Buddhism's Original Texts 1: The Buddha's Life and Root Teaching

Thank you for visiting. This article is the first installment in a series explaining the original texts of Buddhism.

This time, I look at the life of Buddhism’s founder, the “Buddha,” and the root teaching common to all Buddhism. Before getting into the explanation of the scriptures, let us first grasp “what kind of religion Buddhism is, and what it preaches.”

For an overview map of Buddhism’s original texts as a whole, please see this summary article.

Buddhism's Original Texts: The Tripitaka and the Major Sutrasen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-buddhism/

Who Is the Buddha — “the Awakened One”

The “Buddha” is not the name of a particular person, but a title meaning “the awakened one, the one who realized the truth.” The historical figure we call “Shakyamuni” had the real name “Gautama Siddhartha,” and, being of the Shakya clan, is also called “Shakyamuni (the sage of the Shakya clan).”

There are various theories about his birth and death dates, but he is generally held to have been active around the 5th century BC, near the present border of Nepal and India. What should be noted is that the Buddha did not call himself a god. He was, to the last, “a single human who awoke to the truth,” and a “teacher” who showed people the path to that enlightenment. Here is a great difference from other religions that set up a single god.

The Origins of Religion: Why We Needed a ‘God’View on Amazon → An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Buddhist StatuesView on Amazon →

The Buddha’s Life

The Buddha’s life came to be told later with a legendary coloring. Let us trace its broad flow.

Birth, and a Blessed Prince Years

Siddhartha is held to have been born as the child of the Shakya king “Suddhodana,” at the “Lumbini Garden,” where his mother Queen Maya stopped on the way to her home. Legend tells that, right after birth, he walked seven steps and declared, “In heaven and on earth, I alone am the honored one.” This is interpreted to mean not “I alone am great,” but that the life of each person is precious beyond all exchange.

As a prince, he led a life wanting for nothing. He lived in a beautiful palace, took a consort, and had a child. The father-king surrounded him with every pleasure so that Siddhartha would not touch worldly suffering.

The Four Encounters at the Gates — Knowing the Suffering of Life

But one event changed his life. When he went out from the castle’s four gates, he met, one after another, an aged person, a sick person, and a corpse, and saw firsthand the suffering of “age, illness, death,” which a human cannot escape. And at the last gate, he met the calm figure of a “renunciant (shramana)” who had cast off everything to practice.

By this “four encounters at the gates,” Siddhartha was seized by the question, “Why do people suffer? Is there no path to overcome that suffering?” And at age 29, casting off consort, child, and throne, he secretly slipped out of the castle and renounced the world.

Austerities, and Toward Enlightenment

Having renounced the world, Siddhartha studied under the excellent practitioners of the time and threw himself into unimaginable austerities. It is told that he became nothing but skin and bones from fasting so severe as to eat only one grain of rice a day. But even after six years of austerities, he did not reach enlightenment.

Here he gained a grave realization. Both the prince’s life drowning in pleasure and the extreme austerities that torment the body are of no use for enlightenment. He cast off the austerities and recovered his strength with milk-porridge offered by the village girl Sujata. And he sat beneath the bodhi tree and entered deep meditation, vowing, “I will never rise until I gain enlightenment.”

Repelling the temptation of the demon (Mara), at last he completely realized the truth of the world. It was at age 35. The place where he attained this enlightenment was later called “Bodh Gaya” and became Buddhism’s greatest holy site. Thus Siddhartha became the “Buddha (the awakened one).”

The First Sermon, and 45 Years of Teaching

The enlightened Buddha is told to have at first hesitated, “this truth is too profound; it would not be understood by people.” But from the wish to save all people, he resolved to preach the teaching.

The Buddha first preached the teaching to the five companions with whom he had once practiced austerities. This is called the “first turning of the wheel of the Dharma (turning the wheel of truth for the first time).” The place is held to be “Sarnath (the Deer Park).” The five received the Buddha’s teaching and became the first disciples, and here the “Three Jewels” of the Buddha, the Dharma (teaching), and the Sangha (the order) came together.

Thereafter, the Buddha kept walking from place to place and preaching the teaching for about 45 years, until he died at age 80. Because he opened the teaching to anyone regardless of status, many disciples gathered, and the order (sangha) grew greatly.

The Passing (Nirvana)

At the end of his long journey of teaching, the Buddha, in the land of “Kushinagar,” laid his body between two sal trees and quietly breathed his last. It is held to be at age 80. This is called “the passing” or “nirvana.”

