Sakyamuni Buddha
The Buddha, whose personal name was Siddhartha, and family name Gotama, lived in North India in the 6th BC His father, Suddhodana, was the ruler of the kingdom of Sakyas (in modern Nepal). His mother was queen Maya. According to the custom of the time, he was married quite young, at the age of sixteen, to a beautiful and devoted young princess named Yasodhara. The young prince lived in his palace with every luxury at his command. But all of a sudden, confronted with the reality of life and the suffering of mankind, he decided to find the solution -- the way out of this universal suffering. At the age of 29, soon after the birth of his only child, Rahula, he left his kingdom and became an ascetic in search of this solution.
For six years the ascetic Gotama wandered about the valley of the Ganges, meeting famous religious teachers, studying and following their systems and methods, and submitting himself to rigorous ascetic practices. They did not satisfy him. So he abandoned all traditional religions and their methods and went his own way. It was thus that one evening, seated under a tree (since then known as the Bodhi-tree, 'the Tree of Wisdom'), on the bank of the river Neranjara at Buddha-Gaya, at the age of 35, Gotama attained Enlightenment, after which he was known as the Buddha, 'The Enlightened One.'
After his Enlightenment, Gotama the Buddha announced that all sentient beings has the potentiality to become a Buddha, but are obstructed by illusion and ignorance. Then he delivered his first sermon on the Four Noble Truths to a group of five ascetics, his old colleagues, in the Deer Park at Isipatana. Since then , he has expounded the Dharma, various ways to cultivate in order to attain Buddhahood, for a duration of 49 years. He recognized no differences of nationality, gender and social groupings, and the way he preached was open to all men and women who were ready to understand and to follow it. At the age of 80, he attained nirvana.
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