The Buddha, or Siddhartha Gautama, was

born around 567 B.C.E., in a small kingdom

just below the Himalayan foothills. His father
was a chief of the Shakya clan.

Once, in the streets of Kapilavastu, he

encountered three simple things: a sick
man, an old man, and a corpse being carried
to the burning grounds. Nothing in his life of
ease had prepared him for this experience.
When his charioteer told him that all beings
are subject to sickness, old age, and death, he
could not rest. As he returned to the palace, he
passed a wandering ascetic walking peacefully
along the road, wearing the robe and carrying
the single bowl of a sadhu.

The man left the palace in search of the

answer to the problem of suffering, leaving his
wife and child silently. He cut his hair with a
sword and wore simple ascetic robes,
transforming his appearance.

Gautama had settled down to work with two

teachers. From Arada Kalama he learned how
to discipline his mind to enter the sphere of
nothingness. But he recognized that this was
not liberation, and left. Next Siddhartha
learned how to enter the concentration of
mind which is neither consciousness nor
unconsciousness from Udraka Ramaputra.
But neither was this liberation and Siddhartha
left his second teacher.

After countless hours of studying sacred texts,

he sat determined and unmoving, unable to
find anyone to turn to. After six days, he
realized that what he had been looking for had
never been lost, neither to him nor to anyone
else. Therefore there was nothing to attain,
and no longer any struggle to attain it. He is
reported to have said, “This
very enlightenment is the nature of all beings,
and yet they are unhappy for lack of it.” So it
was that Siddhartha Gautama woke up at the
age of thirty-five, and became the Buddha, the
Awakened One, known as Shakyamuni, the
sage of the Shakyas.

The Buddha died in the town of Kushinagara,

at the age of eighty. Some of the assembled
monks were despondent, but the Buddha,
lying on his side, with his head resting on his
right hand, reminded them that everything is
impermanent, and advised them to take
refuge in themselves and the dharma—the
teaching. Then he spoke his final words: “Now
then, bhikshus, I address you: all compound
things are subject to decay; strive diligently.”