Ideas and philosophy of Buddhism. The Great Destiny of Shakyamuni Buddha

Greetings, dear readers.

From this article you will learn about an extraordinary man - Siddhartha Gautama, who was able to enter a state of spiritual enlightenment. Here is information about how the activities of a mere mortal, albeit of royal blood, led him to a truth incomprehensible to others.

It is generally accepted that the Buddha was in our world from approximately 563 to 483 BC. Spiritual leader who noticeable influence on human civilization, was born in a small country. His homeland was located in the Himalayan foothills. Now this is the territory of southern Nepal.

early years

The boy received the name Siddhartha and bore the surname Gautama. According to one version, his father was an influential monarch. There is also an assumption that the parent of the future Enlightened One headed the council of elders.

The ancient texts, which briefly describe the life story of the Buddha, speak of various miracles. Unusual Events, which accompanied the birth of a child, attracted the attention of one of the sages. The respected man examined the newborn, saw signs of future greatness on his body and bowed to the boy.

The guy grew up in very comfortable conditions. This is not surprising, since we were talking about a prince. His father gave him the opportunity to live alternately in three palaces, each of which was built for a specific season. The young man invited his friends there and enjoyed life in their company.

When Siddharth turned 16 years old, he married his cousin. With a magnificent one he lived in. Researchers believe that then the prince comprehended the art of war and learned to govern the state.

Thoughts on liberation and ways to realize desires

Over time, the future Teacher began to think about the meaning of existence. In the process of thinking about the problems that people Everyday life They don’t pay attention, he began to withdraw into himself. It got to the point that he renounced social life, and his mother had to experience incredible suffering because of this.

In front of his shocked parents and wife, the young man cut his hair and beard, put on yellow clothes and left the palace. Moreover, this happened on the day his son was born.

In search of illumination by lordship, the future Buddha set out on a journey. His path lay in Magadha, located in northern India. There lived the same seekers of the meaning of life, like himself. The prince managed to find two outstanding gurus there - Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta.

The masters gave him lessons, and soon their ward was very successful in this matter. However, he did not stop there, because he was not closer to his main goal. The road to absolute enlightenment, liberation from all suffering and sensory existence has not yet ended.

Considering that he had taken everything he could from the teachers, the student parted with them. He decided to lead an ascetic life and adhered to extremely strict rules for six years: he ate very little, was exposed to the scorching sun during the day, and stood the test of cold at night.

In this way (the person seeking enlightenment) tried to achieve perfect liberation. His body was like a skeleton, and he was actually on the verge of death. Finally, the martyr realized that enlightenment could not be achieved through self-torture, and went to his goal in a different way - he threw aside asceticism and plunged headlong into the process of constant contemplation and deep study.

Making a wish come true

There was no longer talk of self-destruction; it was necessary to find a “middle path.” During the search new road the mentor lost five companions who believed in him. After their teacher began to eat again, they became disappointed and left him.

Left alone, the Bodhisattva was able to go towards his goal without being distracted by anything. He managed to find a secluded area on the banks of the Neranjara River, which seemed an ideal place to immerse himself in thoughts.

There grew a sacred Ashwattha tree (a type of Indian fig tree), under which there was a place for a straw mattress. Thirsting for enlightenment, Siddhartha sat on it, cross-legged, and before that he made a vow to himself to remain there until the bitter end.

The day passed, the evening ended, the night began. The Bodhisattva remained motionless, in a state of continuous meditation. At the very height of the night, he began to experience extraordinary visions, in particular, the processes of people leaving for another world and being reborn in a different capacity.

By the end of the darkness, he fully realized the truth of existence, thereby turning into a Buddha. He met the dawn as a self-awakened one who had achieved immortality in this life.

Buddha was in no hurry to leave the wonderful place, because he needed some time to realize the result. Several weeks passed before he decided to leave there. He faced a difficult choice:

• continue to remain alone, enjoying the long-awaited feeling of liberation;

Of course, many people hear the words Buddhism and Buddhists. Everyone knows that these terms denote one of the world's religions and its immediate adherents, but few people know about the person who founded it. Who was he. And how he became a cult personality.

