What the Buddha taught
Walpola Rahula
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The Buddha
The Buddha, whose
personal name was Siddhattha (Siddhārtha in Sanskrit), and family name
Gotama (Skt. Gautama), lived in North India in the 6th
century B.C. Hid father, Suddhodana, was the ruler of the kingdom, of
the Sākyas (in modern Nepal). His mother was queen Māyā. According to
the custom of the time, he was married quite young, at the age sixteen,
to a beautiful and devoted young princess named Yasodharā. The young
prince lived in his palace with every luxury at his command. But all of
a sudden, confronted with the reality of life and the suffering of
mankind, he decided to find the solution - the way out of this universal
suffering. At the age of 29, soon after birth of his only child, Rāhula,
he left his kingdom and became an ascetic in search of this solution.
For six
years the ascetic Gotama wandered about the valley of the Ganges,
meeting famous religious teachers, studying and following their systems
and methods, and submitting himself to rigorous ascetic practices. They
did not satisfy him. So he abandoned all traditional religions and their
methods and went his own way. It was thus that one evening, seated under
a tree (since then known as the Bodhi-or-Bo-tree, ‘the Tree of Wisdom’).
On the bank of the river Neranjarā at Buddha-Gaya (near Gaya in modern
Bihar), at the age of 35, Gotama attained Enlightenment, after which he
was known as the Buddha, ‘The Enlightened One’.
After his
Enlightenment, Gotama the Buddha delivered his first sermon to a group
of five ascetics, his old colleagues, in the Deer Park at Isipatana
(modern Sarnath) near Benares. From that day, for 45 years, he taught
all classes of men and women-kings and peasants, Brahmins and outcasts,
bankers and beggars, holy men and robbers – without making slightest
distinction between them. He recognized no differences of caste or
social groupings, and the Way he preached was open to all men and women
who were ready to understand and to follow it.
At the age
of 80, the Buddha passed away at Kusinārā (in modern Uttar Pradesh in
India).
Today
Buddhism is found in Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam,
Tibet, China, Japan, Mongolia, Korea, Formosa, in some parts of India,
Pakistan and Nepal, and also in the Soviet Union. The Buddhist
population of the world is over 500 million.
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