BUDDHA Skt. , Pali, lit. “awakened one. ”
(1) A person who has achieved the enlightenment that leads to release from the cycle of existence (samsāra) and has thereby attained complete liberation (nirvāna). The content of his teaching, which is based on the experience of enlightenment, is the four noble truths. A buddha has overcome every kind of craving (trishnā); although even he also has pleasant and unpleasant sensations, he is not ruled by them and remains innerly untouched by them. After his death he is not reborn again.
Two kinds of buddhas are distinguished: the pratyeka-buddha, who is completely enlightened but does not expound the teaching; and the samyak-sambuddha, who expounds for the welfare of all beings the teaching that he has discovered anew. A samyak-sambuddha is omniscient (sarvajñatā) and possesses the ten powers of a buddha (dashabala) and the four certainties. The buddha of our age is Shākyamuni (Also Buddha 2).
Shākyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha, is not the first and only buddha. Already in the early Hīnayāna texts, six buddhas who preceded him in earlier epochs are mentioned: Vipashyin (Pali, Vipassi), Shikin (Sikhī), Vishvabhū (Vessabhū), Krakuchchanda (Kakusandha), Konagāmana, and Kāshyapa (Kassapa). The buddha who will follow Shākyamuni in a future age and renew the dharma is Maitreya. Beyond these, one finds indications in the literature of thirteen further buddhas, of which the most important is Dīpamkara, whose disciple Shākyamuni was in his previous existence as the ascetic Sumedha. The stories of these legendary buddhas are contained in the Buddhavamsa, a work from the Khuddaka-nikāya.
The life course of a buddha begins when he, as a bodhisattva in the presence of a previous buddha whose disciple he is, takes the bodhisattva vow to become an awakened one. After that he practices the ten pāramitās for countless existences. Before his last birth, he dwells in the Tushita Heaven. When he is reborn for the last time, the bodhisattva bears the thirty-two marks of perfection (dvātrimshadvara-lakshana) and the eighty minor marks. He is in possession of the thirty-seven preprequisites of enlightenment (bodhipākshika-dharma). The mother of this buddha dies seven days after his birth. At the appropriate time the incipient buddha enters into homelessness, and after attaining enlightenment he founds an order. The course of his life is ended by his final extinction in nirvāna (parinirvāna).
(2) The historical Buddha. He was born in 563 B.C.E. , the son of a prince of the Shākyas, whose small kingdom in the foot hills of the Himalayas lies in present-day Nepal. His first name was Siddhārtha, his family name Gautama. Hence he is also called Gautama Buddha. (For the story of his life, Siddhārtha Gautama.) During his life as a wandering ascetic, he was known as Shākyamuni, the “Silent Sage of the Shākyas.” In order to distinguish the historical Buddha from the transcendent buddhas (see buddha 3), he is generally called Shākyamuni Buddha or Buddha Shākyamuni.
(3) The “buddha principle,” which manifests itself in the most various forms. Whereas in Hīnayāna only the existence of one buddha in every age is accepted (in which case the buddha is considered an earthly being who teaches humans), for the Mahāyāna there are countless transcendent buddhas. According to the Mahāyāna teaching of the trikāya, the buddha principle manifests itself in three principal forms, the so-called three bodies (trikāya). In this sense the transcendent buddhas represent embodiments of various aspects of the buddha principle in human form.
Around 750 C. E., as an outgrowth of the Vajrayāna, a hierarchical schema developed, which admits, in addition to the dharmakāya (trikāya), which all buddhas have in common, five transcendent buddhas. Each of these buddhas is associated with an earthly buddha and a transcendent bodhisattva. The transcendent buddha Vairochana is associated with the earthly buddha Krakuchchanda and the transcendent bodhisattva Samantabhadra; the transcendent buddha Akshobhya is associated with the earthly buddha Kanakamuni and the bodhisattva Vajrapāni; to Ratnasambhava belong Kāshyapa as earthly buddha and Ratnapāni as bodhisattva; the transcendent buddha Amoghasiddhi is associated with the earthly buddha Maitreya and the transcendent bodhisattva Vishvapāni. (Also buddhakula.)
(4) A synonym for the absolute, ultimate reality devoid of form, color, and all other properties buddha-nature. When in Zen the question is posed, “What is a buddha?” this is neither a question about the historical dates of an earthly buddha nor a question concerning the philosophical and psychological nuances of the trikāya teaching; rather it is a question concerning the eternal, or timeless, truth of buddha nature.
BUDDHA-DHARMA Skt. (Jap., buppō); the “buddha law,” “buddha teaching,” “buddha norm” generally, the teaching of the historical Buddha Shākyamuni, which is based on enlightenment and is intended to lead to it; as such, buddha-dharma is a synonym for Buddhism. In Zen buddha-dharma (buppō) is not understood as a teaching that can be transmitted conceptually, as through writings and oral explanations, but rather as the conceptually ungraspable essential truth from the experience of which the teaching of the Buddha sprung and which is only accessible in the immediate realization of one’s own enlightenment experience.
SHĀKYAMUNI (Śākyamuni) Skt., lit. “Sage of the Shākya clan”; epithet of Siddhārtha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism (buddha-dharma), the historical Buddha, who belonged to the Shākya clan. Siddhārtha received this epithet after he had separated himself from his teachers and resolved to find the way to enlightenment by himself.
