The Buddha

‘Buddha’ is a title meaning ‘one who has awakened’ in the sense of having woken up to reality. The person we know by this title was born as Siddhartha Gautama on the Indian-Nepalese border around 2,500 years ago. He didn’t claim to be a god – he was a human being who became Enlightened, understanding life in the deepest way possible.

The traditional story of the Buddha's life relates that Siddhartha had a privileged upbringing, but seeing that life includes old age, sickness, and death – the harsh facts of life – jolted him out of his sheltered existence. 

He left the palace to become a wandering seeker after the truth. He learned meditation and then took up ascetic practices, aiming to free his spirit by punishing the flesh. That took him to the verge of death but he realised it had brought him no closer to real wisdom. 

Siddhartha decided instead to look into his own heart and mind so he could learn from his direct experience. He sat down beneath a spreading fig tree, vowed to stay there until he’d penetrated the truth and, at the time of the May full moon, Buddhist tradition says, he gained Enlightenment or Awakening. 

Buddhism sees Enlightenment as a state beyond anything else in the world. If normal experience is based on conditions — upbringing, psychology, opinions, perceptions and so on — Awakening is beyond these conditions. A Buddha is one who has gained full Awakening and sees reality with absolute clarity, just as it is. They live fully and naturally in accordance with that vision with wisdom, compassion and freedom.

Enlightenment brings insight into the deepest workings of life, and therefore into the cause of human suffering — the problem that had initially set the Buddha on his spiritual journey.

"The Dharma is like a raft whose purpose is helping you cross over, not something to be grasped onto." The Buddha, Majjhima Nikaya

In the 45 years of the Buddha’s life after his Awakening he criss-crossed northwestern India, sharing his understanding. His teaching is known traditionally as the Buddha-dharma – ’the teaching of the Awakened One’, or just the Dharma. His disciples memorised his talks and the incidents that prompted them, and passed them on to others. They are available to us today (no doubt, somewhat altered over time) in the form of the Buddhist Discourses. 

We reverence the Buddha, and aspire to follow him. The Buddha was born as we are born. What the Buddha attained we too can attain. What the Buddha overcame we too can overcome.
Triratna Threefold Puja

The Buddha reached people from all walks of life and many of his disciples gained Enlightenment. They, in turn, taught others and in this way an unbroken chain of teaching has continued, right down to the present day. The community he started is called the Sangha.

Resources

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