• Siddhartha
• Gautama
• Shakyamuni
• Tatha gata
• Gina
• Bhagavan

These are all names of the same person, better known as Buddha. All these names express either belonging to a worldly status and family, or to religious-mythological life. Let's try to figure out what all these numerous names mean:

• Siddhartha is a name given after birth.
• Gautama is a name symbolizing belonging to the clan.
• Shakyamuni - “a sage from the tribe is like this.”
• Buddha – “enlightened one”.
• Tatha-gata - “thus coming and thus going”
• Gina - "winner"
• Bhagavan means “triumphant”.

On this moment There is evidence of five versions of biographies of Buddha:

1. Mahavastu, written in the 2nd century AD.
2. “Lalitavistara”, created in the 2nd-3rd centuries AD.
3. "Buddhacarita", expounded by the poet Ashvaghosha around I-II centuries AD
4. "Nidanakatha", which appeared due to the work of unidentified authors sometime in the 1st century AD.
5. Abhinishkramanasutra, which came out from the pen of the Buddhist scholastic Dharmagupta relatively recently, in the early Middle Ages.

When was Buddha born

To this day, there is debate among historians regarding the date of Siddhartha's life. Some refer to the official Buddhist calendar and indicate the dates 623-544 BC. Others adhere to a different dating, according to which Buddha was born in 564 BC and died in 483 BC.

Inaccuracies and discrepancies can be traced not only in the dates of life and death, but also in the biography itself. Who is Buddha? In the descriptions of his life, real and mythological events are so closely intertwined that it becomes almost impossible to separate them from each other, so it is very difficult to judge where the truth is and where the fiction is.

Brief biography of Buddha

Still, let's try to understand at least a little about where this came from. mysterious person. He was born in the town of Lumbini near the city of Kapilavastu, located in the northeastern part of India, in the family of Shuddhodana, the king of the Shakya tribe, who lived in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. in the northern regions of the Ganges valley in India, and an heir, a prince, is born to Queen Maya. Moreover, as strange as it may sound, this is exactly what is written in the legend: he was born from his mother’s right side.

Apparently because of this unconventional way After birth, the gods paid attention to the baby and performed a ritual of worship before him. Being just a born baby, Buddha was able to speak and made a small speech addressed to the gods who came to him. His short speech talked about why he came into this world. And he came in order to become the ruler of the world who will put an end to death and old age, as well as the prenatal pangs of mothers.

The prince's parents, being very rich people, did everything so that the prince would not need anything. When Gautama grew up, he was assigned the best teacher, but he soon declared that his student had succeeded in all sciences and knew much more than his teacher.

Seeing Siddhartha's extraordinary intelligence and wisdom, the king's relatives advise him to marry their son so that he does not go traveling and leave the throne. The search for a worthy bride begins, and the girl Gopa from the Shakya clan, who considers herself an ideal candidate and possesses all the necessary virtues, acts as a volunteer.

The girl’s father is very afraid that the spoiled prince will not be able to become a worthy husband for his daughter, and organizes competitions for the right to own his daughter. Buddha easily wins a weight-lifting competition by lifting a dead elephant with one finger and throwing it far outside the city. He also emerges victorious in competitions in writing, arithmetic and archery.

Subsequently, Buddha marries Gopa and they have a son. They live happily surrounded by a harem of 84 thousand girls in the palace. But one day he learns about the existence of illness, old age and death on earth and immediately leaves the palace and goes in search of a way to save humanity from suffering.

It was not easy to find a saving way for humanity. to the prince during his long journey I had to understand and experience a lot of things different adventures. But in the end, he found the answer to the question that interested him and began to promote this knowledge to the masses. Buddha created the first monastic community (sangha). And together with his disciples, he wandered through populous settlements and remote corners of India for 40 years, preaching his teachings.

Buddha died in a place called Kushinagara at the age of 80. His body was traditionally cremated, and his ashes were distributed to eight of his followers, six of whom were envoys of the monastic communities. Everyone who received part of the ashes buried it and built a funerary pyramid (stupa) on this site.

There is another legend that says that one of Buddha’s students was able to snatch the teacher’s tooth right from the flames of the funeral pyre. Over time, the tooth became a relic that was worshiped, cherished and transported from country to country during the war for safety reasons. In the end, the tooth found its way permanent place stay in Sri Lanka in the city of Kandy, where the Temple of the Tooth Relic was erected in his honor and temple celebrations have been held annually since the 5th century AD.

