This is the first in a series of articles on Buddhism. It will start with the life of the Buddha, which will be published in this issue of the Tzu Chi Quarterly. In following issues, there will be articles on Buddha's top ten disciples.

The purpose of writing these articles is simply to introduce Buddhism to the readers. Master Cheng Yen is a Buddhist nun, and she established Tzu Chi to assist many needy people, both within Taiwan and abroad. Why is she doing this? When she took the Buddhist precepts and became a nun, she was told by Master Yin Shun to work "for Buddhism and all living beings." Compassion for living beings was the driving force behind the foundation of Tzu Chi, now a world-renowned Buddhist charity organization with approximately four million members world-wide, who have extended helping hands to tens of thousands of people. Master Cheng Yen's philosophy of aiding others, however, derives from Buddhist beliefs, and to understand Tzu Chi's mission, an introduction to Buddhism is necessary.

There are many specialized terms in Buddhism, so notes have been provided to explain these terms. I hope the translations are correct, and that the definitions and the notes are adequate.

The founder of this religion is known as "the Buddha," or "the Enlightened One." Before his enlightenment, his name was Siddhartha Gautama, with Siddhartha (meaning "one who achieves") being his given name and Gautama (meaning "sacred cattle") being the family name. The story of his life as we know it today originates in the oral stories passed down from his disciples and lay followers.

Buddha was born in the state of Kapilavastu, now part of southern Nepal. The actual year of his birth is disputed. The Southern Buddhists (Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian nations) believe that he died in 544 B.C., at the age of eighty, making the year of his birth 624 B.C. However, there is also evidence to suggest the Buddha was born some time between 544 B.C. and 368 B.C. As for the date of his birth, people in China and Japan hold that the eighth day of the fourth month in the lunar calendar is his birthday, and call this day "Buddha's Birthday" or "the Day for Showering the Buddha." On this day, people pour clean water on little Prince Siddhartha's statue, which shows him standing with one hand pointing to the sky and the other hand pointing to the ground. This well-known posture recollects the story that after Buddha was born, he took seven steps, pointed at heaven and earth, and said, "I am the most venerable in the universe."

It is interesting to note that India and other Southeast Asian nations celebrate his birthday and the date of his enlightenment together on the day of the full moon in the second month according to the Indian calendar.

His father, King Suddhodhana, was a wealthy Kapilavastu ruler of the Shakya tribe (the Buddha is also referred to as Shakyamuni Buddha). His mother, Mahamaya, died seven days after his birth, so the Buddha was raised by his mother's sister, Mahaprajapati, who was also his father's second wife.

According to legend, a wise man named Asita came to visit Prince Siddhartha shortly after his birth. When he saw the prince, he said to the king, "Your Majesty, I have never in my life seen anyone with such a gracious and majestic appearance. There are two different paths for the prince to follow. If he stays home, there is no doubt that he will be a great king."

"What about the other path?" The king was very curious.

"His other path will be to leave home. If he chooses this path, he will certainly be a great saviour for the world."

The king wondered about his son's life. "When will it be determined whether he stays or leaves home?"

The wise man said, "When he turns 29."

The king certainly wanted the prince to be the next ruler. "Would it be possible for my son to stay at home and take my place?" However, looking up, the king was surprised to see tears in the old man's eyes. "Why are you in tears?"

"When he becomes a saviour, I won't be around to hear his magnificent preaching, and that is why I am so sad."

From the wise man's words, it seemed that Prince Siddhartha's future was already determined when he was born. The king was quite worried that the prince would choose to leave home. He made the palace a place of luxury and comfort. The prince ate only the most delicious food and drank only the sweetest nectar and the purest water. He also married his beautiful cousin, Yasodhara. In short, he had the finest things in life. Yet the prince still did not feel satisfied.

Curious about what lay beyond the palace gates, the prince went forth into the city. The king had prepared the city beforehand, so that the prince would think the whole world was as luxurious and beautiful as inside the palace.

