The Life of Siddhartha
Gautama
Dr. C. George Boeree
Shippensburg University
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There was a small country in what is now southern
Nepal that was ruled by a clan called the Shakyas. The head of this clan, and the
king of this country, was named Shuddodana Gautama, and his wife was the beautiful
Mahamaya. Mahamaya was expecting her first born. She had had a strange dream
in which a baby elephant had blessed her with his trunk, which was understood to be a very
auspicious sign to say the least.
As was the custom of the day, when the time came
near for Queen Mahamaya to have her child, she traveled to her father's kingdom for the
birth. But during the long journey, her birth pains began. In the small town
of Lumbini, she asked her handmaidens to assist her to a nearby grove of trees for
privacy. One large tree lowered a branch to her to serve as a support for her
delivery. They say the birth was nearly painless, even though the child had to
be delivered from her side. After, a gentle rain fell on the mother and the child to
cleanse them.
It is said that the child was born fully awake.
He could speak, and told his mother he had come to free all mankind from suffering.
He could stand, and he walked a short distance in each of the four directions.
Lotus blossoms rose in his footsteps. They named him Siddhartha, which means
"he who has attained his goals." Sadly, Mahamaya died only seven days
after the birth. After that Siddhartha was raised by his mother’s kind sister,
Mahaprajapati.
King Shuddodana consulted Asita, a well-known
sooth-sayer, concerning the future of his son. Asita proclaimed that he would be one
of two things: He could become a great king, even an emperor. Or he could
become a great sage and savior of humanity. The king, eager that his son should
become a king like himself, was determined to shield the child from anything that might
result in him taking up the religious life. And so Siddhartha was kept in one or
another of their three palaces, and was prevented from experiencing much of what ordinary
folk might consider quite commonplace. He was not permitted to see the elderly, the
sickly, the dead, or anyone who had dedicated themselves to spiritual practices.
Only beauty and health surrounded Siddhartha.
Siddhartha grew up to be a strong and handsome young
man. As a prince of the warrior caste, he trained in the arts of war. When it
came time for him to marry, he won the hand of a beautiful princess of a neighboring
kingdom by besting all competitors at a variety of sports. Yashodhara was her name, and
they married when both were 16 years old.
As Siddhartha continued living in the luxury of his
palaces, he grew increasing restless and curious about the world beyond the palace walls.
He finally demanded that he be permitted to see his people and his lands. The
king carefully arranged that Siddhartha should still not see the kind of suffering that he
feared would lead him to a religious life, and decried that only young and healthy people
should greet the prince.
As he was lead through Kapilavatthu, the capital, he
chanced to see a couple of old men who had accidentally wandered near the parade route.
Amazed and confused, he chased after them to find out what they were. Then he
came across some people who were severely ill. And finally, he came across a funeral
ceremony by the side of a river, and for the first time in his life saw death. He
asked his friend and squire Chandaka the meaning of all these things, and Chandaka
informed him of the simple truths that Siddhartha should have known all along: That
all of us get old, sick, and eventually die.
Siddhartha also saw an ascetic, a monk who had
renounced all the pleasures of the flesh. The peaceful look on the monks face would
stay with Siddhartha for a long time to come. Later, he would say this about that
time:
When ignorant people see someone who is old, they
are disgusted and horrified, even though they too will be old some day. I
thought to myself: I don’t want to be like the ignorant people.
After that, I couldn’t feel the usual intoxication with youth anymore.
When ignorant people see someone who is sick, they
are disgusted and horrified, even though they too will be sick some day. I
thought to myself: I don’t want to be like the ignorant people.
After that, I couldn’t feel the usual intoxication with health anymore.
When ignorant people see someone who is dead, they
are disgusted and horrified, even thought they too will be dead some day. I thought
to myself: I don’t want to be like the ignorant people. After than,
I couldn’t feel the usual intoxication with life anymore. (AN III.39, interpreted)
At the age of 29, Siddhartha came to realize that he
could not be happy living as he had been. He had discovered suffering, and wanted
more than anything to discover how one might overcome suffering. After kissing
his sleeping wife and newborn son Rahula goodbye, he snuck out of the palace with his
squire Chandara and his favorite horse Kanthaka. He gave away his rich clothing, cut
his long hair, and gave the horse to Chandara and told him to return to the palace.
He studied for a while with two famous gurus of the day, but found
their practices lacking.