The words he left to his disciples at the last are said to have been to the effect, “All things change. Without negligence, take yourself as a refuge, take the Dharma (teaching) as a refuge, and complete your practice” (be a lamp to yourselves, be a lamp of the Dharma). That he set up no particular successor and preached “take yourself and the Dharma (truth) as your refuge” was the Buddha’s last testament.

The Ten Great Disciples Who Supported the Buddha

In the 45 years of teaching, many excellent disciples gathered around the Buddha. The 10 most outstanding are praised as the “Ten Great Disciples,” each as “foremost in such-and-such.” Their presence, vividly appearing in the scriptures, shows that Buddhism is not the thought of a single genius, but a teaching supported and transmitted by many personalities.

In particular, Ananda, who remembered the Buddha’s words more than anyone, and Mahakashyapa, who held the order together, played central roles, right after the Buddha’s passing, in the work of correctly re-gathering the teaching (the council). I look at this in detail in the next Article 2.

The Root Teaching — the Core of Buddhism

So, what was the truth the Buddha realized? Let us look at the root teaching of Buddhism, shared across sects.

Dependent Origination — All Things Arise in Relationship

The foundation of Buddhism’s worldview is “dependent origination.” This is the idea that “all things do not exist alone, but arise from the interrelation of various causes and conditions.”

“Because this is, that is. Because this arises, that arises.” All things depend on one another and arise and perish within connection. Therefore, it is held that there is no eternally unchanging substance of “self” or “thing.” This idea of dependent origination became the source of the later teachings of “impermanence,” “non-self,” and “emptiness.”

The Four Noble Truths — Four Sacred Truths

The most basic teaching, which the Buddha is held to have preached at the first turning of the wheel, is the “Four Noble Truths.” “Truth” means “truth.” It grasps the suffering of life in four stages, like a doctor diagnosing and treating an illness.

The “suffering” meant here is not mere pain, but refers to “things not going as one wishes.” Representative sufferings are the “four sufferings and eight sufferings.” To the four sufferings of inescapable birth, age, illness, and death are added the suffering of parting from loved ones, the suffering of meeting those one hates, the suffering of seeking but not gaining, and the suffering of the body and mind not going as one wishes — these eight are the origin of the everyday phrase “four sufferings and eight sufferings.”

The Eightfold Path — Eight Practices to Extinguish Suffering

The concrete practice toward enlightenment that the last of the Four Noble Truths, “the truth of the path,” shows is the “Eightfold Path.” It refers to eight “right” actions.

The Middle Way — Avoiding the Two Extremes

What is the premise of this Eightfold Path is the spirit of the “middle way.” The Buddha himself, after experiencing the two extremes of the luxurious prince’s life and the austerities that torment the body, realized that the path leaning to neither leads to enlightenment. A balanced way of life, leaning to neither pleasure nor asceticism — that is the middle way.

The Three Marks of Existence — the Banner That Makes Buddhism Buddhism

Finally, let me introduce the “three marks of existence,” which plainly show Buddhism’s worldview. “Mark of the Dharma” means “the banner of Buddhism,” and these three are the fundamental theses, acknowledging which is to be Buddhism.

• All conditioned things are impermanent: all things ceaselessly change, and nothing is eternal and unchanging
• All things are without self: in all things there is no fixed, unchanging “self (substance)”
• Nirvana is peace: the state of enlightenment apart from attachment (nirvana) is the true peace

“All things pass (impermanence), and there is no certain self (non-self). When one accepts this and lets go of attachment, one is freed from suffering (nirvana)” — this is the core of the truth the Buddha realized.

To Learn More

Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.

Living Buddha, Living Christ (new edition)View on Amazon → A Complete History of Philosophy and ReligionView on Amazon →

Conclusion

In this article, I explained in detail the life of the Buddha and the root teaching of Buddhism. How was it?

Prince Siddhartha, facing the suffering of age, illness, and death, renounced the world, cast off austerities and reached the middle way, and was enlightened beneath the bodhi tree to become the Buddha — his life, and the core teachings of dependent origination, the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, and the three marks, are the starting point of all Buddhism beyond sect.

In the next Article 2, I will explain how, after the Buddha’s death, these teachings were gathered into the scriptures called the “Tripitaka,” and how it divided into Theravada and Mahayana.

Buddhism's Original Texts: The Tripitaka and the Major Sutrasen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-buddhism/

I hope you’ll read the next article too.