However, the king could not hide all the suffering in the world. On his trip into the city, Prince Siddhartha saw four things that made him reconsider his way of life. He saw a decrepit old man and realized that everyone must lose the beauty and vigor of youth. He saw a person afflicted with a painful disease and understood that the body is not always healthy. He saw a corpse wrapped in preparation for cremation and recognized that life inevitably ends. Finally, the prince saw a wandering mendicant and thought that this way of life might lead to serenity and truth. With these four incidents, Prince Siddhartha realized that every person had to go through illness, aging, and death, life after life, enduring continuous suffering without end.1 He had to find a way like that of the mendicant, seeking to understand the causes of aging, illness and death, and searching for a way to stop suffering.

Soon after, his wife Yasodhara gave birth to a son. This happy news, however, brought the prince no joy. That night he decided to pursue a life of mendicancy. The prince was twenty-nine years old, exactly as had been predicted by the wise man years before. In the middle of the night, he escaped from the palace with his favourite horse and his servant. Strangely, everyone in the palace was sound asleep, and nobody heard the palace gates opening or the sound of the horse's hooves. This deep sleep was the work of gods who wanted to help the prince. When he was far away from the palace, Siddhartha threw away his royal clothes and put on a simple robe, and he told his servant to ride the horse back home. His quest had begun.

There were many religious wanderers and hermits in India at that time, and the prince studied their ascetic techniques of "ending suffering." He followed one, then another, and then yet another. He was never happy, because he did not find the solution to the world's suffering.

Siddhartha's father sent out a group of ministers to persuade him to return. But instead, five of them stayed with him after being inspired by his determination. After his various searches, he finally tried fasting with these five people, surviving on only the smallest amount of food. The prince hoped this would be the way to the Truth.

One day, he overheard a master musician instructing his pupil. "If the string is too tight, it will break; if the string is too loose, no sound will come out. So we should tie the string neither too loose nor too tight and then the musical notes will emerge true and clear."

"The Middle Way!" That was what Siddhartha had sought for years. He looked at himself: he was so skinny that his ribs were outlined against his skin, and there did not seem to be any flesh left on him. He was so weak that he could hardly stand up. If he continued like this, he could simply die from starvation without reaching the Truth. He ate, but not to enjoy the taste, nor to fill his stomach. But eating too much was not good either. The middle way was the solution.

He crawled to a river and drank some water. A young girl herding sheep came by and offered him some goat's milk, which invigorated his thin body. His five ascetic friends saw him drinking the milk and considered him to be breaking their rules of asceticism. They walked away from him.

He realized that searching for the Truth not only required determination, but also physical strength.

Siddhartha found a bodhi tree on the outskirts of the city of Gaya in eastern India. He sat down, arranged his limbs in meditation posture, and began to meditate. He vowed not to get up until he reached enlightenment. Forty-nine days later, he awakened to the Truth. During these days, Mara, the demon king, and his evil army attempted to disrupt his meditation in any way they could. Mara and his cohorts failed to disturb him and finally they fled. When the Buddha became awakened, he was thirty-five years old.

After his awakening, the Buddha sat there pondering, "Now I have found the Truth to end all suffering; how can I teach it so that other people can understand it and accept it? Maybe in speaking about the Truth, I would only confuse people, or my message might go unheeded. Perhaps I should just pass away."

Then there came the voice of Brahmadeva.2 "No, please don't leave the world without teaching. You should propagate the Truth because there are so many people suffering. Your teaching will save many of them." It is said that the deity requested the Buddha three times, and only then did the Buddha finally agree to teach others what he had learned.

The first people the Buddha encountered were the five ascetics he had practiced with before. They did not want to talk to him, but his majestic appearance forced them to look at him. The Buddha then began to lecture about the Truth to them, and these five mendicants became his first disciples. In Buddhism, this first lecture is called "the first turning of the dharma3 wheel."

The Buddha traveled along the Ganges river in northern India, lecturing wherever he went. The number of his disciples increased, so he organised the monk community, or "sangha" in Sanskrit. It is said that he journeyed north as far as the city of Kapilavastu, now currently Tilorakot in Tarai, Nepal. The southernmost point in his travels was Rajagrha, now at Rajgir in the middle section of the Ganges River. To the east, the Buddha went as far as Campa, now in Bhagalpur, Bangladesh. Travelling to the west he reached Kausambi, whose exact location is not known--it may either be in Kosam, a village by the Jumna River, or southwest of the city of Allahabad.

