Lord Shakyamuni Gautama Buddha is the founder of Buddhism, one of the major religions and philosophical systems of southern and eastern Asia and of the world
Buddha, (It is a Sanskrit word that means "a person who is awake")
Clan name (Sanskrit) Gautama or (Pali) Gotama,
Personal name (Sanskrit) Siddhartha or (Pali) Siddhattha,
Shakyamuni, "the sage of the Shakya clan"
Born during the 6th–4th century BCE
( While scholars agree that Buddha did in fact exist, the specific dates and events of his life are still debated)
in Lumbini, (now in Nepal)
Siddhartha Gautama was born in Lumbini in present-day Nepal. To an aristocratic family which belonged to a large clan called the Shakyas.
Siddhartha ("he who achieves his aim") Gautama grew up the son of a ruler of the Shakya clan. His mother died seven days after giving birth.
Upon his birth a holy man, prophesied great things for the young Siddhartha: He would either be a great king or military leader or he would be a great spiritual leader, upon hearing this his father the then king feared that his son would grow up and follow the path of spirituality and renounce the throne.
Therefore, in hopes of preventing the loss of an heir, Siddhartha's father raised him in opulence in a palace built just for the boy and sheltered him from knowledge of religion, human hardship and the outside world.
According to legend, he married at the age of 16 and had a son soon thereafter, Siddhartha's life of worldly seclusion continued for another 13 years.
The prince reached adulthood with little experience of the world outside the palace walls. But one day he ventured out with a charioteer and was quickly confronted with the realities of human frailty: He saw a very old man, and Siddhartha's charioteer explained that all people grow old.
Questions about all he had not experienced led him to take more journeys of exploration, and on these subsequent trips he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse and finally a monk. The charioteer explained that the monk had renounced the world to seek release from the human fear of death and suffering.
Siddhartha was overcome by these sights, and the next day, at age 29, he left his kingdom, his wife and his son to follow a more spiritual path, determined to find a way to relieve the universal suffering that he now understood to be one of the defining traits of humanity. For the next six years, Siddhartha lived a monks life, studying and meditating using the words of various religious teachers as his guide.
He practiced his new way of life, he renounced his worldly life and began a spiritual quest. He punished his body with ascetic practices such as extreme, prolonged fasts. It was believed during that time that punishing the body was the way to elevate the mind and that the door to wisdom was found at the edge of death. However, after six years of this, the prince felt only frustration.
When answers to his questions did not appear, however, he redoubled his efforts, enduring pain, fasting nearly to starvation and refusing water.
Whatever he tried, Siddhartha could not reach the level of insight he sought, until one day when a young girl offered him a bowl of rice.
he suddenly realized that hash self-denial was not the means to achieve inner liberation, and that living under harsh physical constraints was not helping him achieve spiritual release.
So he had his rice, drank water and bathed in the river.
That night, Siddhartha sat alone under the Bodhi tree, vowing to not get up until the truths he sought came to him, and he meditated until the sun came up the next day. He remained there for several days, purifying his mind, seeing his entire life, and previous lives, in his thoughts.
And soon a picture began to form in his mind of all that occurred in the universe, and Siddhartha finally saw the answer to the questions of suffering that he had been seeking for so many years. In that moment of pure enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama became the Lord Buddha.
When Buddha attained enlightenment in Buddagaya under the sacred Bo tree, he rejoiced in triumph. But the first thought that came to his mind was, how he could transmit this enlightenment to the common mortal. Even though he attained Buddhahood he realized how difficult it was to enlighten a common mortal. Then, it is said, the Mahabrahma appealed to him saying he had been born for this purpose and that he was the only person who could achieve it, as he is the "Samma Sambuddha". Here, it has to be said, that Mahabrahma is also a supreme power.
Buddha was in deep meditation for seven long weeks after attaining enlightenment. The Lotus Sutra states that he had been contemplating how to get the message of Buddhayana or Lotus Sutra across to the people during this period and was seeking views of all the past Buddhas of the universe.
They have pointed out to Him that the past Buddhas expounded the Shravakayana and Prathyakabudhdhyana prior to the Buddhayana and he too decided to do the same. Buddha foresaw that still there were people who could attain Arahathhood if shown the way. Buddha made use of them to show his ability to awaken the strength of an individual. By doing so The Buddha won over the society and had many disciples around him to propagate the law. Buddha went on preaching (Sutras or Dharmnaskandas) to suit particular groups of people for that moment, to convince them. This is how about 84,000 "sutras" or "Dharmaskandas" are found in the collection of the Dharma. These were meant for certain groups of people to lead them to attain Arahathhood, but his ultimate purpose was to make all of them reach Buddhahood.
Eight years before his passing, the Buddha decided that the time has come to reveal the Lotus Sutra in order to prepare for the era 2500 years after his lifetime. This is the present era or the decay of kalpa.
Buddha proclaimed that the Buddhayana or the Lotus sutra is the most effective method for the salvation of people in the latter day of the law.
