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The life of the Buddha

This is the life of the Buddha as Vietnamese and other Buddhist traditions commonly tell it. The oldest texts and later books differ on details, and historians cannot confirm many of them, so read it as the outline most traditions share. He is usually placed in northern India around the 5th century BCE, though scholars debate the exact dates.

Birth

Siddhartha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, in the garden of Lumbini, in what is now Nepal. His father, Suddhodana, ruled the clan. The family called him by his personal name, Siddhartha; "Shakyamuni" means "sage of the Shakya clan". In Vietnam his birth is remembered on Buddha's Birthday, when temples hold the bathing-the-Buddha ceremony.

Life in the palace

He grew up in comfort, was married, and had a son named Rahula. Tradition says his father tried to keep him from seeing hardship. On outings beyond the palace he met an old man, a sick man and a dead body, and then a wandering seeker who had left home. These four sights made him ask how anyone could find peace in a life that ends in ageing, illness and death.

Going forth

At about the age of 29, he left the palace, cut his hair and took up the life of a seeker. He studied with teachers of meditation and then joined a group of ascetics, fasting until he was very thin. The lunar calendar remembers this departure on the 8th of the 2nd month.

The middle way

After years of austerity, he saw that neither comfort nor starvation brought clarity. A village woman offered him a bowl of milk rice, which he accepted. This is the turning point told in Sujata and the bowl of milk rice. From it comes the teaching of the middle way, which you can read about in the basics under the Eightfold Path.

Awakening

He sat beneath a bodhi tree at the place now called Bodh Gaya and resolved not to rise until he understood. Near dawn he saw the cause of suffering and the way it ends, and became the Buddha, "the awakened one". Traditions place this at about the age of 35. The awakening tells this night, and Bodhi Day remembers it.

The first teaching and the community

The Buddha went to the Deer Park near Varanasi and taught five former companions the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. They became the first monks, and the first community, the Sangha, formed around them. Over the next decades men and women, kings and farmers came to listen, and communities of monks and nuns and of lay followers grew.

Forty-five years of teaching

He walked and taught across the Ganges plain for about forty-five years, in the dry seasons, and stayed in one place during the rains, the origin of the rains retreat that monastics still keep. Many stories from these years are told in the temples:

Earlier lives

Buddhist tradition also tells of many earlier lives in which the future Buddha practised generosity, patience and compassion. Two of these Jataka tales are on this site.

Passing away

At about the age of 80 he fell ill on a journey and lay down between two trees at Kushinagar. He gave his last teachings to those around him, urging them to practise with care. Tradition records his last words as a reminder that all things change and that his followers should make an effort. Many temples remember this on the 15th of the 2nd month.

What the life points to

Buddhists often read this life as a story of a person who was moved by suffering, tried one way, saw its limit, chose a middle way, and then spent his life sharing what he found. You do not need to believe anything to read it or to visit a temple. If you want to see where each stage appears in a temple, the temple layout and the altars show the Buddha statues and scenes that recall it.

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