The word ‘Buddha’ is a title, which means ‘one who is awake’ — in the sense of having ‘woken up to reality’. The Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama in Nepal around 2,500 years ago. He did not claim to be a god or a prophet. He was a human being who became Enlightened, understanding life in the deepest way possible.
Buddhism is one of the great religions of the world. Most of its followers live in Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Korea, and Thailand, but there are Buddhists everywhere. The founder of this religion was Prince Gautama Siddhartha, born to luxury. One day, as he left his palace he saw three men, one very sick, one very old, and one dead. Very disturbed by this evidence of man’s suffering, he began to wonder how man might find true and lasting happiness. He fasted and meditated as he sought the answer. One day, as he sat under a fig tree, which became known as the Bo Tree, or tree of enlightenment, he suddenly saw clearly that the cure for all unhappiness lay in a mastery of one’s self and one’s selfish desires. He set out to teach his discovery to the world.
As Buddha, “the Enlightened One,” he wandered through India with his disciples for more than forty years, teaching the people how to find true happiness. The followers of Buddha came to consider him a god and set up images of him and worshiped them. But Buddha himself didn’t believe there was a supreme god. He believed and taught that the soul of man passes after death to a higher or lower organism, according to his good or bad deeds during life. This transmigration of the soul into another body goes on through many cycles until all desire is overcome. Then the soul enters Nirvana, or a state of perfect peace. In order to reach this State, man must follow the Eight-Fold Path of Right Faith, by observing Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Thinking, and Right Meditation.
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