Greetings, dear readers.

From this article you will learn about an extraordinary person - Siddhartha Gautama, who was able to enter a state of spiritual enlightenment. Here is information about how the activities of a simple mortal, albeit of royal blood, led him to a truth incomprehensible to others.

It is believed that Buddha stayed in our world from about 563 to 483 BC. A spiritual leader who had a noticeable impact on human civilization was born in a small country. His homeland was located in the Himalayan foothills. Now it is the territory of southern Nepal.

early years

The boy received the name Siddhartha and bore the surname Gautama. According to one version, his father was an influential monarch. There is also an assumption that the parent of the future Enlightened One was the head of the council of elders.

In the ancient texts, where it is written briefly about the history of the life of the Buddha, various miracles are mentioned. The unusual events that accompanied the birth of a child attracted the attention of one of the sages. The respected person examined the newborn, saw signs of future greatness on his body and bowed to the boy.

The guy grew up in very comfortable conditions. This is not surprising, because it was about the prince. His father gave him the opportunity to live alternately in three palaces, each of which was built for a specific season. The young man invited his friends there and enjoyed life in their company.

When Siddhartha was 16 years old, he married a cousin. With magnificent he lived in. Researchers believe that then the prince learned the art of war and learned to govern the state.

Thoughts on Liberation and Ways to Realize Desires

Over time, the future Teacher began to think about the meaning of existence. In the process of thinking about the problems that people do not pay attention to in everyday life, he began to withdraw into himself. It got to the point that he renounced social life, and his mother had to experience incredible suffering because of this.

In front of the shocked relatives and his wife, the young man cut his hair and beard, put on yellow clothes and left the palace. Moreover, this happened on the day his son was born.

In search of illumination by his lordship, the future Buddha set off on a journey. His path lay in Magadha, located in the north of India. There lived the same seekers of the meaning of life, like himself. The prince managed to find two outstanding gurus there - Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta.

The masters gave him lessons, and soon their ward was very successful in this matter. However, he did not stop there, since he did not come close to his main goal. The road to absolute enlightenment, liberation from all suffering and sensual existence is not over yet.

Considering that he took everything he could from the teachers, the student parted with them. He decided to lead an ascetic life and adhered to extremely strict rules for six years: he ate very poorly, stayed under the scorching sun during the day, and withstood the test of the cold at night.

In this way (a person seeking enlightenment) tried to come to perfect liberation. His body was like a skeleton, and he was practically on the verge of death. Finally, the martyr realized that it was impossible to achieve enlightenment through self-torture, and went to his goal in a different way - he threw aside asceticism and plunged headlong into the process of constant contemplation and deep study.

The fulfillment of desire

Self-mortification was no longer discussed, it was necessary to find a "middle way." In the search for a new path, the mentor lost five companions who believed in him. After their teacher began to eat again, they became disillusioned and left him.

Left alone, the Bodhisattva was able to go towards his goal, without being distracted by anything. He managed to find a secluded area on the banks of the Neranjara River, which seemed to be the perfect place for immersion in thought.

There was a sacred ashwattha tree (a kind of Indian fig tree), under which there was a place for a straw mattress. Thirsty for enlightenment, Siddhartha sat on it, crossing his legs, and before that he vowed to stay there until the end.

The day passed, the evening ended, the night began. The Bodhisattva remained motionless in a state of continuous meditation. By the very height of the night, extraordinary visions began to visit him, in particular, the processes of people leaving for another world and rebirth in a different capacity.

By the end of the darkness, he fully cognized the truth of existence, thereby becoming a Buddha. He met the dawn as a self-awakened one who achieved immortality in this life.

Buddha was in no hurry to leave the wonderful place, because he needed a certain time to realize the result. Several weeks passed before he decided to leave. He faced a difficult choice:

• stay alone further, enjoying the long-awaited feeling of liberation;

The message on Buddhism summarized in this article will tell you a lot of useful information about one of the most influential religions in the world.

Report on Buddhism

The main object of worship and founder of Buddhism is Prince Gautama Siddhartha. He lived in 563 - 483 BC. e. Therefore, this religion is one of the oldest in the world.

