Traditional biographies
Primary biographical sources
The primary sources for 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.
[14]Of these, the
Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet
Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE.
[14] The
Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a
Mahāyāna/
Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE.
[15] The
Mahāvastu from the
MahāsāṃghikaLokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE.
[15]The
Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the
Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. Lastly, the
Nidānakathā is from the
Theravāda tradition in
Sri Lanka, composed in the 5th century CE by
Buddhaghoṣa.
[16]
From canonical sources, the
Jātaka tales,
Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the
Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) 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.
[17]The
Mahāpadāna Sutta and
Acchariyaabbhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from
Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.
Nature of traditional depictions
Queen Māyā miraculously giving birth to Prince Siddhārtha; Sanskrit manuscript;
Nālandā;
Bihar, India;
Pāla period
Traditional biographies of Gautama generally 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".
[18] Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a
secularunderstanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.
Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:
[19]
It is important to stress that, despite modern
Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a
mahāpuruṣa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a
god; and in the
Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an
aeon were he asked to do so.
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.
[20][full citation needed] 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.
[21][dubious – discuss] 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.
[22][unreliable source?]
Biography
Conception and birth
According to the most traditional biography, Buddha was born in a royal
Hindu family
[23] to King
Śuddhodana, the leader of
Shakya clan, 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. His mother,
Queen Maha Maya (Māyādevī) and Suddhodana's wife, was a
Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a
white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side,
[web 5] and ten
months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu 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 day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in
Theravadacountries as
Vesak.
[24] Buddha's birth anniversary holiday is called "Buddha
Poornima" in India as Buddha is believed to have been born on a full moon day. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit
seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (
chakravartin) or a great
holy man.
[25] By traditional account,
[which?] this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight
brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man.
[25] Kaundinya (Pali: Kondañña), the youngest, and later to be the first
arahant other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a
Buddha.
[26]
While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a
hereditary monarch, the
descendant of the Solar Dynasty of
Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars think that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.
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.
[27] At the time, many small
city-states existed in
Ancient India, called
Janapadas.
Republics and chiefdoms with diffused
political power and limited
social stratification, were not uncommon amongst them, and were referred to as
gana-sanghas.
[28] The Buddha's community does not seem to have had a
caste system. It was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an
oligarchy, or as a form of republic.
[29] The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the
Shramana-type
Jain and Buddhist
sanghas, where monarchies tended toward
Vedic Brahmanism.
[30]
Early life and marriage
Departure of Prince Siddhartha
Siddhartha was born in a royal
Hindu family.
[23] He was brought up by his mother's younger sister,
Maha Pajapati.
[31] By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human
suffering.
When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named
Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā). According to the traditional account,
[which?] she gave birth to a son, named
Rāhula. Siddhartha is then said to have spent 29 years as a prince in
Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.
[31]
Departure and ascetic life
The "Great Departure" of Siddhartha Gautama, surrounded by a halo, he is accompanied by numerous guards,
maithunaloving couples, and
devata who have come to pay homage;
Gandhara art,
Kushan period (1st-3rd century CE)
Prince Siddhartha shaves his hair and becomes an ascetic,
Borobudur, 8th century
At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer
Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a
diseased man, a decaying
corpse, and an
ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome ageing, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.
[32]
Accompanied by Channa and aboard his horse
Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a
mendicant. It's said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods"
[33] to prevent guards from knowing of his departure.
Gautama initially went to
Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimisara offered Siddhartha the throne. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of
Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.
He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers. After mastering the teachings of
Alara Kalama (Skr. Ārāḍa Kālāma), he was asked by Kalama to succeed him. However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practise, and moved on to become a student of
Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Rāmaputra). With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.
[34]
Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by
Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising
self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's plowing. He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the
jhāna.
Awakening
The Buddha sitting in meditation, surrounded by demons of
Māra; Sanskrit manuscript; Nālandā, Bihar, India; Pāla period
According to the early Buddhist texts,
[web 6] after realizing that meditative jhana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the
Middle Way[web 6]—a path of moderation away from the extremes of
self-indulgence and self-mortification.
[web 6] In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and
rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata.
[web 7] Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish.
[web 7]
Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a
pipaltree—now known as the
Bodhi tree—in
Bodh Gaya,
India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth.
