The Gautam Buddha | Unknown and Interesting fact.
One's again Hello to everyone,
I am back again with some thing interesting fact about mythology
Today I have some teachings and interesting facts about Gautam Buddha.
Gautama Buddha was born to a North Indian royal family as a prince and was named Siddhartha Gautama. When he was twelve years old, he was sent to a far away place to study Hindu sacred scriptures and upon returning four years later, he got married to a princess. Soon, they both had a son and they continued to live the royal life for about ten years. The royals were shielded from all the unpleasant experiences of the world until one day, on his way to hunt, the Prince met a sick man, an aged man, a funeral procession and a monk begging for alms. These experiences acted as eye-openers for him and thus, he left all the royalty behind to seek a higher sense of spiritual knowledge. The Buddha decided he had to leave his royal responsibilities and his family in order to realize full enlightenment. He left the palace secretly, and set off alone into the forest. Over the next six years, he met many talented meditation teachers and mastered their techniques. Always he found that they showed him mind’s potential but not mind itself. Finally, at a place called Bodhgaya, the future Buddha decided to remain in meditation until he knew mind’s true nature and could benefit all beings.
Some teachings of Gautam Buddha :-
Fundamental Teachings.
The word Buddha means The Awakened One, coming from the Sanskrit root budh – 'to wake'. He is a man who has woken fully, as if from a deep sleep, to discover that suffering, like a dream, is over. The historical Buddha was however a man like any other, but an exceptional one; what he rediscovered was a way that anyone can walk, providing that they are so inclined.
The historical Buddha Gautama was not the first Buddha. There had been others who had walked the way before him. He was not a god, a prophet or any kind of supernatural being. He was, as we have seen, one who was born, lived and died a human being. A remarkable human being, who discovered a way of achieving true wisdom, compassion and freedom from suffering. He 'rediscovered an ancient way to an ancient city' that had been covered up and forgotten. Through his own efforts he was able to find the way out of suffering to liberation, and those that have followed him have kept that way open.
The Buddha did not teach that a God created the Universe. He pointed to a great Law or Dharma running through everything that exists. It is by living in accordance with this Law that true Wisdom and Compassion and hence freedom from suffering may be achieved. Suffering may only be overcome, however, by being confronted and lived through. In the Buddha's words: 'Suffering I teach and the way out of suffering.' Fundamental Buddhist doctrines include the following:
The Chain of Causation / The Twelve linked Chain of Causation
This important doctrine teaches the interconnectedness of all things and in particular the law of Karma and the mechanism by which we create a world of suffering for ourselves and others, and the opposite; the way to live that reduces suffering for all, and leads to liberation.
The Three Signs of Being.
(1) Change (2) Suffering (3) no 'I'
The first, Change, points out the basic fact that nothing in the world is fixed or permanent. We ourselves are not the same people, either physically, emotionally or mentally, that we were ten years - or even ten minutes ago! Living as we do, then, as shifting beings upon shifting sands, it is not possible for us to find lasting security.
As regards the second Sign, we have already seen how it was the experience of Suffering that sent the Buddha off on his great spiritual quest, though suffering is not a very good translation of the original word, dukkha. Dukkha implies the generally unsatisfactory and imperfect nature of life. However, it does not follow that Buddhists believe that life is all suffering. Buddhists do believe that there is happiness in life, but know that it does not last and that even in the most fortunate of lives there is suffering. Happiness is subject to the law of change and impermanence.
No-I, the third Sign, is a little more difficult.
Buddhists do not believe that there is anything everlasting or unchangeable in human beings, no soul or self in which a stable sense of 'I' might anchor itself. The whole idea of 'I' is in fact a basically false one that tries to set itself up in an unstable and temporary collection of elements. Take the traditional analogy of a cart. A cart may be broken down into its basic components -axle, wheels, shafts, sides, etc. Then the cart is no more; all we have is a pile of components. In the same way 'I' am made up of various elements or aggregates (khandhas): form (rupa-khandha), feeling-sensation (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral), (vedana-khandha), perception (sanna-khandha), volitional mental activities (sankhara-khandha), sense consciousness (vinnana-khand)๐
The Four Noble Truths.
(1) The Noble Truth of Suffering (2) The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering (3) The Noble Truth of Cessation of Suffering (4) The Noble Truth of the Way leading to the Cessation of Suffering: The Noble Eightfold Path.
Buddhism begins with the fact of suffering. However, before we can do anything about it, we must know its cause, which is the deeply-rooted sense of 'I' that we all have. Because of this we are always struggling to get things that are pleasurable and avoid things that are painful to find ease and security, and generally to manipulate people and situations to be the way 'I' want them. And because the rest of the world does not necessarily fit in with what I want, we often find ourselves cutting against the general flow of things, and getting hurt and disappointed in the process. Suffering may be therefore brought to an end by transcending this strong sense of 'I' so that we come into greater harmony with things in general. The means of doing this is The Noble Eightfold Path.
The Three Fires.
(1) Desire/Thirst, (2) Anger (3) Delusion.
'Your house is on fire, burns with the Three Fires; there is no dwelling in it' - thus spoke the Buddha in his great Fire Sermon. The house he speaks of here is the human body; the three fires that burn it are (1) Desire/Thirst, (2) Anger and (3) Delusion. They are all kinds of energy and are called 'fires' because, untamed, they can rage through us and hurt us and other people too! Properly calmed through spiritual training, however, they can be transformed into the genuine warmth of real humanity.
Some interesting facts about Gautam Buddha :-
1. The prediction about Siddharth Gautama
At his birth, it was predicted that the prince would either become a great world monarch or a Buddha–a supremely enlightened teacher. The Brahmans told his father, King Suddhodana, that Siddhartha would become a ruler if he were kept isolated from the outside world. The king took pains to shelter his son from misery and anything else that might influence him toward the religious life.
2. Gautam Buddha said about The king Ashoka.
The Buddha then predicted that several years after his parinirvana, the boy would be born as a chakravarti king ruling from Pataliputra. ... Impressed by the monk, Ashoka converts to Buddhism, becomes a pious man and builds 84,000 stupas, becoming famous as "Ashoka the Righteous" (Dharma-Ashoka).
3. Gautam Buddha is not the only Buddha.
Generally, Buddhists do not consider Siddhartha Gautama to have been the only buddha. The Pali Canon refers to Gautama Buddha at least once as the 28th Buddha. A common Buddhist belief is that the next Buddha will be one named Maitreya (Pali: Metteyya).
4.Reluctant teacher.
It is not easy to think that a great teacher like him, who taught the whole world about Buddhism, could be hesitant to teach at the first place. He considered that the thing he knows is very difficult not only for the people to understand but it is also difficult for him to express what he knows into words. He believed that it is not possible to attain the reality if one is not disciplined and does not have a pure mind. But later his compassion swayed over him and he finally decided to teach the people about the doctrines of enlightenment. The first sermon of Lord Buddha was in Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh.