According to legend, when Gautama turned 35, he achieved enlightenment and changed his life, as well as the lives of those who followed him. They called him Buddha, which from Sanskrit means awakened, enlightened. He spread his sermons for 40 years and died Siddhartha at the age of 80. It is noteworthy that after himself Siddhartha did not leave any written composition.

How is God interpreted in Buddhism?

Sects that have split from Buddhism honor Buddha as God. But the bulk of the followers see Siddhartha as a mentor, founder and enlightener. They are convinced that enlightenment can only be achieved with the help of the infinite universal energy. Therefore, we can draw the following conclusion: the world of Buddhism does not recognize the existence of a creator god, omnipotent and all-knowing. According to their beliefs, each person is a part of the deity. Buddhists do not have a permanent God, because every enlightened person is capable of attaining the great title of "Buddha". This understanding of God is what distinguishes Buddhism from other Western religions.

What is the essence of Buddhism?

The main aspiration of Buddhists is to purify the clouded state of mind, which distorts reality. This state includes feelings of fear, anger, selfishness, ignorance, laziness, greed, envy, irritation, and so on.

Religion develops wholesome and pure qualities of consciousness: compassion, generosity, wisdom, kindness, gratitude, hard work. They help to gradually clear and cognize your mind. When it becomes both bright and strong, then irritation and anxiety decrease, leading to depression, adversity.

In general, Buddhism is more of a philosophical religion. Its doctrine contains 4 basic truths:

• about the origin and causes of suffering
• about the nature of suffering
• about the ways to end suffering
• about ending suffering and removing its sources

All of them ultimately lead to the elimination of pain and suffering. Having reached the state of the human soul allows one to plunge into transcendental meditation, achieving enlightenment and wisdom.

Ethics and morality of Buddhism

Buddhist ethics and morality are based on the principles of not committing temperance and harm. In a person, religion fosters and develops a sense of concentration, morality and wisdom. Meditation allows you to comprehend the work of the mind and the relationship of cause and effect between spiritual, bodily and psychological processes. Each level of Buddhist teachings is aimed at the all-round development of a person's personality - mind, speech and body.

We hope that the report on Buddhism helped to find out a lot of useful information about this world religion. And you can leave your message about the religion Buddhism through the comment form below.

Geography of Buddhism …………………………………………… .1

The Birth of Buddhism …………………………………………… ... 1

Biography of Buddha ……………………………………………… ... 2

Mythological biography of Buddha ………………………… .3

Basic principles and features of Buddhism as a religion …………… .4

List of used literature ………………………………… 8

Geography of Buddhism

Buddhism is the oldest of the world's religions, named after, or rather from the honorary title, of its founder, Buddha, which means "Enlightened One". Shakyamuni Buddha (sage from the Shakya tribe) lived in India in the 5th-4th centuries. BC e. Other world religions - Christianity and Islam - appeared later (respectively, five and twelve centuries later).

If we try to present this religion as if “from a bird's eye view”, we will have a colorful patchwork quilt of directions, schools, sects, subsects, religious parties and organizations.

Buddhism has absorbed many different traditions of the peoples of those countries that fell into the sphere of its influence, and also determined the way of life and thoughts of millions of people in these countries. Most adherents of Buddhism now live in South, Southeast, Central and East Asia: Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Thailand and Laos. In Russia, Buddhism is traditionally practiced by Buryats, Kalmyks and Tuvans.

Buddhism was and remains a religion that takes different forms depending on where it spreads. Chinese Buddhism is a religion that speaks to believers in the language of Chinese culture and national beliefs about the most important values \u200b\u200bof life. Japanese Buddhism is a synthesis of Buddhist ideas, Shinto mythology, Japanese culture, etc.

