The Life of Buddha
by Allan Kohl
February, 1998
Divine Conception
Queen Maya was the wife of Suddhodana, virtuous
ruler of the minor
kingdom of Kapilivastu in what is now northern
Bengal. One night she had
a strange dream: a Bodhisattva descended
from heaven, riding on a white
elephant, the symbol of divine kingship.
The white elephant touched Maya's
side with his trunk, and she became pregnant
with the spirit of the Buddha.
Miraculous Birth
The Buddha's birth was similarly miraculous.
On the eighth day of the
fourth lunar month, Queen Maya was walking
in the Lumbini Garden in
Suddhodana's palace grounds, south of the
Himalayas. As she stood under
a sala (ashoka) tree and raised her right
arm to pick a blossom, the infant
Buddha sprang from her side without causing
his mother pain or bloodshed.
He immediately took seven steps towards the
north, and announced in a loud
voice that this was his final incarnation.
The Young Prince
The young prince Gautama Siddhartha was born
into the ancient Sakya clan,
whose symbol was the lion; hence he is often
known as "Sakyamuni" (the
Sage of the Sakya), or as "Sakyasimha" (the
Lion of the Sakya). His father
belonged to the warrior caste. Soon after
the young prince's birth, a wise
sage named Asita predicted that the child
would grow up to be a holy man,
rather than following his father as ruler.
Suddhodana tried to prevent this
from happening by making sure that the prince
lived a sequestered life
of ease and luxury in the royal palace, ignorant
of the world outside.
When he was sixteen, he was given the beautiful
princess Yasodhara as his
wife, and they had a son, named Rahula.
The Four Encounters
In the spring of his twenty-ninth year, Prince
Gautama Siddhartha grew
troubled in spirit, and decided to leave
the sheltered palace enclosure to
view the flowers in bloom; instead, he came
face to face with the world's
pain and misery. Departing through the eastern
gate on the first day,
Sakyamuni was troubled by the sight of an
old, decrepit man. On the second
day, passing out through the southern gate,
he came upon a man suffering
from a debilitating illness. On the third
day, leaving by the western gate, he
beheld a corpse surrounded by weeping mourners.
Finally, travelling towards
the north on the fourth day, he met a mendicant
monk, and resolved to follow
this holy man's example.
The Great Renunciation
and Departure from his Father's Palace
Now fully aware of the sorrow that pervaded
the world outside the sheltered
life of the palace, Sakyamuni resolved to
abandon his opulent life as a prince,
vowing instead to seek through fasting and
meditation a way to relieve the
sufferings of humankind. Fearing that his
father would try to prevent his
departure, he decided to leave secretly at
night. The king's guards fell into a
deep sleep, and four nature spirits (yakshas)
lifted the Prince's horse
Kanthaka into the air, so that his hooves
would make no noise on the
cobblestoned pavement.
Sakyamuni's Descent from
the Mountain
As an ascetic in the Himalayan Mountains,
the former prince lived an austere
life of self-denial -- fasting, subjecting
his body to strict discipline, meditating
in the lotus position in all weather. Yet
after six years, enlightenment still eluded
him. He came down from the mountains, bathed,
and sat beneath a pipal tree
at Gaya, vowing not to move from that spot
until he attained full enlightenment.
The Assault of Mara's
Host
As Sakyamuni meditated beneath the tree,
a light began to shine from his
forehead over all the earth. Mara, the Evil
One, shuddered: he knew that his
power to mislead humankind was threatened.
Deciding to confront his opponant
directly, Mara sent a host of demons to destroy
him. Some, Mara's daughters,
appeared as beautiful women, bent on distracting
or seducing Sakyamuni. Others
assumed the forms of fierce animals. But
their roars, threats and temptations failed
to move the meditating Sakyamuni, and their
weapons melted away into lotus blossoms.
Siddhartha becomes the
Enlightened One
Finally, at age 35, on the night of a full
moon, Sakyamuni attained enlightenment.
(From this time forward, the pipal tree under
which he sat would be known as
the Bodhi tree, or tree of enlightenment.)
As he was alone with no one to witness
this momentous event, he called the Earth
itself to be his witness by touching the
ground with his right hand in a gesture known
as the Bhumisparsa mudra.
The Buddha's First Sermon
The Enlightened One gave his first public
sermon in the Deer Park at Sarnath,
near Benares, setting in motion the wheel
of the dharma (or spiritual law) as
he expounded the doctrine of the Four
Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.
This first sermon is represented by the dharmachakra
mudra, a two-handed
gesture symbolizing the setting in motion
of a wheel. This mudra is also
used to show the Buddha in his role as a
teacher.
Death of the Buddha
At the age of 80, after 45 years of teaching,
the Buddha entered into a deep
trance and died peacefully in the Sala Grove
in Kushinagara. This event, often
called the (Maha)parinirvana, is depicted
with the Buddha reclining gently on
his right side, often surrounded by sorrowing
attendants and disciples. Sometimes
his body appears already shrouded with muslin,
as his follower Ananda prepares
for his master's funeral.
The Buddha's coffin proved impervious to
ordinary fire, but a divine flame came
from within; it burned for seven days and
reduced Buddha's earthly remains to
ashes. These remains, or sharira, were divided
into into eight parts, and sent
throughout the world. The recipients reverently
enshrined these holy relics in
special mounded shrines called stupas, where
they became the subject of
worshipful reverence, often serving as the
focal points of Buddhist monasteries.
Part of the information
of this page is extracted from
http://www.prenhallart.com/html/feat/feat2a.htm
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