The Biography of the Lord Buddha ; e-book available
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The Biography of the Lord Buddha
To fully understand and
appreciate the spiritual life of the Lord Buddha is a difficult task.
In His grace, the Lord Buddha left us with
the knowledge of how to conquer the cycle of suffering in life, including old
age, sickness and death. For western
readers or non-Buddhists, it is necessary to add some explanation in case certain
aspects of Buddhist culture and knowledge may be confusing or vague.
Although the whole of the Lord
Buddha’s life has been fully explained in the Buddhist scriptures, Thais and/or
other Buddhists seldom study it. Some of
the following background information, then, will include answers to questions
such as: How is it that Prince Siddhattha was able to walk for seven steps
immediately after being born, or, How is it that at the age of seven he could
complete the highest knowledge of liberal arts within seven days? It can be simply answered if you study his
countless former lives where he pursued perfection as a Bothisattava (a Pali word
meaning a man who seeks Buddhahood and fully cultivates the 30 branches of
perfection) for more than 20 X 10140 kappas (one kappa is equated to the time from the origination to
the extinction of the earth). Additionally,
Prince Siddhattha was familiar with all knowledge ARTS (Arts and Liberal Arts) from his countless lives. The length of time taken in cultivating the
perfection and self development in his former lives made him become the
greatest of his time.
The reader should remember that the
Lord Buddha himself had the most luxurious life before his renunciation: He was
the Crown Prince ready to be the King of his country, Sakka. How is it possible, then, for such a man, who
seemingly had everything that he could desire, to leave it all behind? Even the thought of this seems alien to the
normal person who feels that only those things that are luxurious are worthy of
pursuit. Therefore, because of this dissatisfaction that he felt with his life,
it makes an interesting, valuable, and beneficial study.
Prince
Siddhattha Gotama’s Conception
To begin, it is important to
understand that the majority of people live in a world of impermanence. We all have to face instability in our lives
and this instability makes our existence difficult because we seek perfection
with our senses: In essence, we seek and
question the source of our (perfect) eternal existence. From his birth, Prince Siddhattha Gotama
questioned this himself.
He was born more than 500 years
before the Anno Domini Era. One full
moon night, sleeping in the palace, the Queen Maha Maya, his mother, had a
vivid dream. She felt herself being
carried away by four devas (spirits) to the
AnatattaLake in the
HimalayaForest. After bathing her in the lake, the devas
dressed her in celestial clothes, anointed with perfumes and bedecked with
divine flowers. Soon after, a white
elephant holding a white lotus flower in its trunk, appeared, circled around
her three times, and entered her womb through the right side. Once the elephant disappeared, the Queen
awoke, knowing that she had been delivered an important message because the
elephant is a symbol of greatness in ancient times. Early the next day, the Queen told her
husband, Kind Suddhodana, about the dream. The kind was puzzled and sent for some wise men to discover the meaning
of the dream. The wise men said, “Your
Majesty, you have great fortune. The
devas have chosen our Queen as the mother of the Purest One and the child will
become a very great being.” The King and
Queen were so pleased that they invited many of the noblemen in the country to
a feast in the palace and told them the good news. In order to celebrate, King Suddhodana and
his wife donated food, clothing, and other supplies to the poor, and this
became a yearly royal tradition. The
whole kingdom eagerly awaited the birth of the new prince. Queen Maya was joyful because of the health
and happiness brought on by her pregnancy and she lived a life of purity for
herself and her unborn child.
It was the ancient tradition of
the royal lineage for the wife to return to her father’s kingdom when she was
experiencing childbirth. On the way from
Kapilavastua, the city where she lived with King Suddhodana, Queen Maya gave
birth in
LumpiniForestGarden
beneath the Sala Tree. On the day of his
birth, many miracles were reported to occur – the deaf could hear, and the
blind could see. On the seventh day of
his birth, his mother died: The Buddhist
scholars state in the scriptures that she died because she had accumulated all
perfections in becoming the mother of a person who was to be the enlightened
Buddha and, therefore, her body was no longer suitable to birth any other
children. Her life, however, did not simply end because she was then reappeared
as a male angel in the Tusitta Heaven Realm and waited there for Siddhattha’s
enlightenment and his sermons. King
Suddhodana then married Maha Pajapati, who was Maha Maya’s younger sister, and
she raised his son. Queen Maha Pajapati
also had two children with the King, Prince Nanada and Princess Rupananda, but
her love for Siddhattha was equal to that of her own natural children.
Siddhattha was given his name
during the birthing celebrations and it means “he who achieves his aim”. At the beginning of these celebrations, the
hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain home in order to attend. When Asita saw the child he laughed and he
cried. King Suddhodana questioned these
two opposing reactions that Asita had and the seer said that he laughed because
the child would certainly become a great holy man, but he cried because his own
life would be too short to see that day. This made Siddhattha rise up in the air, and the child placed his feet
in Asita’s hair while Asita examined the birthmarks. After seeing this extraordinary event, King
Suddhodana praised his son by placing his two hands into the middle of his
chest. This was the highest form of
worship that the King could give. Soon
after the naming ceremony which was held on the fifth day, the King invited
eight Brahmin scholars to read his son’s future. All of them except one gave a dual prediction
by showing two fingers, which meant that the baby would either become a great
king or a great holy man. The one
exception, the holy man Kondanna who was the youngest and who later became the
first arahant, showed only his index finger and unequivocally predicted that
Siddhattha would become the Lord Buddha.
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