Birth of Buddhism

Buddhists themselves count the time of existence of their religion from the death of Buddha, but among them there is no consensus about the years of his life. According to the tradition of the oldest Buddhist school, Theravada, Buddha lived from 624 to 544 BC. e. According to the scientific version, the lifetime of the founder of Buddhism is from 566 to 486 BC. e. In some directions of Buddhism, they adhere to later dates: 488-368. BC e. The birthplace of Buddhism is India (more precisely, the Ganges valley). The society of ancient India was divided into varnas (estates): brahmanas (the upper class of spiritual teachers and priests), kshatriyas (warriors), vaisyas (merchants) and sudras (who served all other estates). Buddhism for the first time addressed a person not as a representative of any class, clan, tribe or a particular gender, but as a person (unlike the followers of Brahmanism, Buddha believed that women, on an equal basis with men, are capable of achieving the highest spiritual perfection). For Buddhism, only personal merit was important in a person. Thus, the word "brahmana" Buddha calls any noble and wise person, regardless of his origin.

Biography of Buddha

The biography of Buddha reflects the fate of a real person framed by myths and legends, which over time almost completely pushed aside the historical figure of the founder of Buddhism. More than 25 centuries ago, in one of the small states in the north-east of India, the son of Siddhartha was born to King Shuddhodana and his wife Maya. His family name was Gautama. The prince lived in luxury, not knowing worries, eventually started a family and, probably, would have replaced his father on the throne, if fate had not decreed otherwise.

Having learned that there are diseases, old age and death in the world, the prince decided to save people from suffering and set off in search of a recipe for universal happiness. In the area of \u200b\u200bGaya (it is still called Bodh-Gaya), he attained Enlightenment, and the path of salvation of mankind was opened to him. This happened when Siddhartha was 35 years old. In the city of Benares, he gave his first sermon and, as the Buddhists say, “turned the wheel of the Dharma” (as the Buddha's teachings are sometimes called). He wandered with sermons in cities and villages, he had disciples and followers who were going to listen to the instructions of the Teacher, whom they began to call Buddha. At the age of 80, Buddha passed away. But even after the death of the Master, the disciples continued to preach his teachings throughout India. They created monastic communities where this teaching was preserved and developed. These are the facts of the real biography of Buddha - a man who became the founder of a new religion.

Mythological biography of Buddha

The mythological life story is much more complicated. According to legends, the future Buddha was reborn a total of 550 times (83 times was a saint, 58 - a king, 24 - a monk, 18 - a monkey, 13 - a merchant, 12 - a chicken, 8 - a goose, 6 - an elephant; in addition, a fish, rat, carpenter, blacksmith, frog, hare, etc.). So it was until the gods decided that the time had come for him, having been born in the form of a man, to save the world, mired in the darkness of ignorance. The birth of Buddha into a kshatriya family was his last birth. That is why he was named Siddhartha (One who achieved the goal). The boy was born with thirty-two signs of a “great husband” (golden skin, wheel mark on the foot, wide heels, light hair circle between the eyebrows, long fingers, long earlobes, etc.). The wandering ascetic astrologer predicted that a great future awaits him in one of two areas: either he will become a powerful ruler, capable of establishing righteous order on earth, or he will be a great hermit. Mother Maya did not take part in the upbringing of Siddhartha - she died (and according to some legends, she retired to heaven, so as not to die of admiration for her son) soon after his birth. The boy was raised by his aunt. The prince grew up in an atmosphere of luxury and prosperity. The father did everything possible so that the prediction would not come true: he surrounded his son with wonderful things, beautiful and carefree people, created an atmosphere of eternal holiday so that he would never know about the sorrows of this world. Siddhartha grew up, married at the age of 16, and had a son, Rahula. But the father's efforts were in vain. With the help of his servant, the prince managed to secretly escape from the palace three times. For the first time he met a patient and realized that beauty is not eternal and that there are ailments disfiguring a person in the world. The second time he saw the old man and realized that youth is not eternal. For the third time, he watched the funeral procession, which showed him the fragility of human life.

Siddhartha decided to look for a way out of the trap of illness - old age - death. According to some versions, he also met a hermit, which made him think about the possibility of overcoming the suffering of this world, leading a secluded and contemplative lifestyle. When the prince decided to make a great renunciation, he turned 29 years old. After six years of ascetic practice and yet another unsuccessful attempt to achieve the highest insight through fasting, he became convinced that the path of self-torture would not lead to truth. Then, having regained strength, he found a secluded place on the bank of the river, sat under a tree (which from that time is called the Bodhi tree, that is, the “tree of Enlightenment”) and plunged into contemplation. Before the inner gaze of Siddhartha, his own past lives, past, future and present life of all living beings passed, and then the highest truth - Dharma - was revealed. From that moment on, he became a Buddha - the Enlightened One, or the Awakened One - and made the decision to teach the Dharma to all people seeking truth, regardless of their origin, class, language, gender, age, character, temperament and mental abilities.

