Buddha
In Hindu mythology, Buddha is an avatar of Vishnu. An incaration who came to forbid the bloody sacrifices that took place under orthodox brahminism.
(Left) A stone carving of The Buddha
(Siddhartha Guatama founder of
Buddhism).
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Buddha In Hindu mythology, Buddha is an avatar of Vishnu. An incaration who came to forbid the bloody sacrifices that took place under orthodox brahminism.
(Left) A stone carving of The Buddha
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| The word Buddha, meaning "enlightened one," was an epithet
applied to Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of the religion
that came to be known as Buddhism. He lived from c.560 to
c.480 BC, but scholars cannot be certain about all the historical
details of his life.
According to legendary biographies, Siddhartha Gautama was born in Lumbini, near Kapilavastu (in present-day Nepal), the son of a ruler of the Sakya clan. When he was 29 years old, he became disgusted with life as a householder and left his wife and family to go on a religious quest. After several years of striving, which included the practice and rejection of ascetic austerities, he arrived at Bodh Gaya, in India, where at last he attained complete enlightenment into the nature of reality. From Bodh Gaya he went to Sarnath. There he first preached his doctrine of the Four Noble Truths: that this life is suffering; that its source is craving; that suffering can cease; and that the practice of the Eightfold Path - of right views, right intention, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration - brings about this cessation. Then, during a long career as a wandering teacher, he attracted many disciples and established the Buddhist community (the sangha). Finally, at the age of 80, he passed away into final Nirvana at Kushinagara (now Kasia, India), forever free from the cycle of suffering and rebirth. Not long after the Buddha's death, embellished legends of his great deeds, supernatural powers, and royal symbols emerged. Stories were also told of the Buddha's heroism in past lives, and a devotional cult soon developed. At the same time, various speculations arose about the Buddha's true nature. The Theravada school saw him primarily as a historical figure but also placed him in a time line with several "Buddhas of the past" and one "Buddha of the future," Maitreya, who is yet to come. The Mahayana school adopted a view in which Gautama was seen as a fashioned manifestation of an already enlightened "eternal" Buddha. This eventually resulted in a doctrine of several different Buddha "bodies" and also made possible a multiplication of Buddhas, each existing in its own Pure Buddha Land. Among the most popular were Amitabha Buddha in his Western Pure Land and Akshobhya Buddha in the East. Source: Grolier Multimedia Encyclopaedia, 1995. |