He then began to practice the austerities and
self-mortifications practiced by a group of five ascetics. For six years, he practiced.
The sincerity and intensity of his practice were so astounding that, before long, the five
ascetics became followers of Siddhartha. But the answers to his questions were not
forthcoming. He redoubled his efforts, refusing food and water, until he was in a
state of near death.
One day, a peasant girl named Sujata saw this
starving monk and took pity on him. She begged him to eat some of her milk-rice.
Siddhartha then realized that these extreme practices were leading him nowhere,
that in fact it might be better to find some middle way between the extremes of the life
of luxury and the life of self-mortification. So he ate, and drank, and bathed in
the river. The five ascetics saw him and concluded that Siddhartha had given up the
ascetic life and taken to the ways of the flesh, and left him.
In the town of Bodh Gaya, Siddhartha decided that he
would sit under a certain fig tree as long as it would take for the answers to the problem
of suffering to come. He sat there for many days, first in deep concentration to
clear his mind of all distractions, then in mindfulness meditation, opening himself up to
the truth. He began, they say, to recall all his previous lives, and to see
everything that was going on in the entire universe. On the full moon of May, with
the rising of the morning star, Siddhartha finally understood the answer to the question
of suffering and became the Buddha, which means "he who is awake."
It is said that Mara, the evil one, tried to prevent
this great occurrence. He first tried to frighten Siddhartha with storms and armies
of demons. Siddhartha remained completely calm. Then he sent his three
beautiful daughters to tempt him, again to no avail. Finally, he tried to ensnare
Siddhartha in his own ego by appealing to his pride. That, too, failed.
Siddhartha, having conquered all temptations, touched the ground with one hand and
asked the earth to be his witness.
Siddhartha, now the Buddha, remained seated under
the tree -- which we call the bodhi tree -- for many days longer. It seemed to him that
this knowledge he had gained was far too difficult to communicate to others. Legend
has it that Brahma, king of the gods, convinced Buddha to teach, saying that some of us
perhaps have only a little dirt in our eyes and could awaken if we only heard his story.
Buddha agreed to teach.
At Sarnath near Benares, about one hundred miles
from Bodh Gaya, he came across the five ascetics he had practiced with for so long.
There, in a deer park, he preached his first sermon, which is called "setting
the wheel of the teaching in motion." He explained to them the Four Noble
Truths and the Eightfold Path. They became his very first disciples and the
beginnings of the Sangha or community of monks.
King Bimbisara of Magadha, having heard
Buddha’s words, granted him a monastery near Rahagriha, his capital, for use during
the rainy season. This and other generous donations permitted the community of
converts to continue their practice throughout the years, and gave many more people an
opportunity to hear the teachings of the Buddha.
Over time, he was approached by members of his
family, including his wife, son, father, and aunt. His son became a monk and is
particularly remembered in a sutra based on a conversation between father and son on the
dangers of lying. His father became a lay follower. Because he was saddened by
the departures of his son and grandson into the monastic life, he asked Buddha to make it
a rule that a man must have the permission of his parents to become a monk.
Buddha obliged him.
His aunt and wife asked to be permitted into the
Sangha, which was originally composed only of men. The culture of the time ranked
women far below men in importance, and at first it seemed that permitting women to enter
the community would weaken it. But the Buddha relented, and his aunt and wife became
the first Buddhist nuns.
The Buddha said that it didn’t matter what a
person’s status in the world was, or what their background or wealth or nationality
might be. All were capable of enlightenment, and all were welcome into the Sangha.
The first ordained Buddhist monk, Upali, had been a barber, yet he was ranked
higher than monks who had been kings, only because he had taken his vows earlier than
they!
Buddha’s life wasn’t without
disappointments. His cousin, Devadatta, was an ambitious man. As a convert and
monk, he felt that he should have greater power in the Sangha. He managed to
influence quite a few monks with a call to a return to extreme asceticism. Eventually, he
conspired with a local king to have the Buddha killed and to take over the Buddhist
community. Of course, he failed.
Buddha had achieved his enlightenment at the age of
35. He would teach throughout northeast India for another 45 years. When the
Buddha was 80 years old, he told his friend and cousin Ananda that he would be leaving
them soon. And so it came to be that in Kushinagara, not a hundred miles from his
homeland, he ate some spoiled food and became very ill. He went into a deep
meditation under a grove of sala trees and died. His last words were...
Impermanent are all created things;
Strive on with awareness.
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Update : 01-05-2002