[35] Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained
Enlightenment.
[35][36] According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the
Buddha or "Awakened One" ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One").
According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became known as the "
Four Noble Truths",
[36] which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or
Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states,
[36] or "defilements" (kilesas). Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a state, a being is said to possess the
Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha.
According to a story in the
Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) — a scripture found in the
Pāli and other
canons — immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or not he should teach the
Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, in the story,
Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.
Formation of the sangha
Dhâmek Stûpa in Sârnâth, India, site of the first teaching of the Buddha in which he taught the Four Noble Truths to his first five disciples
After his awakening, the Buddha met two merchants, named
Tapussa and
Bhallika, who became his first lay disciples. They were apparently each given hairs from his head, which are now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the
Shwe Dagon Temple in
Rangoon,
Burma. The Buddha intended to visit
Asita, and his former teachers,
Alara Kalama and
Udaka Ramaputta, to explain his findings, but they had already died.
He then travelled to the
Deer Park near
Vārāṇasī(Benares) in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the
Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first
saṅgha: the company of Buddhist monks.
All five become
arahants, and within the first two months, with the conversion of
Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of such arahants is said to have grown to 60. The conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, with their reputed 200, 300 and 500 disciples, respectively. This swelled the sangha to more than 1,000.
Travels and teaching
Buddha with his protector
Vajrapani,
Gandhāra, 2nd century CE, Ostasiatische Kunst Museum
For the remaining 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
outcaste street sweepers, murderers such as
Angulimala, and cannibals such as
Alavaka. From the outset, Buddhism was equally open to all races and classes, and had no
castestructure, as was the rule for most Hindus in the-then society. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which
Pali may be a standardization.
The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the
vassanarainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. 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. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to
Rajagaha, capital of
Magadha, to visit King
Bimbisara. During this visit,
Sariputta and
Maudgalyayana were converted by
Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.
Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to
Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by
Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.
Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:
"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms"
The Buddha is said to have replied:
"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms"
Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a
sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the
sangha. The Buddha's cousins
Ananda and
Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son
Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother
Nanda also joined and became an arahant.
In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near
Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the dharma, after which his father became an arahant.
The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother
Maha Pajapati, for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional rules (
Vinaya) to follow.
Assassination attempts
According to colorful legends, even during the Buddha's life the sangha was not free of dissent and discord. For example,
Devadatta, a cousin of Gautama who became a monk but not an arahant, more than once tried to kill him.
Initially, Devadatta is alleged to have often tried to undermine the Buddha. In one instance, according to stories, Devadatta even asked the Buddha to stand aside and let him lead the sangha. When this failed, he is accused of having three times tried to kill his teacher. The first attempt is said to have involved him hiring a group of archers to shoot the awakened one. But, upon meeting the Buddha, they laid down their bows and instead became followers. A second attempt is said to have involved Devadatta rolling a boulder down a hill. But this hit another rock and splintered, only grazing the Buddha's foot. In the third attempt, Devadatta is said to have got an elephant drunk and set it loose. This ruse also failed.
After his lack of success at homicide, Devadatta is said to have tried to create a
schism in the sangha, by proposing extra restrictions on the
vinaya. When the Buddha again prevailed, Devadatta started a breakaway order. At first, he managed to convert some of the bhikkhus, but Sariputta and Maudgalyayana are said to have expounded the dharma so effectively that they were won back.
Mahaparinirvana
The Buddha's entry into
Parinirvana. Sanskrit manuscript; Nālandā, Bihar, India; Pāla period
The sharing of the relics of the Buddha, Zenyōmitsu-Temple Museum, Tokyo
According to the
Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his earthly body. After this, 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
Ānandato convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha.
[web 8] Mettanando and von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of
mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning.
[37][note 9]
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.
Ananda protested the Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of
Kuśināra (present-day Kushinagar,
India) of the
Malla kingdom. Buddha, however, is said to have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:
44. Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds—the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of "Eat, drink, and be merry!"
The Buddha then asked all the attendant
Bhikkhus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scriptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All composite things pass away. Strive for your own liberation with diligence." His body was cremated and the
relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, The
Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in
Sri Lanka is the place where what some believe to be the
relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.
