WHAT WAS BUDDHA?

The Buddha “means” the awake. “The Buddha, who lived 2,600 years ago, was not a god. He was an ordinary man named Siddhartha Gautama, whose deep knowledge inspired the world. Buddha is awake, and that is the truth. Simply put, Buddhism teaches that we all live in a fog of illusion caused by misperceptions and “impurities” – hatred, greed, ignorance. A Buddha is one who is freed from fog. It is said that when the Buddha dies, he is not born, but enters the peace of Nirvana, which is not “heaven,” but a transformed state of existence. Founded Buddhism, a man named Siddhartha Gautama, who lived in northern India and Nepal about twenty-five centuries ago. his life changed. Driving a cart outside his palaces, he first saw a sick man, then an old man, then a corpse. It shook him to the core; he realized that privileged status would not protect him from illness, old age, and death. Seeing the spiritual seeker, an incorrigible “holy man,” he developed a desire to seek peace of mind. The prince gave up his worldly life and began a spiritual search. He sought out teachers and punished his body with ascetic practices such as extreme, prolonged fasting. It was believed that punishing the body was a way to elevate the mind and that the door to wisdom was found on the sidelines of death. However, six years later, the prince felt only dissatisfied.Eventually he realized that the path to peace leads through spiritual discipline. Bodh Gaya, in the modern Indian state of Bihar, sat in meditation under a ficus tree until he awoke or understood enlightenment. Since then he would have been known as the Buddha. All his life he taught people how to exercise enlightenment for themselves. He gave his first sermon in modern-day Sarnat, near Bernares, and then went from village to village, attracting disciples along the way. He founded the original Buddhist order of nuns and monks, many of whom also became great teachers. He died in Kusinagar, in the present state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India, about 483 BC. The Buddha is the teacher of the world, the one who opens the door to everyone else. / Text prepared by reference to www.lionsroar.com