Buddha

Gautam Buddha, born Siddhartha Gautama, was a spiritual leader and the founder of Buddhism who lived in ancient India between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. Born a prince in Lumbini, now in Nepal, he renounced his royal life after witnessing suffering to seek enlightenment, which he achieved under the Bodhi tree. He spent the rest of his life teaching the Eightfold Path as a way to end suffering.  

Early life and renunciation

• Born around 563 BCE in Lumbini, Nepal, to a royal family of the Shakya clan. 

He was shielded from the world’s suffering, but his life changed after he encountered old age, sickness, and death outside the palace.  Driven by the desire to find a solution to suffering, he left his privileged life, wife, and son to become a wandering ascetic. 

Enlightenment & Teachings

• After six years of searching and practicing extreme asceticism, he meditated under a Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya and achieved enlightenment. 

He became known as the Buddha, meaning “the awakened one”. 

• His first sermon at Sarnath outlined the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path to end suffering. 

His teachings, known as the Dharma, emphasize compassion, inner peace, and the pursuit of wisdom.  He spent the remainder of his life teaching and building a monastic order.  Buddhism spread throughout Asia and the world, becoming a major religion and philosophical system.