According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the
Dīpavaṃsa and
Mahāvaṃsa, the coronation of
Emperor Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of Buddha. According to two textual records in Chinese (
十八部論 and
部執異論), the coronation of Emperor Aśoka is 116 years after the death of Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is 544 or 543 BCE, because the reign of Emperor Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates.
While in Buddha's days he was addressed by the very respected titles Buddha, Shākyamuni, Bhante and Bho, he was known after his parinirvana as Arihant, Bhagavat, Bhagwān, Jina or Jinendra, Sāstr, Sugata, and most popularly in scriptures as Tathāgata.
[citation needed]
Physical characteristics
Gandhāran depiction of the Buddha from Hadda, Central Asia; Victoria and Albert Museum,
London
An extensive and colorful physical description of the Buddha has been laid down in scriptures. A
kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".
The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive."(D,I:115).
"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A,I:181)
A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an arahant, was so obsessed by Buddha's physical presence that the Buddha is said to have felt impelled to tell him to desist, and to have reminded him that he should know the Buddha through the Dhamma and not through physical appearances.
Although there are no extant representations of the Buddha in human form until around the 1st century CE (see
Buddhist art), descriptions of the physical characteristics of fully enlightened buddhas are attributed to the Buddha in the
Digha Nikaya's
Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D,I:142).
[38] In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by
Yasodhara to their son
Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn,
Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").
[web 10]
Among the 32 main characteristics it is mentioned that Buddha has
blue eyes.
[39]
Teachings
Reclining Buddha in Jade Temple,
Shanghai
Some scholars believe that some portions of the
Pali Canon and the
Āgamas contain the actual substance of the historical teachings (and possibly even the words) of the Buddha.
[40][41] Some scholars believe the Pali Canon and the Agamas pre-date the
Mahāyāna sūtras.
[42] The scriptural works of
Early Buddhism precede the Mahayana works chronologically, and are treated by many Western scholars as the main credible source for information regarding the actual historical teachings of Gautama Buddha. However, some scholars do not think that the texts report on historical events.
[43][dubious – discuss][44][45]
Hajime Nakamura writes that there is nothing in the traditional Buddhist texts that can be clearly attributed to Gautama as a historical figure:
[46]
[I]n the Buddhist texts there is no word that can be traced with unquestionable authority to Gautama Śākyamuni as a historical personage, although there must be some sayings or phrases derived from him.
Some of the fundamentals of the teachings attributed to Gautama Buddha are:
- The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and annihilation; that suffering can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this;
- The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration;
- Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process;
- Rejection of the infallibility of accepted scripture: Teachings should not be accepted unless they are borne out by our experience and are praised by the wise. See the Kalama Sutta for details;
- Anicca (Sanskrit: anitya): That all things that come to be 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";
- Nibbāna (Sanskrit: Nirvāna): It is possible for sentient beings to realize a dimension of awareness which is totally unconstructed and peaceful, and end all suffering due to the mind's interaction with the conditioned world.
However, in some Mahayana schools, these points have come to be regarded as more or less subsidiary. There is disagreement amongst various
schools of Buddhism over more complex aspects of what the Buddha is believed to have taught, and also over some of the
disciplinary rules for monks.
According to tradition, the Buddha emphasized ethics and correct understanding. He questioned everyday notions of divinity and salvation. He stated that there is no intermediary between mankind and the
divine; distant gods are subjected to
karma themselves in decaying heavens; and the Buddha is only a guide and teacher for beings who must tread the path of
Nirvāṇa (
Pāli: Nibbāna) themselves to attain the spiritual awakening called
bodhi and understand reality. The Buddhist system of insight and
meditation practice is not claimed to have been divinely revealed, but to spring from an understanding of the true nature of the mind, which must be discovered by treading the path guided by the Buddha's teachings.
Other religions
The Christian Saint Josaphat is based on the life of the Buddha. The name comes from the Sanskrit Bodhisatva via Arabic Būdhasaf and GeorgianIodasaph.[52] The only story in which St. Josaphat appears, Barlaam and Josaphat, is based on the life of the Buddha.[53] Josaphat was included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast day 27 November) — though not in the Roman Missal — and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August).