Buddha spent 45 years spreading his teachings in India. According to Buddhist sources, he won adherents from all walks of life. Shortly before his death, the Buddha informed his beloved disciple Ananda that he could extend his life for a whole century, and then Ananda bitterly regretted not knowing to ask him about it. The cause of Buddha's death was a meal at the poor blacksmith's Chunda, during which Buddha, knowing that the poor man was going to regale his guests with stale meat, asked to give all the meat to him. The Buddha died in the town of Kushinagara, and his body was cremated according to custom, and the ashes were divided among eight followers, six of whom were from different communities. His ashes were buried in eight different places, and later memorial tombstones - stupas were erected over these graves. According to legend, one of the disciples pulled out the Buddha's tooth from the funeral pyre, which became the main relic of Buddhists. Now he is in the temple in the city of Kandy on the island of Sri Lanka.

Gautama Buddha, whose original name was Prince Siddhartha Gautama, was the founder of Buddhism, one of the world's greatest religions.

Siddhartha was the son of a king who ruled in the city of Kapilavastu, located in northern India on the border with Nepal. Siddhartha, descended from the royal Gautama clan of the Shakya tribe, is believed to have been born in 563 BC. in the city of Lumbini, located within the modern borders of Nepal. At sixteen, he married his cousin, who was the same age as him.

Prince Siddhartha grew up in a luxurious royal palace, but he did not strive for material comfort. He felt deeply dissatisfied with his life. He saw that most of the people around were poor and constantly suffering from want. Even those who were wealthy were often disappointed in life and unhappy, and everyone around them was prone to disease and eventually died. And, naturally, Siddhartha began to think that there must be more in life than temporary pleasures, which are too fleeting in the face of suffering and death.

When he was 29 years old, it was shortly after the birth of his first son, Siddhartha decided that he should end the life he had lived and devote himself entirely to the search for truth. He left the palace, leaving behind his wife, his newborn son, all his earthly treasures, and became a wanderer who had not a penny in his pocket. For some time he studied with some famous saints of that time, but, having mastered all the subtleties of their science, he realized that it was not a panacea for solving the problems that life itself poses for a person.

It was widely believed at the time that excessive asceticism was the path to true wisdom. Therefore, Gautama tried to become an ascetic and for several years subjected himself to hunger and mortification of the flesh. In the end, however, he realized that by torturing his body he only clouded his brain and that this did not bring him one step closer to true wisdom. Therefore, he began to eat normally again and ended his asceticism.

Leading a solitary life, he tried to solve the problems of human existence. In the end, one evening, as he sat under a giant fig tree, all the pieces of the puzzle seemed to come together. Siddhartha spent the whole night in deep thought, and when morning came, he realized that he had found the key to solving problems and that he had become a "Buddha", i.e. "an enlightened person."

At this time he was 35 years old. For the remaining 45 years of his life, he traveled throughout northern India, preaching his new philosophy to anyone who wanted to listen to him. When he died, which happened in 483 BC, he had thousands of converts. Although his words were not written down on paper, his students managed to memorize much of his teaching, and it was passed on to subsequent generations orally.

The main teaching of the Buddha can be summed up in what Buddhists call the "Four Noble Truths": first, human life is by nature an unhappy life; the second - the cause of an unhappy life is human selfishness and desires; third, the egoism of an individual person and his desires can be done away with; the final stage, when all desires and aspirations are reduced to nothing, is called "nirvana" (literally "fading", "fading"); the fourth truth is the way by which one can get rid of selfishness and desires, called the "Way of the Eight Roads": right beliefs, right thinking, right speech, right action, right way of life, right effort, right attitude to duties, right meditation. It could be added that Buddhism is a religion open to everyone, regardless of race, and that, unlike Hinduism, it does not recognize division into castes.