At that time, there was a caste system in India. There were four castes: the Brahmins (or priests), rulers and warriors, merchants and commoners, and slaves. A person in a lower caste could not marry anyone in a higher caste, and the children in each caste inherited the same caste from their families. Thus a slave's descendants were always slaves; they could not become priests, warriors, or even commoners. The Buddha wanted to break the barriers of caste, and so did not forbid those from the lower castes from entering his sangha community. Instead, they were treated impartially. He disregarded the background of anyone who went to him, either to become his disciple or to seek dharma from him, and taught all equally.

Jealousy and Challenge

As the number of Buddha's disciples and his popularity grew, some people became jealous of him and wanted to destroy him and the sangha. Members of the Brahmin caste especially hated him, because the Buddha's new teaching threatened their old religious rituals. Following are two famous stories.

A group of disbelievers bought a beautiful woman by the name of Cinca-manavika to tempt and destroy the Buddha. She was dressed very elegantly and wandered around the place where the Buddha and his disciples were staying. When other people were leaving the place, she instead went towards it; and when they were walking towards the place to hear the Buddha's teaching, she instead walked away from it. Slowly, a rumour arose that she was having an affair with the Buddha.

One day she tied a wooden basin in front of her belly, put on a red dress to cover it, and walked towards the place. When the Buddha was lecturing, she walked in and shouted at the Buddha, "How dare you just sit there and pretend nothing ever happened ? I am pregnant with your child...."

Suddenly the basin fell to the ground. Without saying a word, she dashed out the gate. The Buddha continued lecturing as though nothing had ever happened.

Another time, a woman named Sundari was killed by a group of assassins hired by another religious group, and her body was dumped in the garbage pile next to the sangha's resting place. This religious group reported the death to the government and asked for help. Her body was found and the group started the rumour that she had had an affair with someone from the sangha, and that this Buddhist monk had killed her.

A couple of days later, these assassins were drinking at a restaurant, but they had a fight over the money they received from the religious organization that had hired them. They were sent to jail, and they finally admitted to killing the woman and plotting against the Buddhists. The religious group was then arrested, and consequently all other religious organizations were rejected by the local citizens. At the same time, the Buddha and his followers became highly regarded, and more and more people became Buddha's followers.

The Dreams

Ananda had strange dreams one night, so the following day he told the Buddha, "Oh Enlightened One, I had strange dreams last night, and I hope that the Buddha can clarify them for me.

"I first dreamed that all the rivers and oceans were burned up by great fire.

"In my second dream, the sun had descended and the world was in total darkness. My head was supporting Mount Sumeru4, but I didn't feel its weight.

"In the third dream, I saw the sangha putting on Buddhist robes, but not following the Buddha's teachings.

"In the fourth dream, the monastic order did not wear Buddhist robes, and they faltered among the thorns and difficulties of the world.

"In the fifth dream, there were a lot of wild pigs rooting at the base of a huge, lush candana tree.5

"In the sixth dream, young elephants trampled green grass and polluted the river while ignoring warnings from the large elephants. The large elephants could only go away to a place with clear water and green grass. The young elephants later starved to death because there was no grass to eat and they could not drink the water from the river.

"In the seventh dream, a lion died, but other carnivorous animals did not dare to approach to eat the flesh. Instead, worms came out of the lion's body and ate its flesh.

"Why would I have these strange dreams?"

Then the Buddha replied with concern in his eyes. "Ananda, let me explain them to you. In the first dream, you saw the fire burning up the rivers and the oceans. This indicates that in the future, monks and nuns will betray my teachings and start disagreements within the sangha.

"In the second dream, your head supported Mount Sumeru. This means that in ninety days I will pass away. All the monks, heavenly beings and human beings will need your help to remember and pass down my teachings.

"In the third dream, you saw monks and nuns putting on the robes but not following my teachings. This means that after I pass away, the sangha will give lectures on my teachings to large gatherings of people, but the sangha itself will not follow my teachings.

"You saw monks not wearing the robes, lingering among the thorns. This shows that in the future there will be monks not wearing the robes but commoners' clothes. They will abandon the precepts and adopt commoners' lives, and they will also have wives and children.

