Buddha (c. 463–c. 383 BCE)
Leo D. Lefebure
Religious leader and founder of the Buddhist tradition
The term Buddha refers to a fully awakened and enlightened being. According to the Buddhist tradition, there have been many such beings, but the term most commonly refers to Siddhartha Gautama, an influential religious leader in ancient Nepal and India. He was born into the ruling and military class, but at about the age of twenty-nine, he left his comfortable palace life on a religious quest to find a way out of suffering. After six years of searching, learning, and meditating, he was transformed by an experience of enlightenment and then spent about forty-five years teaching, advising laypeople, and forming monastic communities in northern India and Nepal. The Buddhist tradition reveres him as the great teacher of wisdom and compassion, the discoverer of the true nature of existence and the way to overcome suffering; in some Buddhist perspectives he is venerated as the manifestation of ultimate reality itself. The entire human community can recognize that Siddhartha Gautama, who became Shakyamuni Buddha, is one of the most influential religious leaders in all of history, the founder of a tradition that has influenced cultures across south, central, and east Asia for centuries and that is practiced by millions of people throughout the world today.
To distinguish him from other Buddhas, Buddhists refer to Siddhartha Gautama after his enlightenment as Shakyamuni Buddha. His personal name, Siddhartha, means “goal attained.” Gautama (spelled “Gotama” in the Pali language of ancient India) was the name of his family; Shakya was the name of his clan. “Muni” literally means “the one who keeps silent” and commonly refers to a sage. Thus Shakyamuni is the sage of the Shakya clan. His father, Suddhodana, is often called a king by the later Buddhist tradition, but he may have been the elected head of a clan.
Like Socrates, Jesus, and Muhammad, Shakyamuni Buddha left behind no writings of his own. The earliest written accounts of his life and teaching come from the Buddhist scriptures written in Pali, composed long after his death, and contain legendary elements, and so it is difficult to be certain of the exact details of his historical life; indeed, even the dates of his life are in dispute. Most American, European, and Indian scholars have traditionally dated his birth about 566 BCE and his death about 486 BCE; Theravada Buddhists in Sri Lanka and southeast Asia place his birth in 624 and his death in 544 BCE; however, many recent Japanese and Western scholars believe his dates were later, variously from 448 to 368 BCE, or from 463 to 383 BCE. This article will examine his life and teaching as remembered and revered by the later Buddhist tradition.
The Early Life of Siddhartha Gautama
The traditional narrative of the life of Shakyamuni Buddha hinges on a choice between two forms of leadership. As soon as Siddhartha was born, a religious seer named Asita came to see the child and proclaimed to his father, Suddhodana, that the newborn boy would become a very important leader. According to the later Buddhist tradition, however, it was not clear if he would be a great religious teacher or a mighty political and military ruler. Eager to have a powerful heir who would extend the might of the kingdom, Suddhodana resolved to shelter the young Siddhartha from any awareness of suffering, fearing that such knowledge could prompt him to a religious quest. The prince reportedly grew up surrounded by worldly pleasures, unaware of illness, old age, or death. The later Buddhist tradition would see the conditions of his youth as representative of a widespread problem: Humans often block out awareness of suffering because it is unpleasant. For Siddhartha and his followers, this restriction of consciousness is the first and most formidable obstacle to genuine leadership.
When he was sixteen or seventeen, Siddhartha married a beautiful woman, Yasodhara, who bore a son, Rahula. After this, according to the Buddhist tradition, Siddhartha made four trips outside the palace during which, despite his father's best efforts, he encountered in succession an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a holy man. Puzzled by each of these encounters, he asked his charioteer about old age, sickness, and death and learned that these are part of the human condition and come to all human beings. These discoveries prodded him to ponder the transience and fragility of existence and the inevitability of suffering. The fourth encounter with an ascetic holy man taught him that an alternative lifestyle was possible and challenged him to undertake a religious search to resolve the problem of the unsatisfactory character of existence.
After much internal reflection, Siddhartha informed his father and wife that he would leave them to find an end to suffering. They entreated him to stay and perform the duties of his class as a political and military leader, but he insisted on pursuing his goal. He left the palace, cut his hair, and went to study with renowned Hindu religious masters, first with Arada Kalama and later with Udraka Ramaputra. He learned as much as they could teach him about meditation and wisdom, but he was frustrated that they did not teach how to attain full freedom from suffering. He joined a group of ascetics and undertook extreme fasts, but he eventually decided this was not the way to genuine liberation. Instead, he pursued a middle way, neither the luxury of the palace nor extreme asceticism.
Abandoning other teachers, he sat under a tree, determined to stay there until he reached his goal. Mara, a supernatural spirit who rules over the world of suffering and tempts human beings, reportedly came and tried to frighten him into abandoning his quest, but Siddhartha remained firm and sat unmoved. As Mara continued his efforts but only became more frustrated, Siddhartha put his hand on the earth, calling the spirit of the earth as a witness that his resolve was unshaken and his resistance to temptation was firm. This began the process of his enlightenment. That night Siddhartha became a Buddha, sitting through the night, remembering his past lives, and understanding for the first time the cause of suffering and the path of liberation.
