Gautama Buddha: Gautama Buddha, Popularly Known As The Buddha (Also Gautama

Gautama Buddha - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha, popularly known as the Buddha (also
Gautama Buddha
known as Siddhattha Gotama or Siddhārtha
Gautama [note 3] or Buddha Shakyamuni), was a Śramaṇa
who lived in ancient India (c. 5th to 4th century BCE).[5]
[6][7][note 4] He is regarded as the founder of the world religion of
Buddhism, and revered by most Buddhist schools as a savior,[8]
the Enlightened One who rediscovered an ancient path to release
clinging and craving and escape the cycle of birth and rebirth. He
taught for around 45 years and built a large following, both
monastic and lay.[9] His teaching is based on his insight into the
arising of duḥkha (the unsatisfactoriness of clinging to
impermanent states and things) and the ending of duhkha—the
state called Nibbāna or Nirvana (extinguishing of the three fires).
The Buddha was born into an aristocratic family in the Shakya

clan but eventually renounced lay life. According to Buddhist
tradition, after several years of mendicancy, meditation, and
The Dharmachakra Pravartana
asceticism, he awakened to understand the mechanism which
Buddha, a statue of the Buddha
keeps people trapped in the cycle of rebirth. The Buddha then
from Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, India.
traveled throughout the Ganges plain teaching and building a
religious community. The Buddha taught a middle way between Gupta art, c. 475 CE. The Buddha is
sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the Indian depicted teaching in the lotus
śramaṇa movement.[10] He taught a training of the mind that position, while making the
included ethical training, self-restraint, and meditative practices Dharmacakra mudrā.
such as jhana and mindfulness. The Buddha also critiqued the Sanskrit name
practices of Brahmin priests, such as animal sacrifice and the
caste system. Sanskrit Siddhārtha Gautama
Pali name
A couple of centuries after his death he came to be known by the
Pali Siddhattha Gotama
title Buddha, which means "Awakened One" or "Enlightened
One".[11] Gautama's teachings were compiled by the Buddhist Other names Shakyamuni ("Sage
community in the Vinaya, his codes for monastic practice, and the of the Shakyas")
Suttas, texts based on his discourses. These were passed down in
Personal
Middle-Indo Aryan dialects through an oral tradition.[12][13] Later
generations composed additional texts, such as systematic Born Siddhartha Gautama
treatises known as Abhidharma, biographies of the Buddha, c. 563 BCE or 480
collections of stories about the Buddha's past lives known as BCE
Jataka tales, and additional discourses, i.e. the Mahayana sutras. Lumbini, Shakya
[14][15]
Republic (present-
day Nepal)
(according to
Contents Buddhist
tradition)[note 1]
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Gautama Buddha - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha
Names and titles Died c. 483 BCE or 400

BCE (aged 80)[1][2][3]
Historical person
Historical context Kushinagar, Malla
Earliest sources Republic (present-
day India) (according
Traditional biographies
to Buddhist
Biographical sources
tradition)[note 2]
Nature of traditional depictions
Religion Buddhism
Previous lives
Biography Spouse Yasodharā
Birth and early life Children Rāhula
Renunciation Parents Śuddhodana (father)
Ascetic life and awakening
Maya Devi (mother)
First sermon and formation of the saṅgha
The growth of the saṅgha Known for Founder of
Formation of the bhikkhunī order Buddhism
Later years Other names Shakyamuni ("Sage
Last days and parinirvana of the Shakyas")
Posthumous events
Senior posting
Teachings
Predecessor Kassapa Buddha
Tracing the oldest teachings
Influences Successor Maitreya
Teachings preserved in the Early Buddhist Texts
Critique of Brahmanism
Analysis of existence
Dependent Origination
Metaphysics and personal identity
Worldly happiness
The Path to Liberation
Monasticism
Socio-political teachings
Scholarly views on the earliest teachings
Physical characteristics
In early sources
The 32 Signs
Gautama Buddha in other religions
Artistic depictions
Gallery showing different Buddha styles
In other media
See also
Notes
References
Sources
Further reading
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External links
Names and titles

Besides "Buddha" and the name Siddhārtha Gautama (Pali: Siddhattha Gotama), he was also known
by other names and titles, such as Shakyamuni ("Sage of the Shakyas").[16][note 5]
In the early texts, the Buddha also often refers to himself as Tathāgata (Sanskrit: [tɐˈtʰaːɡɐtɐ]). The
term is often thought to mean either "one who has thus gone" (tathā-gata) or "one who has thus
come" (tathā-āgata), possibly referring to the transcendental nature of the Buddha's spiritual
attainment.[17]
A common list of epithets are commonly seen together in the

canonical texts, and depict some of his spiritual qualities:[18]
Sammasambuddho – Perfectly self-awakened

Vijja-carana-sampano – Endowed with higher knowledge and
ideal conduct.
Sugata – Well-gone or Well-spoken.
Lokavidu – Knower of the many worlds.
Anuttaro Purisa-damma-sarathi – Unexcelled trainer of
untrained people.
Satthadeva-Manussanam – Teacher of gods and humans.
Bhagavato – The Blessed one
Araham – Worthy of homage. An Arahant is "one with taints
destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be
done, laid down the burden, reached the true goal, destroyed
the fetters of being, and is completely liberated through final
knowledge."
Jina – Conqueror. Although the term is more commonly used
to name an individual who has attained liberation in the Seated Buddha from Tapa Shotor
religion Jainism, it is also an alternative title for the monastery in Hadda, Afghanistan,
Buddha.[19] 2nd century CE
The Pali Canon also contains numerous other titles and epithets
for the Buddha, including: All-seeing, All-transcending sage, Bull among men, The Caravan leader,
Dispeller of darkness, The Eye, Foremost of charioteers, Foremost of those who can cross, King of the
Dharma (Dharmaraja), Kinsman of the Sun, Helper of the World (Lokanatha), Lion (Siha), Lord of
the Dhamma, Of excellent wisdom (Varapañña), Radiant One, Torchbearer of mankind, Unsurpassed
doctor and surgeon, Victor in battle, and Wielder of power.[20]
Historical person
Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most
people accept that the Buddha lived, taught, and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada
era during the reign of Bimbisara (c. 558 – c. 491 BCE, or c. 400 BCE),[21][22][23] the ruler of the
Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajatashatru, who was the successor of
Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain tirthankara.[24][25] While
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the general sequence of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching,
death" is widely accepted,[26] there is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in
traditional biographies.[27][28][29]
The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated
his lifetime as c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE.[1][30] Within the Eastern Buddhist tradition of China, Vietnam,
Korea and Japan, the traditional date for the death of the Buddha was 949 B.C.[1] According to the
Ka-tan system of time calculation in the Kalachakra tradition, Buddha is believed to have died about
833 BCE.[31] More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium
on this question held in 1988,[32][33][34] the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave
dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death.[1][35][note 4] These alternative
chronologies, however, have not been accepted by all historians.[40][41][note 6]
Historical context
According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was

born in Lumbini, now in modern-day Nepal, and
raised in Kapilavastu, which may have been either in
what is present-day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa,
India.[note 1] According to Buddhist tradition, he
obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his
first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagar.
One of Gautama's usual names was "Sakamuni" or

"Sakyamunī" ("Sage of the Shakyas"). This and the
evidence of the early texts suggests that he was born
into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the
periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the Ancient kingdoms and cities of India during the
eastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century time of the Buddha (c. 500 BCE)
BCE. [62] The community was either a small republic,
or an oligarchy. His father was an elected chieftain, or
oligarch.[62] Bronkhorst calls this eastern culture Greater Magadha and notes that "Buddhism and
Jainism arose in a culture which was recognized as being non-Vedic".[63]
The Shakyas were an eastern sub-Himalayan ethnic group who were considered outside of the
Āryāvarta and of ‘mixed origin’ (saṃkīrṇa-yonayaḥ, possibly part Aryan and part indigenous). The
laws of Manu treats them as being non Aryan. As noted by Levman, "The Baudhāyana-dharmaśāstra
(1.1.2.13–4) lists all the tribes of Magadha as being outside the pale of the Āryāvarta; and just visiting
them required a purificatory sacrifice as expiation" (In Manu 10.11, 22).[64] This is confirmed by the
Ambaṭṭha Sutta, where the Sakyans are said to be "rough-spoken", "of menial origin" and criticised
because "they do not honour, respect, esteem, revere or pay homage to Brahmans."[64] Some of the
non-Vedic practices of this tribe included incest (marrying their sisters), the worship of trees, tree
spirits and nagas.[64] According to Levman "while the Sakyans’ rough speech and Munda ancestors do
not prove that they spoke a non-Indo-Aryan language, there is a lot of other evidence suggesting that
they were indeed a separate ethnic (and probably linguistic) group."[64] Christopher I. Beckwith
identifies the Shakyas as Scythians.[65]
Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of influential
Śramaṇa schools of thought like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism, and Ajñana.[66] Brahmajala Sutta records
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sixty-two such schools of thought. In this context, a śramaṇa refers to one who labors, toils, or exerts
themselves (for some higher or religious purpose). It was also the age of influential thinkers like
Mahavira,[67] Pūraṇa Kassapa, Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, and Sañjaya
Belaṭṭhaputta, as recorded in Samaññaphala Sutta, whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must
have been acquainted with.[68][69][note 8] Indeed, Śāriputra and Moggallāna, two of the foremost
disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the sceptic;[71]
and the Pali canon frequently depicts Buddha engaging in debate with the adherents of rival schools
of thought. There is also philological evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and
Uddaka Rāmaputta, were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two
different forms of meditative techniques.[72] Thus, Buddha was just one of the many śramaṇa
philosophers of that time.[73] In an era where holiness of person was judged by their level of
asceticism,[74] Buddha was a reformist within the śramaṇa movement, rather than a reactionary
against Vedic Brahminism.[75]
Historically, the life of the Buddha also coincided with the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley
during the rule of Darius I from about 517/516 BCE.[76] This Achaemenid occupation of the areas of
Gandhara and Sindh, which lasted about two centuries, was accompanied by the introduction of
Achaemenid religions, reformed Mazdaism or early Zoroastrianism, to which Buddhism might have
in part reacted.[76] In particular, the ideas of the Buddha may have partly consisted of a rejection of
the "absolutist" or "perfectionist" ideas contained in these Achaemenid religions.[76]
Earliest sources
No written records about Gautama were found from

his lifetime or from the one or two centuries
thereafter. But from the middle of the 3rd century
BCE, several Edicts of Ashoka (reigned c. 269–232
BCE) mention the Buddha, and particularly Ashoka's
The words "Bu-dhe" (! 𑀥𑁂, the Buddha) and "Sa-
Lumbini pillar inscription commemorates the
kya-mu-nī " ( 𑀲𑀓 𑁆 𑀬(𑀦𑀻, "Sage of the Shakyas") in
Emperor's pilgrimage to Lumbini as the Buddha's
Brahmi script, on Ashoka's Lumbini pillar
birthplace, calling him the Buddha Shakyamuni
inscription (c. 250 BCE)
(Brahmi script: !𑀥 𑀲𑀓 𑁆 𑀬(𑀦𑀻 Bu-dha Sa-kya-mu-nī,
"Buddha, Sage of the Shakyas").[77] Another one of his
edicts (Minor Rock Edict No. 3) mentions the titles of
several Dhamma texts (in Buddhism, "dhamma" is another word for "dharma"),[78] establishing the
existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era. These texts may be the
precursor of the Pāli Canon.[79][80][note 9]
"Sakamuni" is also mentioned in the reliefs of Bharhut, dated to c. 100 BCE, in relation with his
illumination and the Bodhi tree, with the inscription Bhagavato Sakamunino Bodho ("The
illumination of the Blessed Sakamuni").[81]
The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, found in Afghanistan
and written in Gāndhārī, they date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.[82]
On the basis of philological evidence, Indologist and Pali expert Oskar von Hinüber says that some of
the Pali suttas have retained very archaic place-names, syntax, and historical data from close to the
Buddha's lifetime, including the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta which contains a detailed account of the
Buddha's final days. Hinüber proposes a composition date of no later than 350–320 BCE for this text,
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which would allow for a "true historical memory"

of the events approximately 60 years prior if the
Short Chronology for the Buddha's lifetime is
accepted (but he also points out that such a text
was originally intended more as hagiography than
as an exact historical record of events).[83][84]
Inscription "The illumination of the Blessed Sakamuni" John S. Strong sees certain biographical
(Brahmi script: 𑀪𑀕𑀯𑀢 𑁄 𑀲𑀓(𑀦𑀺 𑀦
𑁄 12, Bhagavato fragments in the canonical texts preserved in Pali,
Sakamunino Bodho) on a relief showing the "empty" as well as Chinese, Tibetan and Sanskrit as the
Illumination Throne of the Buddha in the early earliest material. These include texts such as the
Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya. Bharhut, c. 100 “Discourse on the Noble Quest” (Pali:
BCE.[81] Ariyapariyesana-sutta) and its parallels in other
languages.[85]
Traditional biographies
Biographical sources
The sources which present a complete picture of the life of

Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes
conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the
Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the
Nidānakathā.[88] Of these, the Buddhacarita[89][90][91] is the
earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet
Aśvaghoṣa in the first century CE.[92] The Lalitavistara Sūtra is
the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography
dating to the 3rd century CE.[93] The Mahāvastu from the
Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major
biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century
CE.[93] The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most One of the earliest anthropomorphic
exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra,[94] and representations of the Buddha, here
various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th surrounded by Brahma (left) and
century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Śakra (right). Bimaran Casket,
Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by mid-1st century CE, British
Buddhaghoṣa.[95] Museum.[86][87]
The earlier canonical sources include the Ariyapariyesana Sutta

(MN 26), the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta (DN 16), the Mahāsaccaka-sutta (MN 36), the Mahapadana
Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123), which include selective accounts that may be
older, but are not full biographies. The Jātaka tales retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva,
and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts.[96] The Mahāpadāna
Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as
the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.
Nature of traditional depictions
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In the earliest Buddhist texts, the nikāyas and āgamas, the

Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience (sabbaññu)[97]
nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent (lokottara)
being. According to Bhikkhu Analayo, ideas of the Buddha's
omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and
his biography) are found only later, in the Mahayana sutras and
later Pali commentaries or texts such as the Mahāvastu.[97] In the
Sandaka Sutta, the Buddha's disciple Ananda outlines an
Māyā miraculously giving birth to
argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all
Siddhārtha. Sanskrit, palm-leaf
knowing [98] while in the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta the Buddha manuscript. Nālandā, Bihar, India.
himself states that he has never made a claim to being Pāla period
omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges"
(abhijñā).[99] The earliest biographical material from the Pali
Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various
teachers such as Alara Kalama and his forty-five-year career as a teacher.[100]
Traditional biographies of Gautama often include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural
events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully
transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In
the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supramundane
abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine,
or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to
"suppress karma".[101] As noted by Andrew Skilton, the Buddha was often described as being
superhuman, including descriptions of him having the 32 major and 80 minor marks of a "great
man," and the idea that the Buddha could live for as long as an aeon if he wished (see DN 16).[102]
The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on
philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may
have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture
and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the
Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist.[103] British
author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered
historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical
figure.[104] Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of "birth,
maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.[105]
Previous lives
Legendary biographies like the Pali Buddhavaṃsa and the Sanskrit Jātakamālā depict the Buddha's
(referred to as "bodhisattva" before his awakening) career as spanning hundreds of lifetimes before
his last birth as Gautama. Many stories of these previous lives are depicted in the Jatakas.[106] The
format of a Jataka typically begins by telling a story in the present which is then explained by a story
of someone's previous life.[107]
Besides imbuing the pre-Buddhist past with a deep karmic history, the Jatakas also serve to explain
the bodhisattva's (the Buddha-to-be) path to Buddhahood.[108] In biographies like the Buddhavaṃsa,
this path is described as long and arduous, taking "four incalculable ages" (asamkheyyas).[109]
In these legendary biographies, the bodhisattva goes through many different births (animal and
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human), is inspired by his meeting of past Buddhas, and then

makes a series of resolves or vows (pranidhana) to become a
Buddha himself. Then he begins to receive predictions by past
Buddhas.[110] One of the most popular of these stories is his
meeting with Dipankara Buddha, who gives the bodhisattva a
prediction of future Buddhahood.[111]
Another theme found in the Pali Jataka Commentary The legendary Jataka collections
(Jātakaṭṭhakathā) and the Sanskrit Jātakamālā is how the depict the Buddha-to-be in a
Buddha-to-be had to practice several "perfections" (pāramitā) to previous life prostrating before the
reach Buddhahood.[112] The Jatakas also sometimes depict past Buddha Dipankara, making a
negative actions done in previous lives by the bodhisattva, which resolve to be a Buddha, and
explain difficulties he experienced in his final life as Gautama.[113] receiving a prediction of future
Buddhahood.
Biography
Birth and early life
The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini, in present-day Nepal to

be the birthplace of the Buddha.[115][note 1] He grew up in
Kapilavastu.[note 1] The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is
unknown.[116] It may have been either Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh,
in present-day India,[57] or Tilaurakot, in present-day Nepal.[61]
Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only
24 kilometres (15 mi) apart.[61]
Map showing Lumbini and other
According to later biographies such as the Mahavastu and the
major Buddhist sites in India.
Lalitavistara, his mother, Maya (Māyādevī), Suddhodana's wife, Lumbini (present-day Nepal), is the
was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night birthplace of the Buddha,[47][note 1]
Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white and is a holy place also for many
elephant with six white tusks entered her right side,[117][118] and non-Buddhists.[114]
ten months later[119] Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya
tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she
left Kapilavastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on
the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree. The earliest Buddhist sources state that the
Buddha was born to an aristocratic Kshatriya (Pali: khattiya) family called Gotama (Sanskrit:
Gautama), who were part of the Shakyas, a tribe of rice-farmers living near the modern border of
India and Nepal.[120][55][121][note 10] the son of Śuddhodana, "an elected chief of the Shakya clan",[7]
whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during
the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name.
The early Buddhist texts contain very little information about the birth and youth of Gotama Buddha.
[123][124] Later biographies developed a dramatic narrative about the life of the young Gotama as a
prince and his existential troubles.[125] They also depict his father Śuddhodana as a hereditary
monarch of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka). This is unlikely however, as
many scholars think that Śuddhodana was merely a Shakya aristocrat (khattiya), and that the Shakya
republic was not a hereditary monarchy.[126][127][128] Indeed, the more egalitarian gana-sangha form
of government, as a political alternative to Indian monarchies, may have influenced the development
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of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies

tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.[129]
The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada

countries as Vesak.[130] Buddha's Birthday is called Buddha
Purnima in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India as he is believed to
have been born on a full moon day.
According to later biographical legends, during the birth

celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain
abode, analyzed the child for the "32 marks of a great man" and
then announced that he would either become a great king
(chakravartin) or a great religious leader.[131][132] Suddhodana
held a naming ceremony on the fifth day and invited eight
Brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave similar
The Lumbini pillar contains an
predictions.[131] Kondañña, the youngest, and later to be the first
inscription stating that this is the
arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who
Buddha's birthplace
unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a
Buddha.[133]
Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time
until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the
human condition.[134] According to the early Buddhist Texts of several schools, and numerous post-
canonical accounts, Gotama had a wife, Yasodhara, and a son, named Rāhula.[135] Besides this, the
Buddha in the early texts reports that "'I lived a spoilt, a very spoilt life, monks (in my parents'
home)."[136]
The legendary biographies like the Lalitavistara also tell stories of young Gotama's great martial skill,
which was put to the test in various contests against other Shakyan youths.[137]
Renunciation
While the earliest sources merely depict Gotama

seeking a higher spiritual goal and becoming an
ascetic or sramana after being disillusioned with lay
life, the later legendary biographies tell a more
elaborate dramatic story about how he became a The "Great Departure" of Siddhartha Gautama,
mendicant.[125][138] surrounded by a halo, he is accompanied by
numerous guards and devata who have come to
The earliest accounts of the Buddha's spiritual quest is pay homage; Gandhara, Kushan period
found in texts such as the Pali Ariyapariyesanā-sutta
("The discourse on the noble quest," MN 26) and its
Chinese parallel at MĀ 204.[139] These texts report that what led to Gautama's renunciation was the
thought that his life was subject to old age, disease and death and that there might be something
better (i.e. liberation, nirvana).[140] The early texts also depict the Buddha's explanation for becoming
a sramana as follows: "The household life, this place of impurity, is narrow - the samana life is the
free open air. It is not easy for a householder to lead the perfected, utterly pure and perfect holy
life."[141] MN 26, MĀ 204, the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya and the Mahāvastu all agree that his mother
and father opposed his decision and "wept with tearful faces" when he decided to leave.[142][143]
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Legendary biographies also tell the story of how Gautama left his
palace to see the outside world for the first time and how he was
shocked by his encounter with human suffering.[144][145] The
legendary biographies depict Gautama's father as shielding him
from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering,
so that he would become a great king instead of a great religious
leader.[146] In the Nidanakatha (5th century CE), Gautama is said
to have seen an old man. When his charioteer Chandaka Prince Siddhartha shaves his hair
explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on and becomes a sramana.
further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a Borobudur, 8th century
diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic that inspired
him.[147][148][149] This story of the "four sights" seems to be
adapted from an earlier account in the Digha Nikaya (DN 14.2) which instead depicts the young life
of a previous Buddha, Vipassi.[149]
The legendary biographies depict Gautama's departure from his palace as follows. Shortly after seeing
the four sights, Gautama woke up at night and saw his female servants lying in unattractive, corpse-
like poses, which shocked him.[150] Therefore, he discovered what he would later understand more
deeply during his enlightenment: suffering and the end of suffering.[151] Moved by all the things he
had experienced, he decided to leave the palace in the middle of the night against the will of his father,
to live the life of a wandering ascetic.[147] Accompanied by Chandaka and riding his horse Kanthaka,
Gautama leaves the palace, leaving behind his son Rahula and Yaśodhara.[152] He traveled to the river
Anomiya, and cut off his hair. Leaving his servant and horse behind, he journeyed into the woods and
changed into monk's robes there,[153] though in some other versions of the story, he received the
robes from a Brahma deity at Anomiya.[154]
According to the legendary biographies, when the ascetic Gautama first went to Rajagaha (present-
day Rajgir) to beg for alms in the streets, King Bimbisara of Magadha learned of his quest, and offered
him a share of his kingdom. Gautama rejected the offer but promised to visit his kingdom first, upon
attaining enlightenment.[155][156]
Ascetic life and awakening
The Nikaya-texts narrate that the ascetic Gautama practised

under two teachers of yogic meditation.[157][158][159] According to
MN 26 and its Chinese parallel at MĀ 204, after having mastered
the teaching of Ārāḍa Kālāma (Pali: Alara Kalama), who taught a
meditation attainment called "the sphere of nothingness", he was
asked by Ārāḍa to become an equal leader of their spiritual
community.[160][161] However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the The gilded "Emaciated Buddha
practice because it "does not lead to revulsion, to dispassion, to statue" in an Ubosoth in Bangkok
cessation, to calm, to knowledge, to awakening, to Nibbana", and representing the stage of his
moved on to become a student of Udraka Rāmaputra (Pali: Udaka asceticism
Ramaputta).[162][163] With him, he achieved high levels of
meditative consciousness (called "The Sphere of Neither
Perception nor Non-Perception") and was again asked to join his teacher. But, once more, he was not
satisfied for the same reasons as before, and moved on.[164]
Majjhima Nikaya 4 also mentions that Gautama lived in "remote jungle thickets" during his years of
10 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
spiritual striving and had to overcome the fear that he felt while
living in the forests.[165]
After leaving his meditation teachers, Gotama then practiced

ascetic techniques.[166] An account of these practices can be seen
in the Mahāsaccaka-sutta (MN 36) and its various parallels
(which according to Anālayo include some Sanskrit fragments, an
individual Chinese translation, a sutra of the Ekottarika-āgama
as well as sections of the Lalitavistara and the Mahāvastu).[167]
The ascetic techniques described in the early texts include very The Mahabodhi Tree at the Sri
minimal food intake, different forms of breath control, and Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya
forceful mind control. The texts report that he became so
emaciated that his bones became visible through his skin.[168]
According to other early Buddhist texts,[169] after realising that

meditative dhyana was the right path to awakening, Gautama
discovered "the Middle Way"—a path of moderation away from
the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, or the
Noble Eightfold Path.[169] His break with asceticism is said to
have led his five companions to abandon him, since they believed
that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined. One The Enlightenment Throne of the
popular story tells of how he accepted milk and rice pudding from Buddha at Bodh Gaya, as recreated
a village girl named Sujata.[170] by Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd
century BCE.
Following his decision to stop extreme ascetic practices, MĀ 204
and other parallel early texts report that Gautama sat down to
meditate with the determination not to get up until full
awakening (sammā-sambodhi) had been reached.[171] This event
was said to have occurred under a pipal tree—known as "the
Bodhi tree"—in Bodh Gaya, Bihar.[172]
Likewise, the Mahāsaccaka-sutta and most of its parallels agree

that after taking asceticism to its extremes, the Buddha realized
that this had not helped him reach awakening. At this point, he
remembered a previous meditative experience he had as a child
sitting under a tree while his father worked.[173] This memory
leads him to understand that dhyana (meditation) is the path to
awakening, and the texts then depict the Buddha achieving all
four dhyanas, followed by the "three higher knowledges" (tevijja)
culminating in awakening.[174]
Gautama thus became known as the Buddha or "Awakened One".