"You saw wild pigs rooting at the candana tree. The sangha in the future will not promote my teachings, but will only look after their own livelihood by selling statues of buddhas and holding various services for commoners.

"Sixth, you saw young elephants not listening to the adult elephants and later dying from starvation. This means that in the future, new monks and nuns will not listen to the teachings of the elder monks, and they will fall into purgatory after death.

"Seventh, you saw worms eating the lion's flesh. It indicates that no other religions will destroy my teaching, but the monastic order itself will be destroyed from within.

"Ananda, what you dreamt last night is the future of Buddhism," the Buddha said sadly.

His Final Days

The Buddha attained his enlightenment at the age of 35. From then on, he was busy teaching while tirelessly travelling around northern India.

All things come and go, and the Buddha's body was subject to the same changes. The Buddha too became old and fragile. He had reached his last lifetime and would no longer be reincarnated, but his physical body still went through the changes of human life--from young to old, from energetic to weak, finally reaching the point of death.

One day, he came to Ananda. "Ananda, the Buddha already knows the Ultimate Truth. If he so wishes, he can stay as long as he desires in this world, teaching the Truth to human beings."

Ananda only replied, "I guess so."

Three times the Buddha said this to Ananda, and each time Ananda replied listlessly, "I guess so."

Ananda was blinded by Mara. The Buddha sighed and decided to leave this world.

He chose to pass away in Kusinagara. When he and his followers were walking towards Kusinagara, they took a rest in the city of Pava. A goldsmith was so delighted to see the great teacher that he offered food to the Buddha and the sangha. The Buddha then developed a stomach pain and serious diarrhoea. Some say the Buddha ate pork or poisonous mushrooms during the meal provided by the goldsmith. In any event, this weakened his body much further.

Knowing the Buddha's death was approaching, Ananda said to the Buddha: "Buddha, we still have four questions to be clarified. First, whom should we rely on as a teacher after you pass away? Second, whom should we rely on to live in peace after you pass away? Third, what should we do about violent and evil people? Fourth, what should we do with your teachings so people can believe them?"

The Buddha replied, "First, you should rely on the precepts as your teacher. Second, you should rely on the four-fold stage of mindfulness6 to live in peace. Third, as for those violent and evil people, you should ignore them. And lastly, when you record the teachings, start each one with the phrase 'Thus I have heard' to indicate that you heard the teaching from the Buddha."

Buddha and his followers entered a forest outside Kusinagara. Ananda set up a resting spot for the Buddha. The Buddha lay down on his right side, with his head pointed towards the north and his right hand supporting his head.

"Now is your final chance to ask me any questions you may still have," the Buddha said. "I won't be able to speak to you again." Then he continued. "The sentient beings I wanted to deliver have been delivered. Those I have not delivered will be delivered when the conditions are right. Now there is no need for my body to continue in this worldly existence. You should follow what I have taught. This is where my body will be forever!"

Then he passed away.

His body was put into a golden coffin and prepared for cremation. It is said that the coffin could not be ignited until his disciple Kasyapa returned. He bowed towards the coffin and walked around it three times. Then the fire blazed up by itself, engulfing the coffin.

The sarira7 from the Buddha's remains became objects that many states fought over. When the Buddha was alive, different states could ask the Buddha to come lecture on his teachings and to receive their offerings. But now that the Buddha had passed away, the sarira came to embody the Buddha's holiness. Finally it was decided that the sarira would be divided into eight parts for eight different nations.

The Buddha passed away long ago, but we have him to thank for showing us a new way to live. There are many people who have benefited from his wisdom through the ages. For Buddhists, he is revered as the most important teacher.

1. Prince Gautama lived in a Hindu culture, which then and now believes in reincarnation: that after death, a person returns to this world in a different form. One's deeds in this lifetime determine the state in which one is born in the next lifetime, but there is no escape from the cycle of rebirth.

2. One of three gods born at the beginning of the universe according to Indian mythology.

3. A Sanskrit word referring to the teachings of the Buddha.

4. This mountain was considered to be the central mountain of the universe in the Indian and the Buddhist mythologies.

5. A type of tree from southern India.