Rebirths of Buddha

Well, with the fact that we have sorted out what is more or less real in the biography of the Buddha, we can move on to the more interesting - the mythical component and find out who is Buddha? According to followers of the Buddha, he was reborn 550 times in the form of different beings:

• 83 he was a saint
• 58 times king
• 24 times a monk
• 18 times a monkey
• 13 times a merchant
• 12 times chicken
• 8 times goose
• 6 times an elephant

And there was also:

• Fish
• Rat
• Carpenter
• Blacksmith
• frog
• Hare, etc.

All these rebirths took place over many kalpas, where 1 kalpa is a period of time equal to 24,000 “divine” years or 8,640,000,000 human years.

It’s no wonder that during such a period of time on earth, having been reborn as a prince, Buddha surpassed any teachers in his knowledge. It is surprising why, for so many years, Buddha had never heard of the need of those living in this world and did not find a way to help.

Enlightenment and reincarnation of Buddha

One way or another, the meeting with the monk tells the prince the path he should take. However, discovering the truth required some more thought.

According to legend, Siddhartha sits under a tree and plunges into a state of contemplation for 49 days until he finally achieves enlightenment.

After the Buddha died, all his followers are waiting for his next rebirth on earth in the form of a man, and perhaps this event has already happened.

In 2008, hundreds of pilgrims visited the forests of Nepal to see with their own eyes the 17-year-old youth Rama Bahadur Banjana, unofficially announced back in 2005 as the next reincarnation of Buddha.

Still, not all Buddhists believe that this young man is exactly who he says he is. In 2008, he announced that he was going to retire from everyone for three years for contemplation and meditation, but a few months later it became clear that there was no talk of any solitude.

A rumor spread across Nepal that Ram was giving 45-minute sermons near the capital Kathmandu. Many ladles immediately flooded the capital’s airport, rushing to listen to what the mission was preaching. It turned out that during the sermons, considerable donations are collected from those who come, supposedly for the construction of the temple.

The Nepalese authorities have not yet taken any action, but they do not rule out that Ram Bahadur Banjan is an impostor and a fraudster. Sermons are still being preached today, but the temple has not been built. Where the money goes remains a mystery.

Gautama Buddha, or Śākyamuni Buddha, who was given the name Siddhārtha Gautama at birth, meaning "descendant of Gotama, successful in achieving goals", later became known simply as Buddha or Supreme Buddha (Sammāsambuddha).

Siddhartha Gautama is a key figure in Buddhism, whose life, wise sayings, conversations with his followers and monastic covenants became the basis of the complete set of sacred texts of Buddhism, the Tripitaka. In addition, the Buddha is a hero of numerous dharmic religions, including late Bon and Hinduism, and a character included in the avataras of Vishnu instead of Balarāma, one of the forms of God in Hinduism.

Gautama Buddha was born around 563 BC. e. or 623 BC BC, however, there is so little reliable information about his life that traditionally his biography is based on a number of Buddhist texts, including the Lalitavistara Sūtra. But even the first texts associated with the name of the Buddha appeared 400 years after his death and went through hyperbole approved by the monks.

Buddha Shakyamuni began his path to enlightenment many hundreds of lives before leaving the painful “wheel of alternating lives and deaths”, with the meeting of the learned Brahmin Sumedha with the Buddha Dipankara. Struck by the serenity of the Buddha, Sumedha wanted a similar state, and after his death the strength of this desire influenced his subsequent incarnations in human and animal bodies, and Sumedha himself began to be called “Bodhisattva”. Living through the cycle and improving, the bodhisattva appeared among the gods for the penultimate time, where he had the opportunity to choose a place for his final birth on earth. And he chose the family of the Shakya king, so that people would show greater respect and trust in the upcoming sermons of the Buddha.

Traditional biography states that Raja Suddhodana, most likely a member of the ruling Kshatriya assembly, was the father of the Buddha and the mother of Queen Maha Maya, a princess from the Koliya kingdom. On the night of the conception of the future founder of Buddhism, Maha saw in a dream an elephant with six white tusks, which entered her right side.

