Prince Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, was born and raised with every possible advantage. He was born around 563 BCE near or around present day Nepal near the India Border. Unfortunately, his mother, Maya died seven days after his birth. Her sister, Prajapati, became his step mother. His father, King Suddhodana made every possible effort to keep his son shielded from the unpleasant world even knowing about death. His father made great efforts to hide the suffering from his son, even going as far as building another city to remove the poverty, sick and dying. Not seeing the real world, Gautama was married to Yaśodhara, daughter of King Suppabuddha. and had a son. Despite his father’s efforts to shield his son from the woes of the world, Gautama, did sneak away to explore. For the first time he saw a sick person, and old person and a corpse. He met a samara, an ancient Hindu ascetic who, despite of all the poverty and ills of the world, was serene and happy.
Gautama, after seeing the real world, knew there was more to life and wanted to seek the spiritual truth. He had to become a samara, a life of severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence. He left against his family wishes.
His first order of business was finding a teacher. He began his studies under Alara, a famed yogi who taught him the meditative consciousness called the, “sphere beyond materiality”. He then went to Uddaka Ramaputta, who taught him how to reach the sphere of” Gautama realized neither of these were the highest attainments of spirituality. He added extreme asceticism to his practice by fasting and not bathing. He realized that drastic measures were going to kill him, so he renounced the life of pain as he did pleasure.
At a loss, Gautama rested under a tree. He thought, as a child attending to his breath made him more acutely aware of his surroundings and dispelled any feelings of boredom or unrest. The path tomight lie in the form of contemplation or meditation, so he tried this technique again. The accounts of what happened next are sparse. Later legends describe the onslaught of temptation and torment from the , designed to sway him from his goal. Gautama did not sway and as confidence bolsters, his mind expanded as he gained deeper insights into the human condition. Just as the morning star appeared in the sky before dawn, he became aware of the fact that he had finally discovered the ultimate truth. From that point on he was known as the Buddha.
Buddha’s wife and son later join him as disciples.
Buddha teaching is still cherish today. But like all things, man has incorporated personal teachings so finding Buddha core teachings is a difficult task. Scott Mandelker PhD provides his views-Action-Path in Buddha-Dhamma in this extended analysis series of Buddhist teaching on 10 Wrong Views, human rebirth & cosmology, 3 Marks, karmic results and path to Sotapanna awakening. Comparisons with Ra Material & Western philosophy (Materialism, Nihilism).