SIDDHĀRTHA GAUTAMA Skt. (Pali, Siddhatta Gotama); founder of Buddhism (buddha-dharma), the historical Buddha. Siddhārtha was born in 566 or 5 6 3 B.C.E. into a noble family of the Shākya clan in Kapilavastu, a city in present day Nepal. His father Suddhodana was the head of the Shākyas; his mother Māyādevī, who brought Siddhārtha into the world in the Lumbinī Grove, died seven days after his birth. Siddhārtha was brought up by his aunt on his mother’s side, Mahāprajāpatī. Care fully raised in wealthy circumstances, Siddhārtha married Yashodharā at the age of sixteen. At twenty-nine, after the birth of his son Rāhula, he entered homelessness and attended on various ascetic teachers, without, however, reaching his goal, spiritual liberation.
Thus he gave up the ascetic way of life and turned to meditation. At thirty-five he realized complete enlightenment, awakening (bodhi). After remaining silent at the beginning because he was aware of the impossibility of communicating directly what he had experienced in enlightenment he began at the request of others to expound insights drawn from his experience of enlightenment. He spent the rest of his life moving from place to place teaching, and a great number of disciples gathered around him. Siddhārtha Gautama, who came to be known by the name Shākyamuni (Sage of the Shākya Clan), died at the age of eighty after eating some spoiled food.
There are a number of legends concerning Siddhārtha’s birth. His mother is said to have dreamed that a bodhisattva entered her body in the form of an elephant. Siddhārtha was then born from his mother’s right hip as she stood holding onto the branches of a tree. The newborn, according to tradition, took seven steps in each direction and then, with one arm stretched toward Heaven and the other toward the Earth, spoke these words: “I am the greatest in the world. This is my last birth. I will put an end to the suffering of birth, old age, and death.” In each one of his footsteps a lotus blossom bloomed. One often finds this legend in artistic depictions.
Siddhārtha showed the signs of perfection at the time of his birth, and soothsayers prophesied that he would become either a universal monarch (chakravartin or an “awakened one” (buddha). Four signs were to show him which of the two ways he was destined for. His father, who wanted Siddhārtha to be his successor, gave him the best possible education and tried to prevent him from coming in contact with any signs that might direct him toward the path of religion. Above all, his father tried to keep him far from all care and misery.
Siddhārtha, however, entered the state of homelessness after he had seen the four signs during four excursions. These were an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a monk. According to legend, these four figures were the manifestations of gods, who appeared to Siddhārtha in order to guide him on the way to buddhahood. Siddhārtha recognized that the first three symbolized the suffering of the world, while in the monk he saw his own destiny. He set himself the goal of overcoming suffering, and attached himself to several teachers, who in accordance with the view in India at the time, saw asceticism as the only way to realization. The most important of these were Ārāda, Kālāma, and Rudraka Rāmaputra. However, their teachings did not satisfy Siddhārtha, and he decided to seek salvation on his own. Five disciples followed him. Near death after years of fruitless strict asceticism, he recognized this practice as one that does not lead to the goal and again began to take food. At this point his companions were disappointed and left him.
Then Siddhārtha went to Bodh-gayā, where he sat down under what was later to be known as the Bodhi-tree, and vowed to persist in meditation until he had solved the riddle of suffering. After forty-nine days, at the age of thirty-five and despite the temptations of Māra, he attained complete enlightenment. From this moment on, Siddhārtha was a buddha, an awakened one, and he knew that for him there would now be no further rebirth.
Since it was clear to the Awakened One that the essential content of his enlightenment experience could neither be formulated in words nor conveyed to others in any other form, he continued in silent meditation under the Bodhi-tree. When he again encountered his former companions, they saw that he was completely transformed. His adiance was such that though they had at first approached him with suspicion, they were soon convinced that he must have found liberation, as they themselves had striven in vain to do by means of asceticism. They asked him for instruction, and moved by compassion for the suffering of all sentient beings, the Buddha broke his silence.
He began to show the way that leads to the experience of awakening and thus to liberation. For this purpose, on the basis of his enlightenment, he formulated his teachings of the four noble truths, the law of conditioned arising (pratītya-samutapāda), and karma. In the Deer Park of Benares he gave his first discourse; in the Buddhist tradition this is known as “setting in motion the wheel of the teaching.” His earlier five companions became his first disciples and formed the core of the sangha. There followed a period of many years of teaching. The Buddha stayed mainly in the region of Rājagriha and Vaishālī and moved from place to place living on begged food. The number of his students grew quickly. It was of particular importance for the development of the sangha that King Bimbisāra of Magadha became a lay follower (upāsaka) of the Buddha and gave him a monastery in the vicinity of Rājagriha, the capital of Magadha. The Buddha’s most important students were. Ānanda, Shāriputra, and Mahāmaudgalyāyana. The order of nuns (bhikshunī) was also founded at this time.
The Buddha also had to deal with enemies. His cousin Devadatta, who wanted to become the head of the community of followers, planned to kill the Buddha; however the plan failed. Devadatta nevertheless brought about a schism among the monks of Vaishālī by advocating an ascetic life in contradiction of the Buddha.
According to the Mahāparinibbāna-sutta, in 486 or 483 B.C.E. the Buddha partook of spoiled food, and lying on his right side and facing west, entered parinirvāna. According to the Pali tradition, the Buddha died on the full-moon day of the month April/May; according to the Sanskit texts, on the full-moon day in November.
The funeral of the Buddha is said to have been accompanied by miracles. The distribution of his relics led to conflicts, since many communities laid claim to them. They are said to have been divided in eight parts and were preserved in stūpas. Although the historical facts of Siddhārtha Gautama’s biography were soon overlaid by legend, today, on the basis of investigation of philological and archaeological evidence, he is accepted as a historical personality and the founder of Buddhism even by sceptical Western scholars.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
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