For some time after Gautama's death, the new religion spread slowly. In the III century BC. the great Indian ruler Ashoka was initiated into Buddhism. His support ensured the rapid spread of the influence of Buddhism and its dogmas in India, as well as in neighboring countries. Buddhism spread south to Ceylon and eastward to Burma. From there, it spread to all of Southeast Asia, Malaysia, and what is today Indonesia. Buddhism also spread northward, directly to Tibet, and northwestward to Afghanistan and Central Asia. It received the greatest distribution in China, and then spread to Korea and Japan.

In India itself, the new faith began to decline after 500 BC. and completely disappeared after 1200 A.D. In contrast, in China and Japan, Buddhism remained as the main religion.

For centuries, it has remained the main religion in Tibet and the countries of Southeast Asia.

The Buddha's teachings were not reflected in writing for several centuries after his death, and it is not difficult to understand that his movement split into different currents. The two main branches of Buddhism are the Theravadi branch, which dominates South Asia and is considered by most Western scholars as the closest to the original teachings of the Buddha, and the Mahayana branch, which is widespread in Tibet, China and North Asia.

Buddha, as the founder of one of the main religions of the world, certainly claims to be one of the first places on our list. But since there are only about 200 million Buddhists in the world, compared to 500 million Muslims and a billion Christians, it is clear that the Buddha influenced fewer people than Jesus or Mohammed. However, the difference in numbers can be misleading. One of the reasons why Buddhism gradually faded away in India is that Hinduism has absorbed many of its ideas and principles. In China, likewise, a large number of people who do not call themselves Buddhists are heavily influenced by Buddhist philosophy.

There are many more pacifist ideas in Buddhism than in Christianity or Islam. The orientation towards non-violence plays a significant role in the political history of Buddhist countries.

It is often said that if Christ had to return to earth, he would be shocked by many of what was accomplished in his name, and he would be horrified by the bloody struggle between various religious sects, whose members call themselves his followers. The Buddha would also no doubt be amazed to learn how many different doctrines present themselves as Buddhist. Despite the fact that Buddhism has many directions and there are significant differences between them, there is nothing in Buddhist history that even remotely resembles the bloody religious wars that were waged in Christian Europe. In this regard, according to at least, the teaching of the Buddha had a much greater impact on his followers than the Christian teaching.

Buddha and Confucius had approximately equal influence on world development. Both of them lived at about the same time and the number of their adherents is not too different from one another.

I tend to rate Buddha above Confucius for two reasons. The first of them - the arrival of communism in China, as it seems to me, significantly weakened the influence of Confucius. And the second reason: the fact that Confucianism did not become widespread outside China indicates how closely the ideas of Confucius were intertwined with the ideas that existed earlier in China. On the other hand, Buddhist teachings are in no way a repetition of previous Indian philosophy, and Buddhism spread far beyond India due to the originality of Gautam Buddha's concept and the great attraction of his philosophy.

The story of Buddha, an awakened sage from the Shakya clan, the legendary founder of the world religion of Buddhism and spiritual teacher, dates back to the 5th-6th century BC (the exact date is unknown). Blessed, revered by the world, walking in good, completely perfect ... He is called differently. Buddha lived a rather long life, about 80 years, and has come an amazing way during this time. But first things first.

Reconstruction of biography

Before Buddha, one important nuance should be noted. The fact is that modern science has very little material for the scientific reconstruction of his biography. Therefore, all the information known about the Blessed One is taken from a number of Buddhist texts, from a work called "Buddacharita" for example (translated as "The Life of Buddha"). Its author is Ashvaghosha, an Indian preacher, playwright and poet.

Also one of the sources is the work of "Lalitavistara". Translated as "Detailed description of the games of the Buddha." Several authors worked on the creation of this work. It is interesting that it is Lalitavistara that finishes the process of deification, deification of Buddha.

It is also worth mentioning that the first texts relating to the Awakened Sage began to appear only four centuries after his death. By that time, the stories about him had already been slightly altered by the monks to exaggerate his figure.

And we must remember: chronological moments were not covered in the works of the ancient Indians. Attention was focused on the philosophical aspects. Having read many Buddhist texts, you can understand this. There, the description of the Buddha's thoughts prevails over the stories about the time in which all events took place.

