The First Buddha

Buddhism was born out of the first Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama. The word Buddha is used as a title and is defined as the one who is awake or the enlightened one. Gautama lived around 2500 years ago. Gautama was born in the country of Nepal, which is landlocked by a few other countries, including India and China.

Gautama was part of the royal family of a kingdom on the Nepalese-Indian border. He was raised in a rich family and led a privileged life. However, when he realised that life in old age, sickness, and death it ripped him out of the comfortable life he was leading. This led him to think about the meaning of life, as so many philosophers did before him and have done after him. After some time he felt that he had to leave his family's palace and walk the traditional Indian path of the wandering holy man, a seeker for Truth. He learned meditation under various teachers. Afterwards, he also took up ascetic practices. Ascetic means that he took on a life of strict self-discipline and abstention from forms of indulgence. He practiced his self-discipline to such a degree that he almost starved himself to death.

Yet all of this did not help him solve the question of what the meaning of life is. He felt that path of the wandering holy man was not enough to solve the question, and thus he abandoned this way and he decided looked into his own heart and mind. He chose to trust his intuition and learn from the experience he had in daily life. It was said that he sat down under a pipal tree and swore to stay there until he had gained Enlightenment. After 40 days of meditation, Gautama finally attained enlightenment, and thus became the first Buddha.

I will be posting on the basic of Buddhism next! So, if you want to learn something about Buddhism keep your eye out for me!