The title indicates that unlike most people who are "asleep", a A statue representing Gotama when
Buddha is understood as having "woken up" to the true nature of he stopped extreme ascetic
practices. 15th or 16th century. Nara
reality and sees the world 'as it is' (yatha-bhutam).[11] A Buddha
National Museum, Japan.
has achieved liberation (vimutti), also called Nirvana, which is
seen as the extinguishing of the "fires" of desire, hatred, and
ignorance, that keep the cycle of suffering and rebirth going.[176]
According to various early texts like the Mahāsaccaka-sutta, and the Samaññaphala Sutta, a Buddha
has achieved three higher knowledges: Remembering one's former abodes (i.e. past lives), the "Divine
11 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
eye" (dibba-cakkhu), which allows the knowing of others' karmic

destinations and the "extinction of mental intoxicants"
(āsavakkhaya).[168][177]
According to some texts from the Pali canon, at the time of his
awakening he realised complete insight into the Four Noble
Truths, thereby attaining liberation from samsara, the endless
cycle of rebirth.[178][179][180] [note 11]
As reported by various texts from the Pali Canon, the Buddha sat
for seven days under the bodhi tree "feeling the bliss of
deliverance."[181] The Pali texts also report that he continued to
meditate and contemplated various aspects of the Dharma while
living by the River Nairañjanā, such as Dependent Origination,
the Five Spiritual Faculties and Suffering.[182]
The legendary biographies like the Mahavastu, Nidanakatha and

Miracle of the Buddha walking on
the Lalitavistara depict an attempt by Mara, the Lord of the
the River Nairañjanā. The Buddha is
desire realm, to prevent the Buddha's nirvana. He does so by
not visible (aniconism), only
sending his daughters to seduce the Buddha, by asserting his
represented by a path on the water,
superiority and by assaulting him with armies of monsters.[183]
and his empty throne bottom
However the Buddha is unfazed and calls on the earth (or in some right.[175] Sanchi.
versions of the legend, the earth goddess) as witness to his
superiority by touching the ground before entering
meditation. [184] Other miracles and magical events are also
depicted.
First sermon and formation of the saṅgha
According to MN 26, immediately after his awakening, the

Buddha hesitated on whether or not he should teach the Dharma
to others. He was concerned that humans were overpowered by
ignorance, greed, and hatred that it would be difficult for them to
recognise the path, which is "subtle, deep and hard to grasp."
However, the god Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing
that at least some "with little dust in their eyes" will understand
it. The Buddha relented and agreed to teach. According to
Dhamek Stupa in Sarnath, India,
Anālayo, the Chinese parallel to MN 26, MĀ 204, does not
site of the first teaching of the
contain this story, but this event does appear in other parallel
Buddha in which he taught the Four
texts, such as in an Ekottarika-āgama discourse, in the Noble Truths to his first five disciples
Catusparisat-sūtra, and in the Lalitavistara.[171]
According to MN 26 and MĀ 204, after deciding to teach, the

Buddha initially intended to visit his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, to teach
them his insights, but they had already died, so he decided to visit his five former companions.[185]
MN 26 and MĀ 204 both report that on his way to Vārānasī (Benares), he met another wanderer,
called Ājīvika Upaka in MN 26. The Buddha proclaimed that he had achieved full awakening, but
Upaka was not convinced and "took a different path".[186]
12 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
MN 26 and MĀ 204 continue with the Buddha reaching the Deer Park (Sarnath) (Mrigadāva, also
called Rishipatana, "site where the ashes of the ascetics fell")[187] near Vārānasī , where he met the
group of five ascetics and was able to convince them that he had indeed reached full awakening.[188]
According to MĀ 204 (but not MN 26), as well as the Theravāda Vinaya, an Ekottarika-āgama text,
the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, the Mahīśāsaka Vinaya, and the Mahāvastu, the Buddha then taught
them the "first sermon", also known as the "Benares sermon",[187] i.e. the teaching of "the noble
eightfold path as the middle path aloof from the two extremes of sensual indulgence and self-
mortification."[188] The Pali text reports that after the first sermon, the ascetic Koṇḍañña (Kaundinya)
became the first arahant (liberated being) and the first Buddhist bhikkhu or monastic.[189] The
Buddha then continued to teach the other ascetics and they formed the first saṅgha: the company of
Buddhist monks.
Various sources such as the Mahāvastu, the Mahākhandhaka of the Theravāda Vinaya and the
Catusparisat-sūtra also mention that the Buddha taught them his second discourse, about the
characteristic of "not-self" (Anātmalakṣaṇa Sūtra), at this time[190] or five days later.[187] After
hearing this second sermon the four remaining ascetics also reached the status of arahant.[187]
The Theravāda Vinaya and the Catusparisat-sūtra also speak of

the conversion of Yasa, a local guild master, and his friends and
family, who were some of the first laypersons to be converted and
to enter the Buddhist community.[191][187] The conversion of
three brothers named Kassapa followed, who brought with them
five hundred converts who had previously been "matted hair
ascetics," and whose spiritual practice was related to fire
sacrifices.[192][193] According to the Theravāda Vinaya, the
Buddha then stopped at the Gayasisa hill near Gaya and delivered
his third discourse, the Ādittapariyāya Sutta (The Discourse on Gayasisa or Brahmayoni Hill, is
Fire),[194] in which he taught that everything in the world is where Buddha taught the Fire
inflamed by passions and only those who follow the Eightfold Sermon.
path can be liberated.[187]
At the end of the rainy season, when the Buddha's community had grown to around sixty awakened
monks, he instructed them to wander on their own, teach and ordain people into the community, for
the "welfare and benefit" of the world.[195][187]
The growth of the saṅgha
For the remaining 40 or 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain,
in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from
nobles to servants, ascetics and householders, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as
Alavaka.[196][138][9] According to Schumann, the Buddha's wanderings ranged from "Kosambi on the
Yamuna (25 km south-west of Allahabad )", to Campa (40 km east of Bhagalpur)" and from
"Kapilavatthu (95 km north-west of Gorakhpur) to Uruvela (south of Gaya)." This covers an area of
600 by 300 km.[197] His sangha enjoyed the patronage of the kings of Kosala and Magadha and he
thus spent a lot of time in their respective capitals, Savatthi and Rajagaha.[197]
Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it is likely that he taught in one or more of a
variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardisation.
13 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the Dharma. This continued throughout
the year, except during the four months of the Vassa rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely
traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to flora and animal
life.[198] The health of the ascetics might have been a concern as well.[199] At this time of year, the
sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.
The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was
formed. According to the Pali texts, shortly after the formation of
the sangha, the Buddha traveled to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha,
and met with King Bimbisara, who gifted a bamboo grove park to
the sangha.[200]
The Buddha's sangha continued to grow during his initial travels

in north India. The early texts tell the story of how the Buddha's
chief disciples, Sāriputta and Mahāmoggallāna, who were both
students of the skeptic sramana Sañjaya Belaṭṭhiputta, were
The chief disciples of the Buddha,
converted by Assaji.[201][202] They also tell of how the Buddha's Mogallana (chief in psychic power)
son, Rahula, joined his father as a bhikkhu when the Buddha and Sariputta (chief in wisdom).
visited his old home, Kapilavastu.[203] Over time, other Shakyans
joined the order as bhikkhus, such as Buddha's cousin Ananda,
Anuruddha, Upali the barber, the Buddha's half-brother Nanda and Devadatta.[204][205] Meanwhile,
the Buddha's father Suddhodana heard his son's teaching, converted to Buddhism and became a
stream-enterer.
The early texts also mention an important lay disciple, the

merchant Anāthapiṇḍika, who became a strong lay supporter of
the Buddha early on. He is said to have gifted Jeta's grove
(Jetavana) to the sangha at great expense (the Theravada Vinaya
speaks of thousands of gold coins).[206][207]
Formation of the bhikkhunī order
The formation of a parallel order of female monastics (bhikkhunī)

The remains of a section of
was another important part of the growth of the Buddha's
Jetavana Monastery, just outside of
community. As noted by Anālayo's comparative study of this
ancient Savatthi, in Uttar Pradesh.
topic, there are various versions of this event depicted in the
different early Buddhist texts.[note 12]
According to all the major versions surveyed by Anālayo, Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī, Buddha's step-
mother, is initially turned down by the Buddha after requesting ordination for her and some other
women. Mahāprajāpatī and her followers then shave their hair, don robes and begin following the
Buddha on his travels. The Buddha is eventually convinced by Ānanda to grant ordination to
Mahāprajāpatī on her acceptance of eight conditions called gurudharmas which focus on the
relationship between the new order of nuns and the monks.[209]
According to Anālayo, the only argument common to all the versions that Ananda uses to convince the
Buddha is that women have the same ability to reach all stages of awakening.[210] Anālayo also notes
that some modern scholars have questioned the authenticity of the eight gurudharmas in their
present form due to various inconsistencies. He holds that the historicity of the current lists of eight is
14 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
doubtful, but that they may have been based on earlier

injunctions by the Buddha.[211][212] Anālayo also notes that
various passages indicate that the reason for the Buddha's
hesitation to ordain women was the danger that the life of a
wandering sramana posed for women that were not under the
protection of their male family members (such as dangers of
sexual assault and abduction). Due to this, the gurudharma
injunctions may have been a way to place "the newly founded
order of nuns in a relationship to its male counterparts that
resembles as much as possible the protection a laywoman could Mahāprajāpatī, the first bhikkuni
expect from her male relatives."[213] and Buddha's stepmother, ordains
Later years
According to J.S. Strong, after the first 20 years of his teaching

career, the Buddha seems to have slowly settled in Sravasti, the
capital of the Kingdom of Kosala, spending most of his later years
in this city.[207]
As the sangha grew in size, the need for a standardized set of

monastic rules arose and the Buddha seems to have developed a
set of regulations for the sangha. These are preserved in various
texts called "Pratimoksa" which were recited by the community
every fortnight. The Pratimoksa includes general ethical precepts,
as well as rules regarding the essentials of monastic life, such as
bowls and robes.[215]
Procession of King Prasenajit of
In his later years, the Buddha's fame grew and he was invited to
Kosala leaving Sravasti to meet the
important royal events, such as the inauguration of the new
Buddha. Sanchi[214]
council hall of the Shakyans (as seen in MN 53) and the
inauguration of a new palace by Prince Bodhi (as depicted in MN
85).[216] The early texts also speak of how during the Buddha's
old age, the kingdom of Magadha was usurped by a new king, Ajatasattu, who overthrew his father
Bimbisara. According to the Samaññaphala Sutta, the new king spoke with different ascetic teachers
and eventually took refuge in the Buddha.[217] However, Jain sources also claim his allegiance, and it
is likely he supported various religious groups, not just the Buddha's sangha exclusively.[218]
As the Buddha continued to travel and teach, he also came into contact with members of other
śrāmana sects. There is evidence from the early texts that the Buddha encountered some of these
figures and critiqued their doctrines. The Samaññaphala Sutta identifies six such sects.[219]
The early texts also depict the elderly Buddha as suffering from back pain. Several texts depict him
delegating teachings to his chief disciples since his body now needed more rest.[220] However, the
Buddha continued teaching well into his old age.
One of the most troubling events during the Buddha's old age was Devadatta's schism. Early sources
speak of how the Buddha's cousin, Devadatta, attempted to take over leadership of the order and then
left the sangha with several Buddhist monks and formed a rival sect. This sect is said to have also been
supported by King Ajatasattu.[221][222] The Pali texts also depict Devadatta as plotting to kill the
15 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
Buddha, but these plans all fail.[223] They also depict the Buddha
as sending his two chief disciples (Sariputta and Moggallana) to
this schismatic community in order to convince the monks who
left with Devadatta to return.[224]
All the major early Buddhist Vinaya texts depict Devadatta as a

divisive figure who attempted to split the Buddhist community,
but they disagree on what issues he disagreed with the Buddha
on. The Sthavira texts generally focus on "five points" which are
seen as excessive ascetic practices, while the Mahāsaṅghika
Vinaya speaks of a more comprehensive disagreement, which has
Devadatta alter the discourses as well as monastic discipline.[225]
At around the same time of Devadatta's schism, there was also

war between Ajatasattu's Kingdom of Magadha, and Kosala, led
by an elderly king Pasenadi.[226] Ajatasattu seems to have been
victorious, a turn of events the Buddha is reported to have Ajatasattu worships the Buddha,
regretted.[227] relief from the Bharhut Stupa at the
Indian Museum, Kolkata
Last days and parinirvana
The main narrative of the Buddha's last days, death