Life before birth

If you believe the stories and legends about Buddha, then his path to enlightenment, holistic and complete awareness of the nature of reality began tens of millennia before his real birth. This is called the life-death wheel. The concept is more common under the name "samsara". This cycle is limited by karma - the universal cause-and-effect law, according to which a person's sinful or righteous actions determine his fate, pleasure and suffering intended for him.

So, it all began with the meeting of Dipankara (the first of the 24 buddhas) with a scholar and wealthy brahmana, a representative of the upper class, named Sumedhi. He was simply amazed at his calmness and serenity. After this meeting, Sumedhi promised himself to achieve exactly the same state. So they began to call him a bodhisattva - one who seeks to awaken for the benefit of all beings in order to get out of the state of samsara.

Sumedhi died. But his strength and craving for enlightenment is not. It was she who conditioned his multiple births in various bodies and images. All this time, the bodhisattva continued to cultivate his mercy and wisdom. They say that in his penultimate time he was born among the gods (devas), and got the opportunity to choose the most favorable place for his final birth. Therefore, his decision became the family of the venerable Shakya king. He knew that people would have more confidence in the preaching of someone of such a noble background.

Family, conception and birth

According to the traditional biography of Buddha, his father's name was Shuddhodana, and he was the raja (sovereign person) of a small Indian principality and the head of the Shakya tribe - a royal family of the foothills of the Himalayas with the capital of Kapilavatthu. Interestingly, Gautama is his gotra, an exogamous clan, an analogue of the surname.

There is, however, another version. According to her, Shuddhodana was a member of the Kshatriya assembly - an influential class in ancient Indian society, which included sovereign warriors.

The mother of Buddha was Queen Mahamaya from the kingdom of the Coli. On the night of Buddha's conception, she dreamed that a white elephant with six light tusks entered her.

According to the Shakya tradition, the queen went to her parents' house for childbirth. But Mahamaya did not reach them - everything happened on the road. I had to stop at the Lumbini grove (modern location - the state of Nepal in South Asia, a settlement in the Rupandehi district). It was there that the future Sage was born - right under the ashoka tree. It happened in the month of Vaishakha - the second from the beginning of the year, lasting from April 21st to May 21st.

According to most sources, Queen Mahamaya died a few days after giving birth.

For the blessing of the baby, the hermit-seer Asita from the mountain monastery was invited. He found 32 signs of a great man on the child's body. The seer said - the baby will become either a chakravartin (great king) or a saint.

The boy was called Siddhartha Gautama. The naming ceremony was held on the fifth day after his birth. "Siddhartha" is translated as "one who has achieved his goal." To predict his future, eight learned brahmanas were invited. All of them confirmed the boy’s dual fate.

Youth

Talking about the biography of Buddha, it should be noted that his younger sister Mahamaya was involved in his upbringing. Her name was Maha Prajapati. The father also took a certain part in the upbringing. He wanted his son to become a great king, and not a religious sage, therefore, remembering the dual predictions for the boy's future, he tried in every possible way to protect him from the teachings, philosophy and knowledge of human suffering. He ordered the construction of as many as three palaces especially for the boy.

The future was ahead of all his peers in everything - in development, in sports, in science. But most of all he was drawn to reflection.

As soon as the boy turned 16, he was married to a princess named Yashodhara, the daughter of King Sauppabuddha of the same age. A few years later, they had a son named Rahula. He was the only child of Buddha Shakyamuni. Interestingly, his birth coincided with a lunar eclipse.

Looking ahead, it should be said that the boy became a student of his father, and later an arhat - one who achieved complete liberation from kleshas (obscurations and affects of consciousness) and left the state of samsara. Rahula experienced enlightenment even when he just walked next to his father.

For 29 years, Siddhartha lived as the prince of the capital, Kapilavastu. He got everything he could want. But I felt: material wealth is far from the ultimate goal of life.

What changed his life

One day, in his 30th year, Siddhartha Gautama, the future Buddha, went outside the palace, accompanied by the chariot Channa. And he saw four spectacles that changed his life forever. These were:

• Beggar old man.
• Sick man.
• Decaying corpse.
• Hermit (a person who ascetically renounced worldly life).

