract Siddharta during meditation
Sending his daughters to seduce Siddharta
Sending his armies to attack Siddharta
Offering Siddharta control of his kingdom
Questioning Siddharta's right to sit at the seat of enlightenment
The Buddha's Enlightenment
1. Siddharta gained knowledge of his previous lives
2. Understood the repeating cycle of life, death, and rebirth
3. Understood why suffering happens and how to overcome it
The Dhamma
The teachings of the Buddha that guide Buddhists in the path to reduce suffering and gain enlightenment
The Four Noble Truths
The first teachings the Buddha gave to his first followers, the five ascetics, explaining why people suffer and how they can end suffering
The Four Noble Truths
Are compared to the analogy of illness and finding a cure: the Buddha is the doctor, the first noble truth is establishing the illness, the second noble truth is finding the cause of the illness, the third noble truth is finding the cure, and the fourth noble truth is prescribing the treatment
Four Noble Truths
The Buddha's teachings that explain why people suffer and how they can end suffering
The Four Noble Truths
1. The existence of suffering (first noble truth)
2. The cause of suffering (second noble truth)
3. The end of suffering (third noble truth)
4. The path to the end of suffering (fourth noble truth)
The Four Noble Truths are compared to
Illness and finding a cure
The First Noble Truth
The existence of suffering (dukkha)
The seven types of suffering
Four types of physical suffering
Three types of mental suffering
Buddha taught that happiness exists, but it is impermanent and not an ultimate solution to overcome suffering
The Second Noble Truth
The cause of suffering is craving (tanha)
The three types of craving (tanha)
Sensory craving
Craving for being
Craving for non-being
The Three Poisons
Greed, hatred, ignorance
Nibbana
The extinction of the Three Poisons, a state of complete enlightenment, peace and happiness
”No further rebirths have I to endure for this is my last body. Now I shall destroy and pluck out by the roots the sorrow that is caused by birth and death”
“This is the last birth. There is now no more coming tobe”
“If one is born one would undergo the process of ageing, sickness, death and all kinds of suffering”
The Buddha’s life as an ascetic involved him rejecting anything that would give him pleasure; he fasted for long periods of time, living in dangerous forests that were too hot in the day and too cold in the night, and slept on a bed of thorns.
Buddhas life as an ascetic Q
“I will perform the uttermost penance“
Ascetic Q
“He perceived that penance was not the way to enlightenment“
“No further rebirths have I to endure for this is my last body. Now I shall destroy and pluck out by the roots the sorrow that is caused by birth and death.“
“if one is born one would undergo the process of ageing, sickness, death and all kinds of suffering“
“not until I attain the supreme Enlightenment will I give up this seat of meditation“