and the events following his death is contained in the
Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN 16) and its various
parallels in Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan.[228]
According to Anālayo, these include the Chinese
Dirgha Agama 2, "Sanskrit fragments of the
Mahaparinirvanasutra", and "three discourses
preserved as individual translations in Chinese".[229]
This East Javanese relief depicts the Buddha in
The Mahaparinibbana sutta depicts the Buddha's last his final days, and Ānanda, his chief attendant.
year as a time of war. It begins with Ajatasattu's
decision to make war on the Vajjian federation,
leading him to send a minister to ask the Buddha for advice.[230] The Buddha responds by saying that
the Vajjians can be expected to prosper as long as they do seven things, and he then applies these
seven principles to the Buddhist Sangha, showing that he is concerned about its future welfare. The
Buddha says that the Sangha will prosper as long as they "hold regular and frequent assemblies, meet
in harmony, do not change the rules of training, honor their superiors who were ordained before
them, do not fall prey to worldly desires, remain devoted to forest hermitages, and preserve their
personal mindfulness." He then gives further lists of important virtues to be upheld by the
Sangha.[231]
The early texts also depict how the Buddha's two chief disciples, Sariputta and Moggallana, died just
before the Buddha's death.[232] The Mahaparinibbana depicts the Buddha as experiencing illness
during the last months of his life but initially recovering. It also depicts him as stating that he cannot
promote anyone to be his successor. When Ānanda requested this, the Mahaparinibbana records his
response as follows:[233]
16 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
Ananda, why does the Order of monks expect this of me? I have taught the Dhamma,
making no distinction of “inner” and “ outer”: the Tathagata has no “teacher's fist” (in
which certain truths are held back). If there is anyone who thinks: “I shall take charge of
the Order”, or “the Order is under my leadership”, such a person would have to make
arrangements about the Order. The Tathagata does not think in such terms. Why should
the Tathagata make arrangements for the Order? I am now old, worn out . . . I have
reached the term of life, I am turning eighty years of age. Just as an old cart is made to go
by being held together with straps, so the Tathagata's body is kept going by being
bandaged up . . . Therefore, Ananda, you should live as islands unto yourselves, being your
own refuge, seeking no other refuge; with the Dhamma as an island, with the Dhamma as
your refuge, seeking no other refuge. . . Those monks who in my time or afterwards live
thus, seeking an island and a refuge in themselves and in the Dhamma and nowhere else,
these zealous ones are truly my monks and will overcome the darkness (of rebirth).
After traveling and teaching some more, the Buddha ate his last
meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith
named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his
attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his
place had nothing to do with his death and that his meal would be
a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a
Buddha.[234] Bhikkhu and von Hinüber argue that the Buddha
died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than
food poisoning.[235][236] Mahaparinirvana, Gandhara, 3rd or
4th century CE, gray schist
The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due
to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation
of certain significant terms. The Theravada tradition generally
believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the
Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some
sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different
traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for
monks and nuns.[237] Modern scholars also disagree on this topic,
arguing both for pig's flesh or some kind of plant or mushroom
that pigs like to eat.[note 13] Whatever the case, none of the
sources which mention the last meal attribute the Buddha's
sickness to the meal itself.[238] Mahaparinibbana scene, from the
Ajanta caves
As per the Mahaparinibbana sutta, after the meal with Cunda,
the Buddha and his companions continued traveling until he was
too weak to continue and had to stop at Kushinagar, where Ānanda had a resting place prepared in a
grove of Sala trees.[239][240] After announcing to the sangha at large that he would soon be passing
away to final Nirvana, the Buddha ordained one last novice into the order personally, his name was
Subhadda.[239] He then repeated his final instructions to the sangha, which was that the Dhamma and
Vinaya was to be their teacher after his death. Then he asked if anyone had any doubts about the
teaching, but nobody did.[241] The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All saṅkhāras
decay. Strive for the goal with diligence (appamāda)" (Pali: 'vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena
sampādethā').[242][243]
He then entered his final meditation and died, reaching what is known as parinirvana (final nirvana,
17 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
the end of rebirth and suffering achieved after the death of the body). The Mahaparinibbana reports
that in his final meditation he entered the four dhyanas consecutively, then the four immaterial
attainments and finally the meditative dwelling known as nirodha-samāpatti, before returning to the
fourth dhyana right at the moment of death.[244][240]
Posthumous events
According to the Mahaparinibbana sutta, the Mallians of

Kushinagar spent the days following the Buddha's death honoring
his body with flowers, music and scents.[245] The sangha waited
until the eminent elder Mahākassapa arrived to pay his respects
before cremating the body.[246]
The Buddha's body was then cremated and the remains, including
Buddha's cremation stupa,
his bones, were kept as relics and they were distributed among Kushinagar (Kushinara).
various north Indian kingdoms like Magadha, Shakya and
Koliya.[247] These relics were placed in monuments or mounds
called stupas, a common funerary practice at the time. Centuries
later they would be exhumed and enshrined by Ashoka into many
new stupas around the Mauryan realm.[248][249] Many
supernatural legends surround the history of alleged relics as they
accompanied the spread of Buddhism and gave legitimacy to
rulers.
According to various Buddhist sources, the First Buddhist Council

was held shortly after the Buddha's death to collect, recite and
memorize the teachings. Mahākassapa was chosen by the sangha
to be the chairman of the council. However, the historicity of the
traditional accounts of the first council is disputed by modern
scholars.[250]
Teachings
Tracing the oldest teachings

Piprahwa vase with relics of the
Buddha. The inscription reads:
One method to obtain information on the oldest core of
...salilanidhane Budhasa
Buddhism is to compare the oldest versions of the Pali Canon and
Bhagavate... (Brahmi script:
other texts, such as the surviving portions of Sarvastivada,
...𑀲𑀮𑀺 𑀮𑀦𑀺𑀥𑀸 𑀦𑁂 !𑀥𑀲 𑀪𑀕𑀯𑀢𑁂...]) "Relics
Mulasarvastivada, Mahisasaka, Dharmaguptaka,[251][252] and the of the Buddha Lord".
Chinese Agamas.[253][254] The reliability of these sources, and the
possibility of drawing out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of
dispute.[255][256][257][258] According to Tilmann Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods
must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies.[251][note 14]
According to Lambert Schmithausen, there are three positions held by modern scholars of
Buddhism:[261]
18 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
1. "Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable

part of the Nikayic materials."[note 15]
2. "Scepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism."[note 16]
3. "Cautious optimism in this respect."[note 17]
Regarding their attribution to the historical Buddha Gautama "Sakyamuni", scholars such as Richard
Gombrich, Akira Hirakawa, Alexander Wynne and A.K. Warder hold that these Early Buddhist Texts
contain material that could possibly be traced to this figure.[258][266][140]
Influences
According to scholars of Indology such as Richard Gombrich, the

Buddha's teachings on Karma and Rebirth are a development of
pre-Buddhist themes that can be found in Jain and Brahmanical
sources, like the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.[267] Likewise,
samsara, the idea that we are trapped in cycle of rebirth and that
The Bodhisattva meets with Alara
we should seek liberation from this through non-harming
Kalama, Borobudur relief.
(ahimsa) and spiritual practices, pre-dates the Buddha and was
likely taught in early Jainism.[268]
In various texts, the Buddha is depicted as having studied under two named teachers, Āḷāra Kālāma
and Uddaka Rāmaputta. According to Alexander Wynne, these were yogis who taught doctrines and
practices similar to those in the Upanishads.[269]
The Buddha's tribe of origin, the Shakyas, also seem to have had non-Vedic religious practices which
influenced Buddhism, such as the veneration of trees and sacred groves, and the worship of tree
spirits (yakkhas) and serpent beings (nagas). They also seem to have built burial mounds called
stupas.[64]
Tree veneration remains important in Buddhism today, particularly in the practice of venerating
Bodhi trees. Likewise, yakkas and nagas have remained important figures in Buddhist religious
practices and mythology.[64]
In the Early Buddhist Texts, the Buddha also references Brahmanical devices. For example, in
Samyutta Nikaya 111, Majjhima Nikaya 92 and Vinaya i 246 of the Pali Canon, the Buddha praises the
Agnihotra as the foremost sacrifice and the Gayatri mantra as the foremost meter.[note 18]
The Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence[note 19] may also reflect Upanishadic or other
influences according to K.R. Norman.[271]
According to Johannes Bronkhorst, the "meditation without breath and reduced intake of food" which
the Buddha practiced before his awakening are forms of asceticism which are similar to Jain
practices.[272]
The Buddhist practice called Brahma-vihara may have also originated from a Brahmanic term;[273]
but its usage may have been common in the sramana traditions.[255]
Teachings preserved in the Early Buddhist Texts
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The Early Buddhist Texts present many teachings and practices

which may have been taught by the historical Buddha. These
include basic doctrines such as Dependent Origination, the
Middle Way, the Five Aggregates, the Three unwholesome roots,
the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. According to N.
Ross Reat, all of these doctrines are shared by the Theravada Pali
texts and the Mahasamghika school's Śālistamba Sūtra.[274]
A recent study by Bhikkhu Analayo concludes that the Theravada

Gandharan Buddhist birchbark scroll
Majjhima Nikaya and Sarvastivada Madhyama Agama contain
fragments
mostly the same major doctrines.[275] Likewise, Richard Salomon
has written that the doctrines found in the Gandharan
Manuscripts are "consistent with non-Mahayana Buddhism,
which survives today in the Theravada school of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, but which in ancient
times was represented by eighteen separate schools."[276]
These basic teachings such as the Four Noble Truths tend to be widely accepted as basic doctrines in
all major schools of Buddhism, as seen in ecumenical documents such as the Basic points unifying
Theravāda and Mahāyāna.
Critique of Brahmanism
In the early Buddhist texts, the Buddha critiques the Brahmanical

religion and social system on certain key points.
The Brahmin caste held that the Vedas were eternal revealed (sruti)
texts. The Buddha, on the other hand, did not accept that these texts had
any divine authority or value.[277]
The Buddha also did not see the Brahmanical rites and practices as
useful for spiritual advancement. For example, in the Udāna, the Buddha
points out that ritual bathing does not lead to purity, only "truth and
morality" lead to purity.[note 20] He especially critiqued animal sacrifice
as taught in Vedas.[277] The Buddha contrasted his teachings, which
were taught openly to all people, with that of the Brahmins', who kept
their mantras secret.[note 21]
He also critiqued numerous other Brahmanical practices, such astrology,

divination, fortune-telling, and so on (as seen in the Tevijja sutta and the
Kutadanta sutta).[279] Buddha meets a Brahmin,
at the Indian Museum,
The Buddha also attacked the Brahmins' claims of superior birth and the Kolkata
idea that different castes and bloodlines were inherently pure or impure,
noble or ignoble.[277]
In the Vasettha sutta the Buddha argues that the main difference among humans is not birth but their
actions and occupations.[280] According to the Buddha, one is a "Brahmin" (i.e. divine, like Brahma)
only to the extent that one has cultivated virtue.[note 22] Because of this the early texts report that he
proclaimed: "Not by birth one is a Brahman, not by birth one is a non-Brahman; - by moral action one
is a Brahman"[277]
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The Aggañña Sutta explains all classes or varnas can be good or bad and gives a sociological
explanation for how they arose, against the Brahmanical idea that they are divinely ordained.[281]
According to Kancha Ilaiah, the Buddha posed the first contract theory of society.[282] The Buddha's
teaching then is a single universal moral law, one Dharma valid for everybody, which is opposed to
the Brahmanic ethic founded on “one's own duty” (svadharma) which depends on caste.[277] Because
of this, all castes including untouchables were welcome in the Buddhist order and when someone
joined, they renounced all caste affiliation.[283][284]
Analysis of existence
The early Buddhist texts present the Buddha's worldview as focused on understanding the nature of
dukkha, which is seen as the fundamental problem of life.[285] Dukkha refers to all kinds of suffering,
unease, frustration, and dissatisfaction that sentient beings experience.[286][287] At the core of the
Buddha's analysis of dukkha is the fact that everything we experience is impermanent, unstable and
thus unreliable.[288]
A common presentation of the core structure of Buddha's teaching found in the early texts is that of
the Four Noble Truths.[289] This teaching is most famously presented in the
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta ("The discourse on the turning of the Dharma wheel") and its many
parallels.[290] The basic outline of the four truths is as follows:[289][286]
There is dukkha.
There are causes and conditions for the arising of dukkha. Various conditions are outlined in the
early texts, such as craving (taṇhā), but the three most basic ones are greed, aversion and
delusion.[291]
If the conditions for dukkha cease, dukkha also ceases. This is "Nirvana" (literally 'blowing out' or
'extinguishing').[292]
There is path to follow that leads to Nirvana.
According to Bhikkhu Analayo, the four truths schema appears to be based "on an analogy with
Indian medical diagnosis" (with the form: "disease, pathogen, health, cure") and this comparison is
"explicitly made in several early Buddhist texts".[290]
In another Pali sutta, the Buddha outlines how "eight worldly conditions", "keep the world turning
around...Gain and loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame, pleasure and pain." He then explains
how the difference between a noble (arya) person and an uninstructed worldling is that a noble
person reflects on and understands the impermanence of these conditions.[293]
The Buddha's analysis of existence includes an understanding that karma and rebirth are part of life.
According to the Buddha, the constant cycle of dying and being reborn (i.e. saṃsāra) according to
one's karma is just dukkha and the ultimate spiritual goal should be liberation from this cycle.[294]
According to the Pali suttas, the Buddha stated that "this saṃsāra is without discoverable beginning.
A first point is not discerned of beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and fettered
by craving."[295]
The Buddha's teaching of karma differed to that of the Jains and Brahmins, in that on his view, karma
is primarily mental intention (as opposed to mainly physical action or ritual acts).[286] The Buddha is
reported to have said "By karma I mean intention."[296] Richard Gombrich summarizes the Buddha's
view of karma as follows: "all thoughts, words, and deeds derive their moral value, positive or
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negative, from the intention behind them."[297]
For the Buddha, our karmic acts also affected the rebirth process in a positive or negative way. This
was seen as an impersonal natural law similar to how certain seeds produce certain plants and fruits
(in fact, the result of a karmic act was called its "fruit" by the Buddha).[298] However, it is important
to note that the Buddha did not hold that everything that happens is the result of karma alone. In fact
when the Buddha was asked to state the causes of pain and pleasure he listed various physical and
environmental causes alongside karma.[299]
Dependent Origination
In the early texts, the process of the arising of dukkha is most thoroughly
explained by the Buddha through the teaching of Dependent
Origination.[286] At its most basic level, Dependent Origination is an
empirical teaching on the nature of phenomena which says that nothing
is experienced independently of its conditions.[300]
The most basic formulation of Dependent Origination is given in the