It was at that moment that Siddhartha realized the entire harsh reality of our reality, which remains relevant to this day, despite the past two and a half millennia. He understood that death, aging, suffering and illness are inevitable. Neither nobility nor wealth will protect them from them. The path to salvation lies only through self-knowledge, since it is through this that one can comprehend the causes of suffering.

That day really changed a lot. What he saw prompted him to leave his home, family and all property. He gave up his old life to go in search of a way out of suffering.

Acquiring knowledge

From that day began new story Buddha. Siddhartha left the palace with Channa. Legends say that the gods muffled the sound of his horse's hooves to keep his departure a secret.

As soon as the prince drove out of the city, he stopped the first beggar he met and exchanged clothes with him, after which he released his servant. This event even has a name - "The Great Departure".

Siddhartha began his ascetic life in Rajagriha - a city in the Nalanda district, which is now called Rajgir. There he begged on the street for alms.

Naturally, they found out about it. King Bimbisara even offered him the throne. Siddhartha refused him, but made a promise to go to the kingdom of Magadha after achieving enlightenment.

So the Buddha's life in Rajagriha did not work out, and he left the city, eventually coming to two hermit brahmanas, where he began to study yogic meditation. Having mastered the teachings, he came to a sage named Udaka Ramaputta. He became his disciple, and after reaching the highest level of meditative concentration, he set out again.

His target was southeastern India. There, Siddhartha, along with five other people seeking the truth, tried to come to enlightenment under the leadership of the monk Kaundinya. The methods were the most severe - asceticism, self-torture, all kinds of vows and mortification of the flesh.

Being on the verge of death after as many as six (!) Years of such existence, he understood that this does not lead to clarity of mind, but only cloudes it and exhausts the body. Therefore Gautama began to reconsider his path. He remembered how, as a child, he plunged into a trance during the holiday of the beginning of plowing, he felt that refreshing and blissful state of concentration. And plunged into Dhyana. This is a special state of contemplation, concentrated thinking, which leads to a calming down of consciousness and, in the future, to a complete cessation of mental activity for a while.

Enlightenment

After renouncing self-torture, the life of the Buddha began to take shape differently - he went to wander alone, and his path continued until he reached a grove located near the town of Gaia (Bihar state).

By chance, he came across the house of a village woman, Sujata Nanda, who believed that Siddhartha was the spirit of a tree. He looked so gaunt. The woman fed him rice with milk, after which he sat down under a large ficus tree (now they call him and vowed not to get up until he comes to the Truth.

This was not to the liking of the demon-tempter Mara, who headed the kingdom of the gods. He seduced the future God Buddha with various visions, showed him beautiful womentrying in every possible way to distract him from meditation by demonstrating the attractiveness of earthly life. However, Gautama was unshakable and the demon retreated.

For 49 days he sat under a ficus tree. And on the full moon, in the month of Vaisakha, on the same night when Siddhartha was born, he attained Awakening. He was 35 years old. That night, he received a complete understanding of the causes of human suffering, of nature, as well as what it takes to achieve the same state for other people.

This knowledge was later called the "Four Noble Truths." They can be summarized as follows: “There is suffering. And there is a reason for it, which is desire. Ending suffering is nirvana. And there is a path that leads to its achievement, called the Eightfold. "

For several more days Gautama thought, being in a state of samadhi (the disappearance of the idea of \u200b\u200bhis own individuality), whether to teach the others about the knowledge he had received. He doubted whether they would be able to come to Awakening, because they are all filled with deception, hatred and greed. And the ideas of Enlightenment are very subtle and deep to understand. But the highest deva Brahma Sahampati (god) stood up for people, who asked Gautama to bring the Teaching into this world, since there will always be those who will understand him.