Paying tribute to the Shakya tradition, Maha Maya came to her parents' house, where the birth was supposed to take place, but the child was born earlier - along the road, under the Ashoka tree, in the Lumbini grove. The newborn immediately rose to his feet, declaring that he was a being superior to gods and men. Almost all sources claim that Maha Maya died a few days after the birth of her miracle son. The hermit-seer Asita counted 32 signs of greatness on the baby's body and blessed him, promising that the boy would become a chakravartin or great saint. On the child’s fifth birthday, they named him Siddhartha (“the one who achieved his goal”), eight brahmins were invited, and with their help, his dual future was confirmed.

Siddhartha was raised by Maha Pajapati, the sister of Maha Maya, while his father did his best to protect his son from religious teachings and knowledge of the frailty of existence. The boy lived in three palaces, outperformed his peers, both physically and mental development, and had a penchant for reflection. At the age of 16, he married his cousin, Princess Yaśodharā, who a few years later bore him a son, Rahula. For many years, Siddhartha was the prince of Kapilavastu, but inside himself he felt that material wealth was by no means the final goal of his existence.

When Siddhartha celebrated his 29th birthday, he and his charioteer Channa managed to go outside the palace, where the serene prince saw “four spectacles.” He realized all the realities of harsh life when he came across a beggar, a sick man, a hermit and a stinking corpse, and realized: the only way to comprehend all human suffering is the path of self-knowledge. After this, Siddhartha secretly left home, family and his wealth in order to find ways to get rid of suffering through long wanderings.

Dressed as a commoner, Siddhartha became an ascetic, begged alms, studied yogic meditation, mastered the teachings of Alara Kalama and became a disciple of Udaka Ramaputta. Having reached the highest level of meditative concentration, Siddhartha, along with five companions, found himself in southeastern India, where he practiced severe asceticism and mortification, but after six years - on the threshold of life and death - he came to the conclusion that asceticism does not provide greater understanding, but only clouds the mind and exhausts the body.

For 45 years he wandered through the valley of the Ganges River, imparting knowledge and performing miracles without partiality. However, not everyone responded joyfully to his message, and opposition religious groups repeatedly tried to kill the Buddha.

At the age of 80, Gautama Buddha declared that very soon he would reach the final stage of immortality, Parinirvana, and get rid of his earthly body. Legend has it that before his death, the Buddha told his disciples: “Strive for your own liberation with special zeal.” After a special cremation, his relics were divided into eight parts and placed at the base of the stupas. The site of Dalada Maligawa in Sri Lanka is believed to house a sacred relic, the Tooth of Buddha.

Interpretations of the Buddha's life story abound. And, if early Western science readily accepted the biography of a spiritual teacher from ancient india, then today scientists are in no hurry to share unconfirmed information about historical facts, one way or another connected with Buddha.

Name: Siddhartha Gautama

Years of life: around 623 to 543 BC

State: India

Field of activity: Religion

Greatest Achievement: Creation of a new world religion named after him - Buddhism

The name of Buddha is familiar to everyone. Just like the name of Jesus Christ or the prophet Muhammad. Of course, for followers of Buddhism it has sacred meaning. For others, he is interesting as a historical character with amazing fate. Which we will tell you about.

Biography

Future Buddha was born an ordinary child. Or rather, not quite ordinary - in royal family. His father was a rajah (prince) of the Shakyas, a tribe living in the Himalayas. The mother also belonged to the royal family - her name was Mahamaya. Sources have survived that claim that the mother knew about the birth of a special child - she dreamed prophetic dreams. One day, on the eve of conception, the princess had a dream that a large white elephant with six tusks entered her. Even then, the parents understood that their future baby had a great future ahead of them, but they did not know to what extent.

Finally, the rajah's wife became pregnant. At the end of the wait, the princess went to give birth to her parents' house. But she didn’t get there. It all happened in the Lumbini grove (now the territory of Nepal, 20 km from the border with India) under the canopy of an Ashoka tree. This significant event occurred approximately 623 BC – the exact date It is very difficult, almost impossible, to establish the life of a future spiritual teacher.

The mother left this world a few days after giving birth. The father invited a hermit to bless the baby, who, taking just one look at the baby, said that the boy would become either a great king or a Buddha (contrary to popular belief, the term Buddha can refer to any person who has achieved enlightenment. Siddhartha was not the first). The boy got beautiful name Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni.