early texts as: 'It being thus, this comes about' (Pali: evam sati idam
hoti).[301] This can be taken to mean that certain phenomena only arise
when there are other phenomena present (example: when there is
craving, suffering arises), and so, one can say that their arising is
"dependent" on other phenomena. In other words, nothing in experience
exists without a cause.[301]
In numerous early texts, this basic principle is expanded with a list of

phenomena that are said to be conditionally dependent.[302][note 23] Schist Buddha statue with
These phenomena are supposed to provide an analysis of the cycle of the famed Ye Dharma Hetu
dukkha as experienced by sentient beings. The philosopher Mark dhāraṇī around the head,
Siderits has outlined the basic idea of the Buddha's teaching of which was used as a
Dependent Origination of dukkha as follows: common summary of
Dependent Origination. It
states: "Of those
given the existence of a fully functioning assemblage of experiences that arise from
psycho-physical elements (the parts that make up a sentient a cause, The Tathāgata has
being), ignorance concerning the three characteristics of said: 'this is their cause,
sentient existence—suffering, impermanence and non-self— And this is their cessation':
will lead, in the course of normal interactions with the This is what the Great
environment, to appropriation (the identification of certain Śramaṇa teaches."
elements as ‘I’ and ‘mine’). This leads in turn to the formation
of attachments, in the form of desire and aversion, and the
strengthening of ignorance concerning the true nature of
sentient existence. These ensure future rebirth, and thus
future instances of old age, disease and death, in a potentially
unending cycle.[286]
The Buddha saw his analysis of Dependent Origination as a "Middle Way" between "eternalism"
(sassatavada, the idea that some essence exists eternally) and "annihilationism" (ucchedavada, the
idea that we go completely out of existence at death).[286][301] This middle way is basically the view
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that, conventionally speaking, persons are just a causal series of impermanent psycho-physical
elements.[286]
Metaphysics and personal identity
Closely connected to the idea that experience is dependently originated is the Buddha's teaching that
there is no independent or permanent self (Sanskrit: atman, Pali: atta).[300]
Due to this view (termed anatta), the Buddha's teaching was opposed to all soul theories of his time,
including the Jain theory of a "jiva" ("life monad") and the Brahmanical theories of atman and
purusha. All of these theories held that there was an eternal unchanging essence to a person which
transmigrated from life to life.[303][304][286]
While Brahminical teachers affirmed atman theories in an attempt to answer the question of what
really exists ultimately, the Buddha saw this question as not being useful, as illustrated in the parable
of the poisoned arrow.[305]
For the Buddha's contemporaries, the atman was also seen to be the unchanging constant which was
separate from all changing experiences and the inner controller in a person.[306] The Buddha instead
held that all things in the world of our experience are transient and that there is no unchanging part
to a person.[307] According to Richard Gombrich, the Buddha's position is simply that "everything is
process".[308] However, this anti-essentialist view still includes an understanding of continuity
through rebirth, it is just the rebirth of a process (karma), not an essence like the atman.[309]
Perhaps the most important way the Buddha analyzed individual experience in the early texts was by
way of the five 'aggregates' or 'groups' (khandha) of physical and mental processes.[310][311] The
Buddha's arguments against an unchanging self rely on these five aggregate schema, as can be seen in
the Pali Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta (and its parallels in Gandhari and Chinese).[312][313][314]
According to the early texts, the Buddha argued that because we have no ultimate control over any of
the psycho-physical processes that make up a person, there cannot be an "inner controller" with
command over them. Also, since they are all impermanent, one cannot regard any of the psycho-
physical processes as an unchanging self.[315][286] Even mental processes such as consciousness and
will (cetana) are seen as being dependently originated and impermanent and thus do not qualify as a
self (atman).[286]
As noted by Gombrich, in the early texts the Buddha teaches that all five aggregates, including
consciousness (viññana, which was held by Brahmins to be eternal), arise dependent on causes.[316]
That is, existence is based on processes that are subject to dependent origination. He compared
samsaric existence to a fire, which is dynamic and requires fuel (the khandas, literally: "heaps") in
order to keep burning.[317]
As Rupert Gethin explains, for the Buddha:
I am a complex flow of physical and mental phenomena, but peel away these phenomena
and look behind them and one just does not find a constant self that one can call one's
own. My sense of self is both logically and emotionally just a label that I impose on these
physical and mental phenomena in consequence of their connectedness.[318]
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The Buddha saw the belief in a self as arising from our grasping at and identifying with the various
changing phenomena, as well as from ignorance about how things really are.[319] Furthermore, the
Buddha held that we experience suffering because we hold on to erroneous self views.[320][321]
Worldly happiness
As noted by Bhikkhu Bodhi, the Buddha as depicted in the Pali suttas does not exclusively teach a
world transcending goal, but also teaches laypersons how to achieve worldly happiness (sukha).[322]
According to Bodhi, the "most comprehensive" of the suttas that focus on how to live as a layperson is
the Sigālovāda Sutta (DN 31). This sutta outlines how a layperson behaves towards six basic social
relationships: "parents and children, teacher and pupils, husband and wife, friend and friend,
employer and workers, lay follower and religious guides." [323] This Pali text also has parallels in
Chinese and in Sanskrit fragments.[324][325]
In another sutta (Dīghajāṇu Sutta, AN 8.54) the Buddha teaches two types of happiness. First, there
is the happiness visible in this very life. The Buddha states that four things lead to this happiness:
"The accomplishment of persistent effort, the accomplishment of protection, good friendship, and
balanced living."[326] Similarly, in several other suttas, the Buddha teaches on how to improve family
relationships, particularly on the importance of filial love and gratitude as well as marital well-
being.[327]
Regarding the happiness of the next life, the Buddha (in the Dīghajāṇu Sutta) states that the virtues
which lead to a good rebirth are: faith (in the Buddha and the teachings), moral discipline, especially
keeping the five precepts, generosity, and wisdom (knowledge of the arising and passing of
things).[328]
According to the Buddha of the suttas then, achieving a good rebirth is based on cultivating
wholesome or skillful (kusala) karma, which leads to a good result, and avoiding unwholesome
(akusala) karma. A common list of good karmas taught by the Buddha is the list of ten courses of
action (kammapatha) as outlined in MN 41 Saleyyaka Sutta (and its Chinese parallel in SĀ 1042).
[329][330]
Good karma is also termed merit (puñña), and the Buddha outlines three bases of meritorious
actions: giving, moral discipline and meditation (as seen in AN 8:36).[331]
The Path to Liberation
Liberation (vimutti) from the ignorance and grasping which create suffering is not easily achieved
because all beings have deeply entrenched habits (termed āsavas, often translated as "influxes" or
"defilements") that keep them trapped in samsara. Because of this, the Buddha taught a path (marga)
of training to undo such habits.[286][332] This path taught by the Buddha is depicted in the early texts
(most famously in the Pali Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta and its numerous parallel texts) as a
"Middle Way" between sensual indulgence on one hand and mortification of the body on the
other.[290]
One of the most common formulations of the path to liberation in the earliest Buddhist texts is the
Noble Eightfold Path.[333][note 24] There is also an alternative formulation with ten elements which is
also very commonly taught in the early texts.[335]
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According to Gethin, another common summary of the path to

awakening wisely used in the early texts is "abandoning the hindrances,
practice of the four establishments of mindfulness and development of
the awakening factors."[336]
The early texts also contain many different presentations of the Buddha's
path to liberation aside from the Eightfold Path.[335] According to
Rupert Gethin, in the Nikayas and Agamas, the Buddha's path is mainly
presented in a cumulative and gradual "step by step" process, such as
that outlined in the Samaññaphala Sutta.[337][note 25] Early texts that
outline the graduated path include the Cula-Hatthipadopama-sutta
(MN 27, with Chinese parallel at MĀ 146) and the Tevijja Sutta (DN 13,
with Chinese parallel at DĀ 26 and a fragmentary Sanskrit parallel Gandharan sculpture
entitled the Vāsiṣṭha-sūtra).[335][339][340] Other early texts like the depicting the Buddha in the
Upanisa sutta (SN 12.23), present the path as reversions of the process full lotus seated meditation
of Dependent Origination.[341][note 26] posture, 2nd-3rd century
CE
Some common practices which are shared by most of these early
presentations of the path include sila (ethical training), restraint
of the senses (indriyasamvara), mindfulness and clear awareness
(sati-sampajañña) and the practice of jhana (meditative
absorption).[335] Mental development (citta bhāvanā) was
central to the Buddha's spiritual path as depicted in the earliest
texts and this included meditative practices.
Regarding the training of right view and sense restraint, the

Buddha taught that it was important to reflect on the dangers or
drawbacks (adinava) of sensual pleasures. Various suttas discuss
the different drawbacks of sensuality. In the Potaliya Sutta (MN Buddha Statues from Gal Vihara.
54) sensual pleasures are said by the Buddha to be a cause of The Early Buddhist texts also
conflict for all humans beings.[343] They are said to be unable to mention meditation practice while
satisfy one's craving, like a clean meatless bone given to a standing and lying down.
dog.[344] Sensuality is also compared to a torch held against the
wind, since it burns the person holding on to it.[345] According to
the Buddha, there is "a delight apart from sensual pleasures, apart from unwholesome states, which
surpasses even divine bliss." The Buddha thus taught that one should take delight in the higher
spiritual pleasures instead of sensual pleasure.[346] This is explained with the simile the leper, who
cauterizes his skin with fire to get relief from the pain of leprosy, but after he is cured, avoids the same
flames he used to enjoy before (see MN 75, Magandiya Sutta).[347]
Numerous scholars such as Vetter have written on the centrality of the practice of dhyāna to the
teaching of the Buddha.[348] It is the training of the mind, commonly translated as meditation, to
withdraw the mind from the automatic responses to sense-impressions, and leading to a "state of
perfect equanimity and awareness (upekkhā-sati-parisuddhi)."[349] Dhyana is preceded and
supported by various aspects of the path such as seclusion and sense restraint.[350]
Another important mental training in the early texts is the practice of mindfulness (sati), which was
mainly taught using the schemas of the "Four Ways of Mindfulness" (Satipatthana, as taught in the
Pali Satipatthana Sutta and its various parallel texts) and the sixteen elements of "Mindfulness of
Breath" (Anapanasati, as taught in the Anapanasati Sutta and its various parallels).[note 27]
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Because getting others to practice the path was the central goal of the Buddha's message, the early
texts depict the Buddha as refusing to answer certain metaphysical questions which his
contemporaries were preoccupied with, (such as "is the world eternal?"). This is because he did not
see these questions as being useful on the path and as not being "connected to the goal".[351]
Monasticism
The early Buddhist texts depict the Buddha as promoting the life of a homeless and celibate
"sramana", or mendicant, as the ideal way of life for the practice of the path.[352] He taught that
mendicants or "beggars" (bhikkhus) were supposed to give up all possessions and to own just a
begging bowl and three robes.[353] As part of the Buddha's monastic discipline, they were also
supposed to rely on the wider lay community for the basic necessities (mainly food, clothing, and
lodging).[354]
The Buddha's teachings on monastic discipline were preserved in the various Vinaya collections of the
different early schools.[353]
Buddhist monastics, which included both monks and nuns, were supposed to beg for their food, were
not allowed to store up food or eat after noon and they were not allowed to use gold, silver or any
valuables.[355][356]
Socio-political teachings
The early texts depict the Buddha as giving a deflationary account of the importance of politics to
human life. Politics is inevitable and is probably even necessary and helpful, but it is also a
tremendous waste of time and effort, as well as being a prime temptation to allow ego to run rampant.
Buddhist political theory denies that people have a moral duty to engage in politics except to a very
minimal degree (pay the taxes, obey the laws, maybe vote in the elections), and it actively portrays
engagement in politics and the pursuit of enlightenment as being conflicting paths in life.[357]
In the Aggañña Sutta, the Buddha teaches a history of how monarchy arose which according to
Matthew J. Moore is "closely analogous to a social contract." The Aggañña Sutta also provides a
social explanation of how different classes arose, in contrast to the Vedic views on social caste.[358]
Other early texts like the Cakkavatti-Sīhanāda Sutta and the Mahāsudassana Sutta focus on the
figure of the righteous wheel turning leader (Cakkavatti). This ideal leader is one who promotes
Dharma through his governance. He can only achieve his status through moral purity and must
promote morality and Dharma to maintain his position. According to the Cakkavatti-Sīhanāda Sutta,
the key duties of a Cakkavatti are: "establish guard, ward, and protection according to Dhamma for
your own household, your troops, your nobles, and vassals, for Brahmins and householders, town and
country folk, ascetics and Brahmins, for beasts and birds. let no crime prevail in your kingdom, and to
those who are in need, give property.”[358] The sutta explains the injunction to give to the needy by
telling how a line of wheel-turning monarchs falls because they fail to give to the needy, and thus the
kingdom falls into infighting as poverty increases, which then leads to stealing and violence.[note 28]
In the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, the Buddha outlines several principles that he promoted among the
Vajjian tribal federation, which had a quasi-republican form of government. He taught them to “hold
regular and frequent assemblies”, live in harmony and maintain their traditions. The Buddha then
goes on to promote a similar kind of republican style of government among the Buddhist Sangha,
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where all monks had equal rights to attend open meetings and there would be no single leader, since
The Buddha also chose not to appoint one.[358] Some scholars have argued that this fact signals that
the Buddha preferred a republican form of government, while others disagree with this position.[358]
Scholarly views on the earliest teachings
Numerous scholars of early Buddhism argue that most of the teachings