Eightfold path

Talking about who Buddha is, one cannot but mention the Noble Eightfold Path, which the Awakened One himself traveled. This is the road leading to the end of suffering and liberation from the state of samsara. You can talk about this for hours, but in short, the Eightfold Path of the Buddha is 8 rules, following which you can come to Awakening. Here's what they are:

1. Correct view. It implies the comprehension of the four truths that were indicated above, as well as other provisions of the teaching that you need to experience and form the felt into the motivation of your behavior.
2. Correct intention. You need to firmly believe in your decision to follow the eightfold path of the Buddha, leading to nirvana and liberation. And begin to cultivate metta in yourself - friendliness, benevolence, loving kindness and kindness to all living things.
3. Correct speech. Rejection of foul language and lies, slander and stupidity, obscenity and meanness, idle talk and strife.
4. Correct behavior. Do not kill, do not steal, do not debauch, do not drink, do not lie, do not commit any other atrocities. This is the path to social, contemplative, karmic and psychological harmony.
5. Correct lifestyle. We must give up everything that can cause suffering to any living creature. Choose an appropriate occupation - earn in accordance with Buddhist values. Give up luxury, wealth and excesses. This will get rid of envy and other passions.
6. Correct effort. Striving to realize oneself and learn to distinguish between dharmas, joy, peace and tranquility, to concentrate on achieving the truth.
7. Correct mindfulness. Be able to be aware of your own body, mind, sensations. Trying to learn to see yourself as an accumulation of physical and mental states, to distinguish the "ego", to destroy it.
8. Correct concentration. Departure into deep meditation or dhyana. Helps to achieve the ultimate contemplation, to be free.

And that's in a nutshell. The name of Buddha is primarily associated with these concepts. And, by the way, they also formed the basis of the Zen school.

On spreading the teaching

From the moment of comprehension by Siddhartha, they began to find out who Buddha was. He started spreading knowledge. The first students were traders - Bhallika and Tapussa. Gautama gave them several hairs from his head, which, according to the legends, are kept in a 98-meter gilded mortar in Yangon (Shwedagon Pagoda).

Then the story of Buddha develops in such a way that he goes to Varanasi (a city for the Hindus that means the same as the Vatican for Catholics). Siddhartha wanted to tell his former teachers about their achievements, but it turned out that they had already died.

Then he went to the suburb of Sarnath, where he gave the first sermon, in which he told his fellow austerities about the Eightfold Path and the Four Truths. Everyone who listened to him soon became an arhat.

Over the next 45 years, the name of Buddha became more and more recognizable. He traveled across India, taught the Teaching to everyone, whoever they were - even cannibals, even warriors, even cleaners. Gautama was accompanied by the sangha and his community.

All this was learned by his father, Shuddhodana. The king sent as many as 10 delegations for his son to bring him back to Kapilavasta. But it was in ordinary life that Buddha was a prince. Everything has long become the past. Delegations came to Siddhartha, and as a result, 9 out of 10 joined his sangha, becoming arhats. The tenth Buddha accepted and agreed to go to Kapilavasta. He went there on foot, preaching the Dharma on the way.

Returning to Kapilavasta, Gautama learned about the impending death of his father. He came to him and told him about the Dharma. Just before his death, Shuddhodana became an arhat.

After that he returned to Rajagaha. Maha Prajapati, who raised him, asked to be admitted to the sangha, but Gautama refused. However, the woman did not accept this, and went after him along with several noble girls of the Kolya and Shakya clan. As a result, the Buddha nobly accepted them, seeing that their ability to enlightenment is on a par with that of men.

Death

The years of the Buddha's life were intense. When he was 80 years old, he said that he would soon reach Parinirvana, the final stage of immortality, and liberate his earthly body. Before entering this state, he asked his disciples if they had any questions. They weren't there. Then he uttered his last words: “All composite things are short-lived. Strive for your own release with special zeal. "

When he died, he was cremated according to the rules of the ceremony for the Universal Ruler. The remains were divided into 8 parts and placed at the base of the stupas specially erected for this. It is believed that some of the monuments have survived to this day. The Dalada Maligawa temple, for example, which houses the tooth of the great sage.

In ordinary life, Buddha was just a status person. And having passed a difficult path, he became the one who was able to achieve the highest state of spiritual perfection and put knowledge into the minds of thousands of people. It is he who is the founder of the most ancient world doctrine, which has indescribable meaning. It is not surprising that the celebration of Buddha's birthday is a large-scale and loud holiday celebrated in all countries of East Asia (except Japan), and in some it is official. The date changes annually, but always falls in April or May.