The father remembered the words of the hermits and protected the child from all adversity. The boy did not leave the palace; he did not know what illness, poverty, or death were. He was surrounded by sheer wealth. For his son, the raj ordered to build three more palaces - anything to fulfill the will of the brahmanas. When the young man turned 16, on the advice of his father, he married Princess Yashodhara. Soon the young couple had a son, Rahul. However, the young prince, prone to reflection, felt that outside the luxurious palaces there was another life, different from his.

Four reverse sides

At the age of 29, the truth was finally revealed to him - Siddhartha was able to get out of the palace with his servant. That's when he saw four downsides life – illness, pain, aging and death. He realized that all the blessings and riches of the world cannot protect a person from these evils. The truth turned out to be so shocking for Gautama that he abandoned everything - family, gold, luxury - and went to look for the path to enlightenment and relief from suffering. Leaving the city, he met a beggar and exchanged clothes with him in order to become even more imbued with the new life.

A new chapter of his existence began. On the way to India, he stopped with Brahmin hermits, who step by step taught the former prince to find the path to enlightenment. Finally, after for long years wanderings and an ascetic lifestyle, Gautama came to the city of Gaya in India. He was already alone - those followers who were with him at the beginning of his journey were left behind. He realized that the way of life imposed by the monks was not suitable for finding the path to enlightenment. Self-torture and vows are not at all for the search for truth and bliss in nirvana.

In the grove where I came former prince, there was a small hut. The woman who lived there let the wanderer in and fed him meager food - rice and milk. Siddhartha gratefully accepted the food, then went out into the grove and sat under a tree, vowing not to get up until he achieved enlightenment. This tree became known as the Bosch tree - another name for ficus. During Nirvana, the prince was attacked various demons who tried to lead him astray, to distract him from meditation with the help of the blessings and beauties of earthly life. But he was relentless and did not succumb to provocations. For 49 days he sat motionless under a ficus tree until on the night of his birth he achieved enlightenment. After this, they began to call him Buddha, that is, the one who achieved enlightenment.

Buddha's Teachings

After gaining new knowledge, the former prince began to spread his teachings and win more and more students and followers. For 45 years he traveled around India and spoke about his experiences. Almost everyone who listened to the spiritual teacher then joined him. This happened to the guards sent by his father to return his son to the palace. 9 out of 10 followed their master, but in a slightly different capacity.

What did the “Enlightened One” teach? His teachings were based on four truths - suffering, desire being the cause, nirvana - the cessation of suffering, the path to achieving nirvana. also outlined the commandments by which a person should live - the right way of life, good intentions, accurate speech, concentration, as the path to nirvana.

Siddhartha died at a fairly advanced age - about 80 years old. After his death, his remains were cremated, divided into several parts and placed in special stupas. However, the veneration of the teacher did not end there - from generation to generation, followers passed on the valuable knowledge that the Buddha spoke, and also, in order to honor their teacher, they began to erect original monuments to him - himself, sitting in the lotus position, when the Buddha himself was trying to achieve enlightenment .

In some countries that have chosen the teachings of Buddha as their main religion, there are not only “sitting” statues, but also full height. For example, in India, in the city of Hyderabad, in the center of an artificial lake there is a statue of Buddha. Another unusual statue is the head of Buddha in a tree in the city of Ayutthaya in Thailand. The most famous is the Temple of the Reclining Buddha in Bangkok. in China, in the Sichuan province, there is the largest image of Buddha - 71 meters high. It was made over a century.

Buddha Temples

In many Buddhist countries, there are not just statues, but also temples dedicated to the great Gautama. In Shanghai there is the Jade Buddha Temple - a figurine made of jade, which is a symbol of calm and intelligence. Temples with images of yellow or golden Buddha are often found. The veneration of the spiritual teacher is so great that believers in Asian countries make huge offerings to the Buddha, often in precious and monetary equivalents, in order to open a small temple or install another statue.

But all this is not the main thing - Buddha achieved his goal, Enlightenment. New religion has become one of the most widespread and most peaceful in the world. The name of Buddha has remained for centuries, and you can be sure that it will not be forgotten for a very long time.