found in the Early Buddhist texts date back to the Buddha himself. One
of these is Richard Gombrich, who argues that since the content of the
earliest texts “presents such originality, intelligence, grandeur and—most
relevantly—coherence...it is hard to see it as a composite work." Thus he
concludes they are "the work of one genius."[359]
Peter Harvey also agrees that “much” of the Pali Canon “must derive
from his [the Buddha's] teachings.”[360] Likewise, A. K. Warder has
written that “there is no evidence to suggest that it [the shared teaching
of the early schools] was formulated by anyone other than the Buddha
and his immediate followers.”[262]
Furthermore, Alexander Wynne argues that "the internal evidence of the

early Buddhist literature proves its historical authenticity."[361]
The Buddha on a coin of
Kushan ruler Kanishka I,
However, other scholars of Buddhist studies have disagreed with the
c. 130 CE.
mostly positive view that the early Buddhist texts reflect the teachings of
the historical Buddha. For example, Edward Conze argued that the
attempts of European scholars to reconstruct the original teachings of
the Buddha were “all mere guesswork.”[362]
Other scholars argue that some teachings contained in the early texts are the authentic teachings of
the Buddha, but not others. For example, according to Tilmann Vetter, the earliest core of the
Buddhist teachings is the meditative practice of dhyāna.[348][note 29] Vetter argues that "liberating
insight" became an essential feature of the Buddhist tradition at a later date. He posits that the Fourth
Noble Truths, the Eightfold path and Dependent Origination, which are commonly seen as essential
to Buddhism, are later formulations which form part of the explanatory framework of this "liberating
insight".[364]
Lambert Schmithausen similarly argues that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting
"liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the four dhyānas, is a later addition.[259] Also,
according to Johannes Bronkhorst, the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest
Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating insight".[365]
Physical characteristics
In early sources
Early sources depict the Buddha's as similar to other Buddhist monks. Various discourses describe
how he "cut off his hair and beard" when renouncing the world. Likewise, Digha Nikaya 3 has a
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Brahmin describe the Buddha as a shaved or bald (mundaka)

man.[366] Digha Nikaya 2 also describes how king Ajatasattu is
unable to tell which of the monks is the Buddha when
approaching the sangha and must ask his minister to point him
out. Likewise, in MN 140, a mendicant who sees himself as a
follower of the Buddha meets the Buddha in person but is unable
to recognize him.[367]
Buddhist monks from Nepal.
The Buddha is also described as being handsome and with a clear According to the earliest sources,
complexion (Digha I:115; Anguttara I:181), at least in his youth. the Buddha looked like a typical
In old age, however, he is described as having a stooped body, shaved man from northeast India.
with slack and wrinkled limbs.[368]
The 32 Signs
Various Buddhist texts attribute to the Buddha a series of extraordinary physical characteristics,
known as "the 32 Signs of the Great Man" (Skt. mahāpuruṣa lakṣaṇa).
According to Anālayo, when they first appear in the Buddhist texts, these physical marks were initially
held to be imperceptible to the ordinary person, and required special training to detect. Later though,
they are depicted as being visible by regular people and as inspiring faith in the Buddha.[369]
These characteristics are described in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D, I:142).[370]
Gautama Buddha in other religions

This Hindu synthesis emerged after the lifetime of the Buddha,
between 500[371]-200[372] BCE and c. 300 CE,[371] under the
pressure of the success of Buddhism and Jainism.[373] In
response to the success of Buddhism Gautama also came to be
regarded as the 9th avatar of Vishnu.[114][374][375] However,
Buddha's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas and the
concepts of Brahman-Atman.[376][377][378] Consequently
Buddhism is generally classified as a nāstika school (heterodox,
literally "It is not so"[note 30]) in contrast to the six orthodox Buddha depicted as the 9th avatar
schools of Hinduism.[381][382][383] In Sikhism, Buddha is of god Vishnu in a traditional Hindu
mentioned as the 23rd avatar of Vishnu in the Chaubis Avtar, a representation
composition in Dasam Granth traditionally and historically
attributed to Guru Gobind Singh.[384]
Classical Sunni scholar Tabari reports that Buddhist idols were brought from Afghanistan to Baghdad
in the ninth century. Such idols had been sold in Buddhist temples next to a mosque in Bukhara, but
he does not further discuss the role of Buddha. According to the works on Buddhism by Al-Biruni
(973–after 1050), views regarding the exact identity of Buddha were diverse. Accordingly, some
regarded him as the divine incarnate, others as an apostle of the angels or as an Ifrit and others as an
apostle of God sent to the human race. By the 12th century, al-Shahrastani even compared Buddha to
Khidr, described as an ideal human. Ibn Nadim, who was also familiar with Manichaean teachings,
even identifies Buddha as a prophet, who taught a religion to "banish Satan", although does not
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mention it explicitly. However, most Classical scholars described Buddha

in theistic terms, that is, apart from Islamic teachings.[385]
Nevertheless the Buddha is regarded as a prophet by the minority

Ahmadiyya[386] sect, generally considered deviant and rejected as
apostate by mainstream Islam.[387][388] Some early Chinese Taoist-
Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a reincarnation of Laozi.[389]
The Christian Saint Josaphat is based on the Buddha. The name comes
from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva via Arabic Būdhasaf and Georgian
Iodasaph.[390] The only story in which St. Josaphat appears, Barlaam
and Josaphat, is based on the life of the Buddha.[391] Josaphat was
included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast-day 27
November)—though not in the Roman Missal—and in the Eastern
Buddha as an avatar at
Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August). Dwaraka Tirumala temple,
Andhra Pradesh
In the ancient Gnostic sect of Manichaeism, the Buddha is listed among
the prophets who preached the word of God before Mani.[392]
In the Baháʼí Faith, Buddha is regarded as one of the

Manifestations of God.
Artistic depictions
Some of the earliest artistic depictions of the Buddha found at
Bharhut and Sanchi are aniconic and symbolic. During this early
aniconic period, the Buddha is depicted by other objects or
symbols, such as an empty throne, a riderless horse, footprints, a Gautama Buddha, Buddhist temple,
Dharma wheel or a Bodhi tree.[393] The art at Sanchi also depicts Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
the Jataka narratives of the Buddha in his past lives.[394]
Other styles of Indian Buddhist art depict the Buddha in human form, either standing, sitting crossed
legged (often in the Lotus Pose) or lying down on one side. Iconic representations of the Buddha
became particularly popular and widespread after the first century CE.[395] Some of these depictions
of the Buddha, particularly those of Gandharan Buddhism and Central Asian Buddhism, were
influenced by Hellenistic art, a style known as Greco-Buddhist art.[396]
These various Indian and Central Asian styles would then go on to influence the art of East Asian
Buddhist Buddha images, as well as those of Southeast Asian Theravada Buddhism.
Gallery showing different Buddha styles
29 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
A Royal Couple Adoration of the Descent of the The Buddha's

Visits the Buddha, Diamond Throne Buddha from the Miracle at
from railing of the and the Bodhi Tree, Trayastrimsa Kapilavastu, Sanchi
Bharhut Stupa, Bharhut. Heaven, Sanchi Stupa 1.
Shunga dynasty, Stupa No. 1.
early 2nd century
BC.
Bimbisara visiting The great departure The Assault of Buddha Preaching

the Buddha with riderless horse, Mara, Amaravati, in Tushita Heaven.
(represented as Amaravati, 2nd 2nd century CE. Amaravati,
empty throne) at the century CE. Satavahana period,
Bamboo garden in 2d century CE.
Rajagriha Indian Museum,
Calcutta.
30 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
Isapur Buddha, one The Buddha Buddha Preaching Standing Buddha

of the earliest attended by Indra at in Tushita Heaven. from Gandhara.
physical depictions Indrasala Cave, Amaravati, 2nd
of the Buddha, c. 15 Mathura 50-100 CE. century CE.
CE.[397] Art of
Mathura
Seated Buddha, Gandharan Buddha Kushan period Buddha statue from

Tapa Shotor with Vajrapani- Buddha Triad. Sanchi.
monastery (Niche Herakles.
V1), Hadda
Birth of the Buddha, The Infant Buddha 6th century Buddha at Cave No.
Kushan dynasty, Taking A Bath, Gandharan Buddha. 6, Ajanta Caves.
late 2nd to early 3rd Gandhara 2nd
century CE. century CE.
31 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
Standing Buddha, c. Sarnath standing Seated Buddha, Seated Buddha at

5th Century CE. Buddha, 5th century Gupta period. Gal Vihara, Sri
CE. Lanka.
Chinese Stele with The Shakyamuni Amaravati style Korean Seokguram

Sakyamuni and Daibutsu Bronze, c. Buddha of Srivijaya Cave Buddha, c.
Bodhisattvas, Wei 609, Nara, Japan. period, Palembang, 774 CE.
period, 536 CE. Indonesia, 7th
century.
Seated Buddha Buddha in the Vairocana Buddha Seated Buddha,

Vairocana flanked exposed stupa of of Srivijaya style, Japan, Heian
by Avalokiteshvara Borobudur mandala, Southern Thailand, period, 9th－10th
and Vajrapani of Central Java, 9th century. century.
Mendut temple, Indonesia, c. 825.
Central Java,
Indonesia, early 9th
century.
32 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
Attack of Mara, 10th Cambodian Buddha 15th century 15th century

century, Dunhuang. with Mucalinda Sukhothai Buddha. Sukhothai Walking
Nāga, c. 1100 CE, Buddha.
Banteay Chhmar,
Cambodia
Sakyamuni, Lao Chinese depiction of Shakyamuni Golden Thai Buddha

Tzu, and Confucius, Shakyamuni, 1600. Buddha with statue, Bodh Gaya.
c. from 1368 until Avadana Legend
1644. Scenes, Tibetan,
19th century
Gautama statue, Burmese style

Shanyuan Temple, Buddha,
Liaoning Province, Shwedagon pagoda,
China. Yangon.
In other media
Films
33 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
Little Buddha, a 1994 film by Bernardo Bertolucci

Prem Sanyas, a 1925 silent film, directed by Franz Osten and Himansu Rai
Television
Buddha, a 2013 mythological drama on Zee TV

The Buddha (http://www.pbs.org/thebuddha/) 2010 PBS documentary by award-winning
filmmaker David Grubin and narrated by Richard Gere
Literature
The Light of Asia, an 1879 epic poem by Edwin Arnold

Buddha, a manga series that ran from 1972 to 1983 by Osamu Tezuka
Siddhartha novel by Hermann Hesse, written in German in 1922
Lord of Light, a novel by Roger Zelazny depicts a man in a far future Earth Colony who takes on
the name and teachings of the Buddha
Creation, a 1981 novel by Gore Vidal, includes the Buddha as one of the religious figures that the
main character encounters
Music
Karuna Nadee, a 2010 oratorio by Dinesh Subasinghe

