Unit 5 · The Buddha's Life as the Texts Tell It

Buddhist life stories begin with a dream. Queen Maya, wife of King Suddhodana, dreamed that a white elephant came to her. It carried a white lotus flower. Wise men said she would have a great son.

The king and queen ruled the Sakya people. Their city was Kapilavastu, near today’s border of India and Nepal. The family name was Gotama. That is why Buddhists also call the Buddha "Gotama" or "Gautama."

In many parts of Asia, a white elephant is a sign of honor and good luck. Temple paintings often show Maya’s dream. It is one of the first scenes in many picture stories of the Buddha’s life.

The stories say Queen Maya was traveling to her parents’ home to give birth. She stopped in a garden called Lumbini. There, holding the branch of a tree, she gave birth to a son.

Later stories add wonders. They say the baby took seven steps, and lotus flowers bloomed under his feet. Buddhists in many lands celebrate his birthday. Many pour sweet tea or water over a small statue of the baby Buddha.

Lumbini is in Nepal today. In about 249 BCE, King Ashoka set up a stone pillar there. Its writing says the Buddha was born at that place. Pilgrims still visit the garden.

Many details you know come from later books. The oldest suttas mostly record the Buddha’s teachings. They mention his early life only in short bits. For example, one sutta has him recall a calm moment as a boy under a rose-apple tree.

Full life stories came later. The Buddhacarita, "Acts of the Buddha," is a long Sanskrit poem. Tradition names its author Ashvaghosha. Scholars date it to about the 1st or 2nd century CE. The Pali commentary on the Jatakas also tells the whole story.

Scholars compare these texts to see how the story grew. Buddhists read them as honored accounts of the Buddha’s life. Both kinds of readers find meaning in the details.

The life stories say King Suddhodana kept his son in comfort. A wise man had predicted the boy would become a great king or a great teacher. The king wanted a king. So he kept sad sights away.

On trips outside the palace, the prince saw four things. He saw an old man, a sick man and a dead body. Then he saw a calm wandering holy man. Buddhists call these the Four Sights.

An older sutta tells this same story, but about an earlier Buddha named Vipassi (Digha Nikaya 14). Later biographies tell it about Siddhartha. Buddhists read the Four Sights as showing the problems every person faces.

Siddhartha was 29, the stories say. He had a wife, Yasodhara, and a baby son, Rahula. One night he left with his driver Channa and his horse Kanthaka. Buddhists call this the Great Going Forth.

An older sutta tells it more simply. In Majjhima Nikaya 26, the Buddha says he shaved his head and put on a robe while his parents wept. There is no secret midnight ride in that telling.

Buddhists honor the going forth as a great sacrifice. Some readers today also think about Yasodhara, left behind. Later texts tell that she and Rahula both joined the Buddha’s community of followers.

The suttas say Siddhartha first studied with two teachers of meditation. They were Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta. He learned all they taught. But he felt it did not end suffering.

Next he joined five other ascetics. For about six years he tried hard practices. He fasted until, one sutta says, he could feel his backbone through his stomach. Statues from Gandhara show him very thin.

At last he decided hard fasting did not lead to wisdom. He ate food again, and the stories say Sujata offered him rice cooked in milk. The five companions thought he had given up. They left him.

Siddhartha had lived in two ways. In the palace he had every comfort. As an ascetic he had almost nothing. The texts say neither one brought the answer he wanted.

Buddhists call the path between them the middle way. It is not a lazy path. It asks for steady effort, like tuning a string not too tight and not too loose.

The Buddha later began his first sermon by naming two extremes to avoid. One is chasing pleasure. The other is harming yourself. Between them, he said, is the middle way.

Siddhartha sat beneath a fig tree near the town now called Bodh Gaya. The stories say he vowed not to rise until he understood. A tempter named Mara sent fear and desire to stop him.

Many images show him touching the earth with his right hand. The stories say he called the earth to witness his many good lives. Mara’s armies fled. Buddhists believe that, that night, he reached awakening.