Given a name at birth Siddhattha Gotama(pali) / Siddhartha Gautama(Sanskrit) - “descendant of Gotama, successful in achieving goals”, he later became known as Buddha(literally "Awakened"). Gautama is also called Sakyamuni or Shakyamuni- “sage from the Sakya clan”, or Tathāgata(Sanskrit तथागत, “Thus Coming”) - “Having achieved Suchness”, “Achieved Truth”.

Siddhartha Gautama is a key figure in Buddhism. His sayings and dialogues with his students formed the basis of the Buddhist canon - “Tripitaka”, formed in the 1st century BC. e.

Buddha is a figure in several Asian religions, particularly Bon (late Bon) and Hinduism. In the Middle Ages, in the later Indian Puranas (for example, in the Bhagavata Purana), he was included among the avatars of Vishnu instead of Balarama.

Life of Buddha

According to the texts accepted in modern Buddhist traditions, Siddhattha Gautama was born in the vicinity of the city of Kapilavastu (located in the valley of the Ganges River; now the Lumbini temple complex is located in this place) on the May full moon in the Kshatriya Shakya tribe. His birthday is widely celebrated in Buddhist countries (Vesak).

Gautama's father was King Kapilavatthu in Magadha, and Gautama was born a prince destined for a life of luxury. Before he was born, Gautama visited his mother in a dream in the form of a white elephant. During the birth celebration, the seer Asita announced that this baby would either become a great king or a great holy man. His father, wanting Gautama to become a great king, protected his son from religious training and from the knowledge of human suffering.

When the boy reached his sixteenth birthday, his father arranged his marriage with Yasodhara, the same age, and she gave birth to a son, Rahul. His father provided Gautama with everything he wanted and needed.

One day, after 13 years of marriage, Gautama, accompanied by the charioteer Channa, traveled outside the palace. There he saw "four spectacles": an old cripple, a sick man, a decaying corpse and a hermit. Gautama then realized the harsh truth of life - that death, illness, aging and suffering are inevitable, that the poor outnumber the rich, and that even the pleasures of the rich eventually turn to dust. This prompted Gautama, at the age of 29, to leave his home, family and property to become a monk.

Refusing his inheritance, he devoted his life to studying how to overcome suffering. He followed the path of yogic meditation under the guidance of two brahmin hermits, and although he achieved high levels consciousness, he was not satisfied with this path.

Dressed in the robes of a wandering monk, he headed to southeastern India. He began to learn the life of a hermit and engage in severe self-torture. Six years later, on the verge of death, he discovered that harsh ascetic methods did not lead to greater understanding, but simply clouded the mind and exhausted the body. By abandoning self-torture and focusing on meditation, he discovered a middle way of avoiding the extremes of self-indulgence and self-torture. Sitting under a fig tree, which thanks to him received the name Bodhi tree, he vowed not to get up until he discovered the Truth. At the age of 35, he achieved "Awakening" on the May full moon. Then they began to call him Gautama Buddha or simply “Buddha”, which means “Awakened One”.

He stated that he had achieved full Awakening and realized the cause of human suffering along with the steps necessary to eliminate it. He formulated this realization in the Four Noble Truths. The highest Awakening that is available to any being is called Nibbana (Pali) / Nirvana (Sanskrit).

At this point, the Buddha had to choose whether to be satisfied with his own liberation or to teach other people. He believed that the world might not be ready for such profound realization, but he finally decided to go to Sarnath and preach the first sermon in the Deer Park. This sermon described the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.

Buddha emphasized that he is not God. Buddha is a mentor for those beings who decide to walk the path themselves, achieve Awakening and know the truth and reality as it is.

Over the course of the next 45 years of his life, he traveled through the Ganges River valley in central India, teaching his teachings to the most different people, including supporters of rival philosophies and religions. His religion was open to all races and classes and had no caste structure. He founded the Community Buddhist monks and nuns (“Sangha”) to preserve the Teaching after its final “Nibbana” and departure from the world. Thousands of converts followed him.

At the age of 80 he decided to retire from the world. He ate his last meal, which was a donation from the blacksmith Chunda, and did not feel well. In the presence of his followers, Buddha once again became convinced that his Teachings were understood and preserved, and died on the May full moon. Last words The Buddhas were: “Everything that is composed is subject to extinction. Try hard!”

Buddha Gautama was cremated in accordance with the ritual for the Universal Lord (chakravartina). His remains (relics) were divided into eight parts and lie at the base of specially erected stupas.