The Light of Asia, an 1886 oratorio by Dudley Buck
See also
Early Buddhist Texts
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta
Samannaphala Sutta
Mahaparinibbana Sutta
Great Renunciation & Four sights
Physical characteristics of the Buddha
Relics associated with Buddha
Lumbini, Bodhgaya, Sarnath & Kushinagar
Iconography of Gautama Buddha in Laos and Thailand
Knowing Buddha
Depictions of Gautama Buddha in film
Aniconism in Buddhism
List of Indian philosophers
Notes
1. According to the Buddhist tradition, following the Nidanakatha,[46] the introductory to the Jataka
tales, the stories of the former lives of the Buddha, Gautama was born in Lumbini, present-day
Nepal.[47][48] In the mid-3rd century BCE the Emperor Ashoka determined that Lumbini was
Gautama's birthplace and thus installed a pillar there with the inscription: "...this is where the
Buddha, sage of the Śākyas (Śākyamuni), was born."[49]
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Based on stone inscriptions, there is also speculation that Lumbei, Kapileswar village, Odisha, at
the east coast of India, was the site of ancient Lumbini.[50][51][52] Hartmann discusses the
hypothesis and states, "The inscription has generally been considered spurious (...)"[53] He quotes
Sircar: "There can hardly be any doubt that the people responsible for the Kapilesvara inscription
copied it from the said facsimile not much earlier than 1928."
Kapilavastu was the place where he grew up:[54][note 7]

Warder: "The Buddha [...] was born in the Sakya Republic, which was the city state of
Kapilavastu, a very small state just inside the modern state boundary of Nepal against the
Northern Indian frontier.[7]
Walshe: "He belonged to the Sakya clan dwelling on the edge of the Himalayas, his actual
birthplace being a few kilometres north of the present-day Northern Indian border, in Nepal.
His father was, in fact, an elected chief of the clan rather than the king he was later made out
to be, though his title was raja—a term which only partly corresponds to our word 'king'. Some
of the states of North India at that time were kingdoms and others republics, and the Sakyan
republic was subject to the powerful king of neighbouring Kosala, which lay to the south".[56]
The exact location of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown.[54] It may have been either Piprahwa in
Uttar Pradesh, northern India,[57][58][59] or Tilaurakot,[60] present-day Nepal.[61][54] The two
cities are located only 24 kilometres (15 miles) from each other.[61]
See also Conception and birth and Birthplace Sources
2. According to Mahaparinibbana Sutta,[4] Gautama died in Kushinagar, which is located in present-
day Uttar Pradesh, India.
3. /sɪˈdɑːrtə, -θə/; Sanskrit: [sɪddʱaːrtʰɐ ɡautɐmɐ]; Gautama namely Gotama in Pali
4.
411–400: Dundas (2002), p. 24: "...as is now almost universally accepted by informed
Indological scholarship, a re-examination of early Buddhist historical material, [...],
necessitates a redating of the Buddha's death to between 411 and 400 BCE..."
405: Richard Gombrich[36][34][37]
Around 400: See the consensus in the essays by leading scholars in Narain (2003).
According to Pali scholar K. R. Norman, a life span for the Buddha of c. 480 to 400 BCE (and
his teaching period roughly from c. 445 to 400 BCE) "fits the archaeological evidence
better".[38] See also Notes on the Dates of the Buddha Íåkyamuni (http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/d
ocs/icb.topic138396.files/Buddha-Dates.pdf).
Indologist Michael Witzel provides a "revised" dating of 460–380 BCE for the lifetime of the
Buddha.[39]
5. Sanskrit: [ɕaːkjɐmʊnɪ bʊddʱɐ]
6. In 2013, archaeologist Robert Coningham found the remains of a Bodhigara, a tree shrine, dated
to 550 BCE at the Maya Devi Temple, Lumbini, speculating that it may possibly be a Buddhist
shrine. If so, this may push back the Buddha's birth date.[42] Archaeologists caution that the shrine
may represent pre-Buddhist tree worship, and that further research is needed.[42]
Richard Gombrich has dismissed Coningham's speculations as "a fantasy", noting that
Coningham lacks the necessary expertise on the history of early Buddhism.[43]
Geoffrey Samuel notes that several locations of both early Buddhism and Jainism are closely
related to Yaksha-worship, that several Yakshas were "converted" to Buddhism, a well-known
example being Vajrapani,[44] and that several Yaksha-shrines, where trees were worshipped, were
converted into Buddhist holy places.[45]
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7. Some sources mention Kapilavastu as the birthplace of the Buddha. Gethin states: "The earliest
Buddhist sources state that the future Buddha was born Siddhārtha Gautama (Pali Siddhattha
Gotama), the son of a local chieftain—a rājan—in Kapilavastu (Pali Kapilavatthu) what is now the
Indian–Nepalese border."[55] Gethin does not give references for this statement.
8. According to Alexander Berzin, "Buddhism developed as a shramana school that accepted rebirth
under the force of karma, while rejecting the existence of the type of soul that other schools
asserted. In addition, the Buddha accepted as parts of the path to liberation the use of logic and
reasoning, as well as ethical behavior, but not to the degree of Jain asceticism. In this way,
Buddhism avoided the extremes of the previous four shramana schools."[70]
9. Minor Rock Edict Nb3: "These Dhamma texts – Extracts from the Discipline, the Noble Way of
Life, the Fears to Come, the Poem on the Silent Sage, the Discourse on the Pure Life, Upatisa's
Questions, and the Advice to Rahula which was spoken by the Buddha concerning false speech –
these Dhamma texts, reverend sirs, I desire that all the monks and nuns may constantly listen to
and remember. Likewise the laymen and laywomen."[79]
Dhammika: "There is disagreement amongst scholars concerning which Pali suttas correspond to
some of the text. Vinaya samukose: probably the Atthavasa Vagga, Anguttara Nikaya, 1:98–100.
Aliya vasani: either the Ariyavasa Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya, V:29, or the Ariyavamsa Sutta,
Anguttara Nikaya, II: 27–28. Anagata bhayani: probably the Anagata Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya,
III:100. Muni gatha: Muni Sutta, Sutta Nipata 207–21. Upatisa pasine: Sariputta Sutta, Sutta
Nipata 955–75. Laghulavade: Rahulavada Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya, I:421."[79]
10. According to Geoffrey Samuel, the Buddha was born into a Kshatriya clan,[121] in a moderate
Vedic culture at the central Ganges Plain area, where the shramana-traditions developed. This
area had a moderate Vedic culture, where the Kshatriyas were the highest varna, in contrast to
the Brahmanic ideology of Kuru–Panchala, where the Brahmins had become the highest
varna.[121] Both the Vedic culture and the shramana tradition contributed to the emergence of the
so-called "Hindu-synthesis" around the start of the Common Era.[122][121]
11. Scholars have noted inconsistencies in the presentations of the Buddha's enlightenment, and the
Buddhist path to liberation, in the oldest sutras. These inconsistencies show that the Buddhist
teachings evolved, either during the lifetime of the Buddha, or thereafter. See:
* Bareau (1963)
* Schmithausen (1981)
* Norman (2003)
* Vetter (1988)
* Gombrich (2006a), Chapter 4
* Bronkhorst (1993), Chapter 7
* Anderson (1999)
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12. Anālayo draws from seven early sources:[208]

1. the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya in Four Parts, preserved in Chinese
2. a *Vinayamātṛkā preserved in Chinese translation, which some scholars suggest represents
the Haimavata tradition
3. the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda Vinaya, preserved in Sanskrit
4. the Mahīśāsaka Vinaya in Five Parts, preserved in Chinese
5. the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, where the episode is extant in Chinese and Tibetan translation,
with considerable parts also preserved in Sanskrit fragments
6. a discourse in the Madhyama-āgama, preserved in Chinese, probably representing the
Sarvāstivāda tradition
7. a Pāli discourse found among the Eights of the Aṅguttara-nikāya; the same account is also
found in the Theravāda Vinaya preserved in Pāli
13. Waley notes: suukara-kanda, "pig-bulb"; suukara-paadika, "pig's foot" and sukaresh.ta "sought-
out by pigs". He cites Neumann's suggestion that if a plant called "sought-out by pigs" exists then
suukaramaddava can mean "pig's delight".
14. Exemplary studies are the study on descriptions of "liberating insight" by Lambert
Schmithausen,[259] the overview of early Buddhism by Tilmann Vetter,[256] the philological work on
the four truths by K.R. Norman,[260] the textual studies by Richard Gombrich,[258] and the
research on early meditation methods by Johannes Bronkhorst.[255]
15. Two well-known proponent of this position are A.K. Warder and Richard Gombrich.
According to A.K. Warder, in his 1970 publication Indian Buddhism, "from the oldest extant
texts a common kernel can be drawn out."[262] According to Warder, c.q. his publisher: "This
kernel of doctrine is presumably common Buddhism of the period before the great schisms of
the fourth and third centuries BC. It may be substantially the Buddhism of the Buddha himself,
although this cannot be proved: at any rate it is a Buddhism presupposed by the schools as
existing about a hundred years after the parinirvana of the Buddha, and there is no evidence
to suggest that it was formulated by anyone else than the Buddha and his immediate
followers".[262]
Richard Gombrich: "I have the greatest difficulty in accepting that the main edifice is not the
work of a single genius. By "the main edifice" I mean the collections of the main body of
sermons, the four Nikāyas, and of the main body of monastic rules."[258]
16. A proponent of the second position is Ronald Davidson.
Ronald Davidson: "While most scholars agree that there was a rough body of sacred literature
(disputed)(sic) that a relatively early community (disputed)(sic) maintained and transmitted, we
have little confidence that much, if any, of surviving Buddhist scripture is actually the word of
the historical Buddha."[263]
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17. Well-known proponents of the third position are:

