Life of the Buddha

A long time ago in the country called Nepal, there was a kingdom called Sakya. Kapilavatthu was its capital.The king’s name was shaddhodana Gotama.He belonged to the Gotama caln. The king had a beautiful wife whose name was Queen Mahamaya.On the full moon day of june she gave birth to a son under the Sala trees in a beautiful park called a Lumbinli.The King named his son Siddhatta. SIDDHATTA never knew his real mother because she died seven days after his birth. “SILDDHATTHA was raised by his aunt Mahapajapati who was also his stepmother.During his early years he lived happily with his family surrounded with luxury and comforts. At the age of sixteen, he married beautiful Princess, Yasodhara, generally known as Bimba, whowas his own cousin. They lived a happy married life for the next thirteen years, and during that time Princess, Yasodhara, generally known as Bimba,who was his own cousin. They lived a hay married life for the next thirteen years, and during that time Princess yasodhara gave birth to a son who was named Rahula. One day during siddhattha’s trip to the Royal Gardens, he saw four things that made him very thoughtful about life. He saw an old man, a sick person, a dead body, and a Brahmin monk, ascetic. Only the monk gave him any comfort. He realized that even luxurious life could not bring him real happiness, and that he could not be really happy while other people were suffering. He then wanted to find real happiness, the happiness that all people could share. When he was twenty-nine years old, on a quiet night, the prince left his palace, his wealth, his wife, and his lovely son. He became a monk and spent the next six years studying with many Brahmin teachers and practicing extreme self-denial in the forest. Finally he found that all those other teachers did not know how to find the truth, and that extreme self-denial was useless. He then left those teachers. Having found out that world wealth did not bring him the truth and that extreme self-denial did not bring him the truth, he decided to try a path between the two, which we call the middle way. Six years after becoming a homeless monk , while sitting under the Bodhi Tree on the full moon night of May [Visakha the sixth lunar month] he meditated deeply. He reached the real happiness he sought, he attained the truth by his own efforts. This real happiness is called the Enlightenment. From that time on he was known as the Buddha which means the Enlightenment One or the Awakened One. The Buddha found out the truth of life. He found that life is full of problems. HPe taught the people three principles of Buddhism toguide their thoughts and actions. These principles are as follows. Not to do any evil To do good deeds. To purify the mind. Two months after the Enlightenment, he began teaching the truth, which is called the Dhamma, to his followers. Many of his followers received real happiness after following his teachings. As time went on the number of his disciples increased rapidly. Since then, Buddhism has been firmly established in India. The Buddha wandered over all of India, preaching the doctrines of real happiness to the people for forty-five years. At the age of eighty, the Buddha felt that his end was coming closer. He went to Kusinara, and there on the full moon day of Visakha month, under two Sala trees, he passed away. He left us with his most valuable and enduring teaching and the way to find real happiness.