In carriage rides outside his palaces he first saw a sick person, then an old man, then a corpse. Prince Siddhartha was twenty-nine years old when his life changed. He was the son of a king, raised in sheltered opulence. The traditional story begins with Siddhartha Gautama’s birth in Lumbini, Nepal, in about 567 BCE. The Bodhi Tree, where the Buddha attained enlightenment, in Bodhgaya, India. What Do We Know About the Historical Buddha? This was a man originally named Siddhartha Gautama who lived in what is now northern India and Nepal about twenty-five centuries ago. Most of the time, when someone says the Buddha, it’s in reference to the historical person who founded Buddhism. It is said that when a buddha dies he or she is not reborn but passes into the peace of Nirvana, which is not a “heaven” but a transformed state of existence. A buddha is one who is freed from the fog. Simply put, Buddhism teaches that we all live in a fog of illusions created by mistaken perceptions and “impurities” - hate, greed, ignorance. It is a Sanskrit word that means “a person who is awake.” What a buddha is awake to is the true nature of reality. What About the Buddhas in Buddhist Art?īuddha is not a name, but a title.What Do We Know About the Historical Buddha?.Sculpture of Shakyamuni Buddha touching the earth at the moment he reached enlightenment.
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