From then on he was the Buddha, "the awakened one." The tree became the Bodhi tree. Many scholars place these events in the 5th century BCE, but dates vary.

After his awakening, the Buddha wondered if anyone could understand what he had found. The texts say he decided to teach. He walked to a Deer Park near Varanasi, a place now called Sarnath.

There he met the five ascetics who had left him. They agreed to listen. The Buddha taught them the middle way and the Four Noble Truths. This talk is Samyutta Nikaya 56.11.

Buddhists call it "Setting the Wheel of the Dharma in Motion." The texts say one listener, Kondanna, understood right away. He became the first follower to see the truth for himself.

With the first followers, Buddhists say, the Three Jewels were complete. The first is the Buddha, the teacher. The second is the Dharma, his teaching. The third is the Sangha, the community.

Buddhists around the world recite words of "taking refuge" in these three. Refuge means a safe place. In Pali they say, "Buddham saranam gacchami," I go to the Buddha for refuge. Then they name the Dharma and the Sangha.

Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhists all honor the Three Jewels. The words and chants sound different in each land. The three jewels themselves are shared.

The Sangha grew quickly, the texts say. Two friends, Sariputta and Moggallana, joined together. The suttas praise Sariputta for wisdom. They praise Moggallana for special powers of mind.

Ananda, the Buddha’s cousin, became his helper for about 25 years. Upali, once a barber, became the expert on the rules. People from many backgrounds joined. The Buddha accepted people of any caste, the texts say.

In Buddhist temples today, statues of Sariputta and Moggallana often stand on either side of the Buddha. Buddhists honor them as model students. Visitors often see them there.

Mahapajapati Gotami was Queen Maya’s sister. She raised Siddhartha after his mother died. The Vinaya says she asked the Buddha to let women become nuns. At first he said no.

She and many women shaved their heads and put on robes anyway. They walked a long way to find him. Ananda spoke for them. The Vinaya says the Buddha then agreed, with eight extra rules for nuns.

Buddhists read this story in different ways today. Some see the extra rules as fitting their time. Others argue for equal treatment. In some Theravada lands, full ordination for nuns has been restored only recently, and debate continues.

Tradition says the Buddha taught for about 45 years. He walked from town to town in northern India. He spoke with kings, farmers, merchants and outcasts.

During the rainy season, he and the monks stayed in one place. Kind supporters gave them parks to live in. One famous park, Jetavana, was given by a merchant named Anathapindika. Many suttas were taught there.

He taught in ways that fit each listener. Sometimes he used stories. Sometimes he asked questions. The story of Kisa Gotami shows him teaching through something a person could do and see.

The story of Kisa Gotami is told in the commentaries on the Dhammapada and on the Therigatha. The Therigatha is a book of verses by early Buddhist nuns. Kisa Gotami’s own verses are in it.

In the story, the Buddha does not scold her. He sends her on a search. Along the way, many families share their own losses. Buddhists say she learned that no one is alone in grief.

Teachers often tell this story when talking about loss. Buddhists see it as showing the Buddha’s kindness. Hospice workers and grief groups sometimes share it too.

Digha Nikaya 16 tells of the Buddha’s last journey. It is called the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, the Great Discourse on the Final Nirvana. The Buddha was 80 years old and ill.

He lay down between two sala trees near Kushinagar. He asked the monks if they had any last questions. None did. Then he gave his final words. Buddhists call his death the parinibbana, the final passing.

Statues of the reclining Buddha show this scene. He lies on his right side, calm, head resting on his hand. Buddhists in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Myanmar have built very large reclining images.

In Digha Nikaya 16, the Buddha names four places worth visiting. They are where he was born, where he awakened, where he first taught and where he died. These are Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar.

Buddhist pilgrims have visited these places for more than 2,000 years. King Ashoka set up pillars at some of them. Chinese pilgrims like Xuanzang wrote about them in the 600s CE.

Today Buddhists from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Japan, Tibet and America visit them. Many walk around the sites quietly, offer flowers and light lamps. Some come as families.