J.W. de Jong: "It would be hypocritical to assert that nothing can be said about the doctrine of
earliest Buddhism [...] the basic ideas of Buddhism found in the canonical writings could very
well have been proclaimed by him [the Buddha], transmitted and developed by his disciples
and, finally, codified in fixed formulas."[264]
Johannes Bronkhorst: "This position is to be preferred to (ii) for purely methodological
reasons: only those who seek may find, even if no success is guaranteed."[261]
Donald Lopez: "The original teachings of the historical Buddha are extremely difficult, if not
impossible, to recover or reconstruct."[265]
18. aggihuttamukhā yaññā sāvittī chandaso mukham. Sacrifices have the Agnihotra as foremost; of
meter, the foremost is the Sāvitrī.[270]
19. Understanding of these marks helps in the development of detachment:
Anicca (Sanskrit: anitya): That all things that come to have an end;
Dukkha (Sanskrit: duḥkha): That nothing which comes to be is ultimately satisfying;
Anattā (Sanskrit: anātman): That nothing in the realm of experience can really be said to be "I"
or "mine".
20. “Not by water man becomes pure; people here bathe too much; in whom there is truth and
morality, he is pure, he is (really) a brahman”[277]
21. “These three things, monks, are conducted in secret, not openly. What three? Affairs with women,
the mantras of the brahmins, and wrong view. But these three things, monks, shine openly, not in
secret. What three? The moon, the sun, and the Dhamma and Discipline proclaimed by the
Tathagata.” AN 3.129[278]
22. "In a favourite stanza quoted several times in the Pali Canon: “The Kshatriya is the best among
those people who believe in lineage; but he, who is endowed with knowledge and good conduct,
is the best among Gods and men”.[277]
23. One common basic list of twelve elements in the Early Buddhist Texts goes as follows:
"Conditioned by (1) ignorance are (2) formations, conditioned by formations is (3) consciousness,
conditioned by consciousness is (4) mind-and-body, conditioned by mind-and-body are (5) the six
senses, conditioned by the six senses is (6) sense-contact, conditioned by sense-contact is (7)
feeling, conditioned by feeling is (8) craving, conditioned by craving is (9) grasping, conditioned by
grasping is (10) becoming, conditioned by becoming is (11) birth, conditioned by birth is (12) old-
age and death-grief, lamentation, pain, sorrow, and despair come into being. Thus is the arising of
this whole mass of suffering."[302]
24. right view; right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness,
and right concentration.[334]
25. Gethin adds: "This schema is assumed and, in one way or another, adapted by the later manuals
such as the Visuddhimagga, the Abhidharmakosa, Kamalasila's Bhavanakrama ('Stages of
Meditation', eighth century) and also Chinese and later Tibetan works such as Chih-i's Mo-ho
chih-kuan ('Great Calm and Insight') and Hsiu-hsi chih-kuan tso-ch'an fa-yao ('The Essentials for
Sitting in Meditation and Cultivating Calm and Insight', sixth century), sGam-po-pa's Thar-pa rin-
po che'i rgyan ('Jewel Ornament of Liberation', twelfth century) and Tsong-kha-pa's Lam rim chen
mo ('Great Graduated Path', fourteenth century).[338]
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26. As Gethin notes: "A significant ancient variation on the formula of dependent arising, having
detailed the standard sequence of conditions leading to the arising of this whole mass of suffering,
thus goes on to state that: Conditioned by (1) suffering, there is (2) faith, conditioned by faith,
there is (3) gladness, conditioned by gladness, there is (4) joy, conditioned by joy, there is (5)
tranquillity, conditioned by tranquillity, there is (6) happiness, conditioned by happiness, there is
(7) concentration, conditioned by concentration, there is (8) knowledge and vision of what truly is,
conditioned by knowledge and vision of what truly is, there is (9) disenchantment, conditioned by
disenchantment, there is (10) dispassion, conditioned by dispassion, there is (11) freedom,
conditioned by freedom, there is (12) knowledge that the defilements are destroyed."[342]
27. For a comparative survey of Satipatthana in the Pali, Tibetan and Chinese sources, see: Anālayo
(2014). Perspectives on Satipatthana.. For a comparative survey of Anapanasati, see:
Dhammajoti, K.L. (2008). "Sixteen-mode Mindfulness of Breathing". JCBSSL. VI..
28. "thus, from the not giving of property to the needy, poverty became rife, from the growth of
poverty, the taking of what was not given increased, from the increase of theft, the use of
weapons increased, from the increased use of weapons, the taking of life increased — and from
the increase in the taking of life, people's life-span decreased, their beauty decreased, and [as] a
result of this decrease of life-span and beauty, the children of those whose life-span had been
eighty-thousand years lived for only forty thousand."[358]
29. Vetter: "However, if we look at the last, and in my opinion the most important, component of this
list [the noble eightfold path], we are still dealing with what according to me is the real content of
the middle way, dhyana-meditation, at least the stages two to four, which are said to be free of
contemplation and reflection. Everything preceding the eighth part, i.e. right samadhi, apparently
has the function of preparing for the right samadhi."[363]
30. "in Sanskrit philosophical literature, 'āstika' means 'one who believes in the authority of the
Vedas', 'soul', 'Brahman'. ('nāstika' means the opposite of these).[379][380]
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Twitchett, Denis, ed. (1986), The Cambridge History of China, 1. The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221
BC – AD 220, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8
Upadhyaya, KN (1971), Early Buddhism and the Bhagavadgita, Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass, p. 95,
ISBN 978-81-208-0880-5
Vetter, Tilmann (1988), The Ideas and Meditative Practices of Early Buddhism, Brill
von Hinüber, Oskar (2008). "Hoary past and hazy memory. On the history of early Buddhist texts"
(https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/viewFile/8977/2870). Journal of the
International Association of Buddhist Studies. 29 (2): 193–210.
Waley, Arthur (July 1932), "Did Buddha die of eating pork?: with a note on Buddha's image" (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20110603235636/http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-MEL/waley.htm),
Melanges Chinois et Bouddhiques, NTU, 1931–32: 343–354, archived from the original (http://ccb
s.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-MEL/waley.htm) on 3 June 2011
Walshe, Maurice (1995), The Long Discourses of the Buddha. A Translation of the Digha Nikaya,
Boston: Wisdom Publications
Warder, A.K. (1998). "Lokayata, Ajivaka, and Ajnana Philosophy" (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=zw1UD1Mj9DwC&q=ajnana). A Course in Indian Philosophy (2nd ed.). Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass Publishers. ISBN 978-81-208-1244-4.
——— (2000), Indian Buddhism, Buddhism Series (3rd ed.), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
——— (2004). Indian Buddhism (https://www.scribd.com/doc/179229498/A-K-Warder-Indian-Bud
dhism-pdf) (reprint ed.). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
Wayman, Alex (1997), Untying the Knots in Buddhism: Selected Essays, Motilal Banarsidass,
ISBN 978-81-208-1321-2
Weise, Kai (2013), The Sacred Garden of Lumbini – Perceptions of Buddha's Birthplace (https://w
eb.archive.org/web/20140830011700/http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002239/223986E.p
df) (PDF), Paris: UNESCO, ISBN 978-92-3-001208-3, archived from the original (http://unesdoc.u
nesco.org/images/0022/002239/223986E.pdf) (PDF) on 30 August 2014
Willemen, Charles, transl. (2009), Buddhacarita: In Praise of Buddha's Acts (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20140827205858/http://www.bdkamerica.org/digital/dbet_t0192_buddhacarita_2009.pdf)
(PDF), Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research,
ISBN 978-1-886439-42-9, archived from the original (http://www.bdkamerica.org/digital/dbet_t019
2_buddhacarita_2009.pdf) (PDF) on 27 August 2014
Williams, Paul (2002). Buddhist Thought. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415207010.
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Wynne, Alexander (2004), The Origin of Buddhist Meditation, Routledge

——— (2007), The Origin of Buddhist Meditation (http://www.e-reading.link/bookreader.php/13483
9/The_Origin_of_Buddhist_Meditation.pdf) (PDF), Routledge, ISBN 978-0-203-96300-5
Further reading
Bareau, André (1975), "Les récits canoniques des funérailles du Buddha et leurs anomalies:
nouvel essai d'interprétation" [The canonical accounts of the Buddha's funerals and their
anomalies: new interpretative essay], Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient (in French),
Persée, LXII: 151–189, doi:10.3406/befeo.1975.3845 (https://doi.org/10.3406%2Fbefeo.1975.384
5)
——— (1979), "La composition et les étapes de la formation progressive du
Mahaparinirvanasutra ancien" [The composition and the etapes of the progressive formation of
the ancient Mahaparinirvanasutra], Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient (in French),
Persée, LXVI: 45–103, doi:10.3406/befeo.1979.4010 (https://doi.org/10.3406%2Fbefeo.1979.401
0)
Eade, J.C. (1995), The Calendrical Systems of Mainland South-East Asia (illustrated ed.), Brill,
ISBN 978-90-04-10437-2
Epstein, Ronald (2003), Buddhist Text Translation Society's Buddhism A to Z (illustrated ed.),
Burlingame, CA: Buddhist Text Translation Society
Jones, J.J. (1949), The Mahāvastu (https://archive.org/details/sacredbooksofbud16londuoft),
Sacred Books of the Buddhists, 1, London: Luzac & Co.
Kala, U. (2006) [1724], Maha Yazawin Gyi (in Burmese), 1 (4th ed.), Yangon: Ya-Pyei, p. 39
Katz, Nathan (1982), Buddhist Images of Human Perfection: The Arahant of the Sutta Piṭaka,
Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
Lamotte, Etienne (1988), History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era,
Université catholique de Louvain, Institut orientaliste
The life of the Buddha and the early history of his order, derived from Tibetan works in the Bkah-
Hgyur and Bstan-Hgyur, followed by notices on the early history of Tibet and Khoten (https://archiv
e.org/details/lifeofbuddhaearl00rock), translated by Rockhill, William Woodville, London: Trübner,
1884
Shimoda, Masahiro (2002), "How has the Lotus Sutra Created Social Movements: The
Relationship of the Lotus Sutra to the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra", in Reeves, Gene (ed.), A Buddhist
Kaleidoscope, Kosei
Singh, Upinder (2016), A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the
12th Century (https://books.google.com/books?id=Pq2iCwAAQBAJ), Pearson,
ISBN 978-81-317-1677-9
Smith, Peter (2000), "Manifestations of God", A concise encyclopaedia of the Bahá'í Faith (https://
archive.org/details/conciseencyclope0000smit), Oxford: Oneworld Publications,
ISBN 978-1-85168-184-6
von Hinüber, Oskar (2009). "Cremated like a King: The funeral of the Buddha within the ancient
Indian context". Journal of the International College of Postgraduate Buddhist Studies. 13: 33–66.
The Buddha
Bechert, Heinz, ed. (1996). When Did the Buddha Live? The Controversy on the Dating of the
Historical Buddha. Delhi: Sri Satguru.
Ñāṇamoli Bhikku (1992). The Life of the Buddha According to the Pali Canon (3rd ed.). Kandy, Sri
Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society.
Wagle, Narendra K (1995). Society at the Time of the Buddha (https://books.google.com/books?id
=glFCjTkhNlYC) (2nd ed.). Popular Prakashan. ISBN 978-81-7154-553-7.
54 of 56 21/06/21, 9:00 PM
Weise, Kai (2013). The Sacred Garden of Lumbini: Perceptions of Buddha's birthplace (https://bo
oks.google.com/books?id=naohAgAAQBAJ). UNESCO. ISBN 978-92-3-001208-3.
Early Buddhism
Rahula, Walpola (1974). What the Buddha Taught (2nd ed.). New York: Grove Press.
Vetter, Tilmann (1988), The Ideas and Meditative Practices of Early Buddhism, Brill
Buddhism general
Kalupahana, David J. (1994), A history of Buddhist philosophy, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass

Robinson, Richard H.; Johnson, Willard L; Wawrytko, Sandra A; DeGraff, Geoffrey (1996). The
Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction (https://archive.org/details/buddhistreligion0000robi).
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
External links
Works by Buddha (https://www.gutenberg.org/author/Buddha) at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Buddha (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3A%22Budd
ha%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Buddha%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Buddha%22%20
OR%20title%3A%22Buddha%22%29%20OR%20%28%22623-543%22%20AND%20Buddha%2
9%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at Internet Archive
Works by or about Siddhārtha Gautama (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%
3A%22Gautama%2C%20Siddhārtha%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Siddhārtha%20Gautama%
22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Gautama%2C%20Siddhārtha%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Sid
dhārtha%20Gautama%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Gautama%2C%20S%2E%22%20OR%20ti
tle%3A%22Siddhārtha%20Gautama%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Gautama%2C%20Sidd
hārtha%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Siddhārtha%20Gautama%22%29%20OR%20%28%2
2623-543%22%20AND%20Gautama%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at
Internet Archive
Works by or about Shakyamuni (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3A%22S
hakyamuni%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Shakyamuni%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Sha
kyamuni%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Shakyamuni%22%29%20OR%20%28%22623-543%22%2
0AND%20Shakyamuni%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at Internet Archive
Works by Gautama Buddha (https://librivox.org/author/1081) at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)
Buddha (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00548br) on In Our Time at the BBC
A sketch of the Buddha's Life (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/buddha.html)
What Was The Buddha Like? (http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/disciples05.htm) by
Ven S. Dhammika
Parables and Stories of Buddha (http://www.gautam-buddha.com)
Who was the Buddha? (https://tricycle.org/beginners/buddhism/who-was-the-buddha/) Buddhism
for Beginners (https://tricycle.org/beginners/)
Buddhist titles
Preceded by Succeeded by
Buddhist Patriarch
Kassapa Buddha Maitreya Buddha
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gautama_Buddha&oldid=1029471839"
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Gautama Buddha: Gautama Buddha, Popularly Known As The Buddha (Also Gautama

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Gautama Buddha - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

The Buddha was born into an aristocratic family in the Shakya

Names and titles Died c. 483 BCE or 400

Names and titles

A common list of epithets are commonly seen together in the

Sammasambuddho – Perfectly self-awakened

According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was

One of Gautama's usual names was "Sakamuni" or

No written records about Gautama were found from

which would allow for a "true historical memory"

The sources which present a complete picture of the life of

The earlier canonical sources include the Ariyapariyesana Sutta

Nature of traditional depictions

In the earliest Buddhist texts, the nikāyas and āgamas, the

human), is inspired by his meeting of past Buddhas, and then

Birth and early life

The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini, in present-day Nepal to

of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies

The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada

According to later biographical legends, during the birth

While the earliest sources merely depict Gotama

Ascetic life and awakening

The Nikaya-texts narrate that the ascetic Gautama practised

After leaving his meditation teachers, Gotama then practiced

According to other early Buddhist texts,[169] after realising that

Likewise, the Mahāsaccaka-sutta and most of its parallels agree

Gautama thus became known as the Buddha or "Awakened One".

eye" (dibba-cakkhu), which allows the knowing of others' karmic

The legendary biographies like the Mahavastu, Nidanakatha and

First sermon and formation of the saṅgha

According to MN 26, immediately after his awakening, the

According to MN 26 and MĀ 204, after deciding to teach, the

The Theravāda Vinaya and the Catusparisat-sūtra also speak of

The growth of the saṅgha

The Buddha's sangha continued to grow during his initial travels

The early texts also mention an important lay disciple, the

Formation of the bhikkhunī order

The formation of a parallel order of female monastics (bhikkhunī)

doubtful, but that they may have been based on earlier

According to J.S. Strong, after the first 20 years of his teaching

As the sangha grew in size, the need for a standardized set of

All the major early Buddhist Vinaya texts depict Devadatta as a

At around the same time of Devadatta's schism, there was also

Last days and parinirvana

The main narrative of the Buddha's last days, death

According to the Mahaparinibbana sutta, the Mallians of

According to various Buddhist sources, the First Buddhist Council

Tracing the oldest teachings

1. "Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable

According to scholars of Indology such as Richard Gombrich, the

Teachings preserved in the Early Buddhist Texts

The Early Buddhist Texts present many teachings and practices

A recent study by Bhikkhu Analayo concludes that the Theravada

In the early Buddhist texts, the Buddha critiques the Brahmanical

He also critiqued numerous other Brahmanical practices, such astrology,

negative, from the intention behind them."[297]

The most basic formulation of Dependent Origination is given in the

In numerous early texts, this basic principle is expanded with a list of

Metaphysics and personal identity

As Rupert Gethin explains, for the Buddha:

The Path to Liberation

According to Gethin, another common summary of the path to

Regarding the training of right view and sense restraint, the