The story about Buddhism and how it came to be all started long ago with a king named Suddhodana. It was his son, Siddhartha, who would later in life become the Buddha. It is a unique blend of fairytale and fact in the Buddhist teachings that can be found today. There is quite a lot more to Buddhism than just having a big Buddha statue sitting on your desk as a decoration. It is a great piece of history and millions of believers follow the teachings of Buddhism.

A prediction was made by a holy man regarding Siddhartha. The holy man prophesized that the young prince would either grow up to become a great ruler or he would become a wise holy man. The king was obviously dismayed that his son might abdicate his princely life and so tried to shelter the young man from the outside world. Unfortunately for Suddhodana, this did not stop the outside world from coming into contact with his son. At the age of 29, Siddhartha came into contact with what is now known as the “Four Sights.” He came across an elderly man, a corpse, a diseased man and a holy man. This gave him a glimpse into the sufferings of mankind and Siddhartha was so moved that he abandoned his princely throne to become a holy man himself.

The true path, when learning about Buddhism, is what Siddhartha found. The path to enlightenment, or Bodhi, can be found through the use of meditation. His previous attempts included fasting and enduring pain. It is a good thing for Buddhists everywhere that they do not have to use these methods in order to find enlightenment. The Buddhist teachings are ones of gentleness and concentration upon meditation.

Siddhartha’s meditation retreat came in the form of meditating beneath a tree outside of a village for forty-nine days. It was during these forty-nine days that he attained enlightenment and could begin teaching his findings to the rest of the world. From this point on, Siddhartha became known as Buddha. Buddhist studies teach followers that the true path to ending human suffering in this world is to follow a strict path set forth by the Buddha. It involves ritualized chants and meditations to alleviate the conflicts that plague humanity.

”Buddha” is not aname. It is a title, meaning the Enlightened One or the Awakened One. The Buddha’s personal name was Siddhattha1 and his clan name was Gotama.2 Thus he was sometimes called Siddhattha Gotama. Few people, however, now make use of these names. They simply call him the Buddha or Gotama the Buddha. The Buddha lived twenty five centuries ago in North India. He was born a prince of the Sakyan kingdom which was located at the foot of the Himalaya. His father, who was the king ruling over the Sakyas, was called Suddhodana. The Queen who was the Prince’s mother was called Maya. As a prince, he grew up in the midst of luxury, led the happy life of a privileged youth and married Princess Yasodhara. His beautiful cousin, who bore him a son, Rahula. This happened for the first time when he took chariot rides in the streets of his father’s capital, Kapilavastu. Then he saw four sights which altered his whole life. The first three of them- a man feeble with old age, another with a grievous disease, and a corpse- filled him with a longing to find some way to help his fellow men and to discover the true meaning of life. The fourth sight, a monk, gave him a hope of the possibility of learning about Truth and finding a way out of suffering. Then, at the age of 29, Prince Siddhattha left his father’s palace, left his dearly loved wife and newborn son, and led the life of a wandering ascetic, devoting himself to finding some way of overcoming suffering. At the full moon of May, forty five years before the Buddhist Era, while sitting under the Bodhi tree at Gaya, he found his answer and at tained the Enlightenment.The Great Man, now known as the Buddha, went first from Gaya to Sarnath mear Benares where he gave his first sermon in the Deer Park. From then through the remaining 45 years of his life, he wandered from place to place teaching his discoveries to all who would listen to him and organizing his followers who renounced the world to form the Sangha. At last, at the age of eighty and in the year 543 B.C.1 , the Buddha fell ill while on his way to Kusinara3 , capital of the Malla State. Even in the face of death his mind moved towards others. He told Ananda, his faithful attendant, to console Cunda, the poor blacksmith from whose house the Buddha ate his last meal with indigestible pork,3 that his food offering was of great fruit and merit and that he should not blame himself for the food. Though it is now more than 2500 years since the passing away of the Buddha, the Dharma he taught remains our Teacher as he himself named it. The Sangha which consists of the followers who study, prac tise and disseminate the Dharma, has received this torch of light from the torchbearer himself and carried it on and on to us throughout lands and centuries. The three of them – the Buddha, the founder; the Dharma, the teaching; and the Sangha, the Order of disciples – form the Triple Gem which all Buddhists value the best of all precious things, and the Threefold Refuge which guides them on the Path of the true good life.