The Life of Buddha in the Vajrayana Tradition

In Samskrita-samskrita-vinishaya-nama it is said:

“Our Teacher Shakyamuni lived 80 years. He spent 29 years in his palace. For six years he labored as an ascetic. Having achieved Enlightenment, he spent his first summer at the turning point of the Wheel of Law (Dharmachakrapravartan). He spent his second summer in Veluwan. The fourth is also in Veluvan. The fifth is in Vaishali. The sixth is in Gol (that is, in Golangulaparivartan) in Zhugma Gyurve, which is near Rajagriha. The seventh is in the Abode of the 33 Gods, on the platform made of the Armonig stone. He spent his eighth summer in Shishumaragiri. The ninth is in Kaushambi. The tenth is at a place called Kapijit (Teutul) in the Parileyakawana forest. The eleventh is in Rajagriha (Gyalpyo-kab). The twelfth is in the village of Veranja. The thirteenth is in Chaityagiri (Choten-ri). The fourteenth is in the temple of Raja Jetavana. The fifteenth is at Nyagrodharam in Kapilavastu. The sixteenth is in Atawak3. The seventeenth is in Rajagriha. The eighteenth - in the Jvalini cave (near Gaya). The nineteenth - in Jvalini (Barve-pug)4. The twentieth is in Rajagriha. There were four summer stays in the Mrigamatri aram east of Shravasti. Then the twenty-first summer stay was in Shravasti. Buddha passed into nirvana in the Shala grove, in Kushinagar, in the country of Malla."

Gautama family

In Mahavastu the names of the sisters of his mother and Maha-Prajapati are given - Mahamaya, Atimaya, Anantamaya, Chulia and Kolisova.

The following cousins ​​of the Buddha are known: Ananda, who in the Theravada tradition was considered the son of Amitodana, and in the Mahavastu is called the son of Shuklodan and Mriga; Devadatta, son of maternal uncle Suppabuddha and paternal aunt Amita.

The identity of Gautama's wife remains unclear. In the Theravada tradition, the mother of Rahula (see below) is called Bhaddakachcha, but the Mahavamsa and commentaries on the Anguttara Nikaya call her Bhaddakachchana and see her as cousin Buddha and Devadatta's sister. The Mahavastu (Mahāvastu 2.69), however, calls the Buddha's wife Yashodhara and implies that she was not Devadatta's sister, since Devadatta wooed her. Buddhavamsa also uses this name, but in the Pali version it is Yasodhara. The same name is most often found in North Indian Sanskrit texts (also in Chinese and Tibetan translations). Lalitavistara says that the Buddha's wife was Gopa, the mother of Dandapani's maternal uncle. Some texts state that Gautama had three wives: Yashodhara, Gopika and Mrigaya.

Siddharatha had The only son- Rahula, who, having matured, joined the Sangha. Over time, he achieved arhatship.

Chronology of life

The key reference point for dating the life of the Buddha is the beginning of the reign of the Buddhist Emperor Ashoka. Based on Ashoka's edicts and the reigns of the Hellenistic kings to whom he sent envoys, scholars date Ashoka's reign to 268 BC. e. Buddha is said to have died 218 years before this event. Since all sources agree that Gautama was eighty years old when he died (eg Dīgha Nikāya 2.100), we get the following dates: 566-486 BC. e. This is the so-called “long chronology”. An alternative "short chronology" is based on Sanskrit sources of North Indian Buddhism preserved in East Asia. According to this version, Buddha died 100 years before Ashoka's inauguration, which gives the following dates: 448-368. BC e. Moreover, in some East Asian traditions the date of Buddha's death is 949 or 878 BC. e., and in Tibet - 881 BC. e. In the past, the generally accepted dates among Western scholars were 486 or 483 BC. e., but now it is believed that the grounds for this are too shaky.

Radiocarbon dating shows that some settlements which Buddha visited according to the Pali Canon were not inhabited until 500 BC. e. (±100 years), which casts doubt on such early date, as 486 BC e. Furthermore, a consideration of the information available to us on the history of Jainism suggests that the Buddha and Mahavira, the Jain leader who died somewhat earlier than the Buddha, both died between 410 and 390 CE. BC e.

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