The Noble Eightfold Path
This is the Middle Path which the Perfect One discovered and expounded, which gives rise to vision and knowledge, which leads to peace, wisdom, enlightenment, and nirvana—the Noble Eightfold Path:
1. Right Understanding: of suffering, of its origin, of its cessation, of the way leading to the cessation of suffering.
2. Right Intention: of renunciation, free from craving; of good will, free from aversion; of compassion, free from cruelty.
3. Right Speech: abstaining from false speech, abstaining from malicious speech, abstaining from harsh speech, abstaining from useless speech.
4. Right Action: abstaining from taking life, abstaining from stealing, abstaining from sexual misconduct.
5. Right Livelihood: giving up wrong livelihood, one earns one's living by a right form of livelihood.
6. Right effort: to prevent unarisen unwholesome evil states of mind from arising by making effort, stirring up energy and exerting mind.
7. Right mindfulness: mindful contemplation of the body, mindful contemplation of feelings, mindful contemplation of the mind, mindful contemplation of mental objects.
8. Right Concentration: Quite secluded from sense pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states of mind one enters and dwells in the first jhana (meditative absorption), which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought with rapture and happiness born of seclusion.
With the subsiding of applied thought and sustained thought one enters and dwells in the second jhana, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without applied and sustained thought, is filled with rapture and happiness born of concentration.
With the fading away of rapture, one dwells in equanimity, mindful and discerning; and one experiences in one's own person that happiness of which the noble ones say: “Happily lives one who is equanimous and mindful”—thus one enters and dwells in the third jhana.
With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, one enters and dwells in the fourth jhana, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and has purity of mindfulness due to equanimity.
Buddhist Studies. Retrieved September 10, 2003 The Teaching of the Buddha
Immediately after his enlightenment, Shakyamuni Buddha reportedly doubted that anyone else could understand what he had learned. According to later Buddhist tradition, the Hindu god Brahma came and implored the Buddha to share his wisdom with others. Shakyamuni then went to the Deer Park in Varanasi (Benares) and met the ascetics with whom he had earlier lived. His first sermon to them expressed the central content of his enlightenment in the Four Noble Truths.
The First Noble Truth is that life as ordinarily lived is dukkha, unsatisfactory and marked by suffering because it is impermanent and leads to decay and death. Even the greatest pleasures come to an end. The Second Noble Truth teaches that the cause of this unsatisfactoriness lies in tanha, a word often translated as “desire,” but probably better understood as “craving,” as in an addiction. This craving comes from the illusion that we possess a permanent, substantial self, and it leads us to grasp at things that cannot ultimately satisfy us. Craving leads to endless forms of unnecessary suffering. The Third Noble Truth promises that there is an end to suffering; this is called nirvana, the blowing out of the flame of craving. This is an indescribable state. Images and concepts can only point toward it but cannot convey its true meaning. The Fourth Noble Truth teaches the Eightfold Path, which leads to liberation and enlightenment. The Four Noble Truths are similar to a doctor's analysis of a disease, diagnosis of the cause, promise of a cure, and prescription for recovery.
The Eightfold Path includes three interdependent stages: wisdom, ethical conduct, and meditation. The first stage consists of Right Understanding and Right Intention. Right Understanding is the transformative recognition of the truth of the Buddha's teaching; it is not simply understanding a concept but fully realizing for oneself the Buddha's insight. At the center is the realization of interdependence; nothing exists as a separate and permanent entity unto itself. Right Intention renounces all ill will and violence. The second stage includes Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood. This stage centers on the Five Precepts taken by all Buddhists, monastic and lay: not to kill or injure any living being; not to take what is not given; not to indulge in sensual pleasure, especially sexual misconduct; not to speak in ways that are false or unkind; and not to use intoxicants or drugs that affect one's consciousness. The third stage embraces Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. This stage is the practice of meditation, which leads from ethical conduct to a fuller comprehension of transformative wisdom. Most Buddhist traditions trust that a proper practice of meditation will lead eventually to overcoming illusions and cravings and will bring peace and tranquility even amid difficulties. While there is a wide variety of forms of meditation, many focus on following one's breath and being aware of the present moment without judging, grasping, or resisting what arises in consciousness.
The Buddha as Leader
After his enlightenment, the Buddha became one of the most influential leaders in northern India and Nepal. He organized a monastic community called the Sangha for men and women who wished to dedicate themselves completely to the path he taught. Monastics from all classes of society came together and lived as equals. Buddhist monks would go out to beg for food from the surrounding community. The virtue of generosity, dana, allowed lay Buddhists to support and share in the benefits of the monastic community.
Shakyamuni Buddha also taught many principles for ruling society. He saw the reordering of consciousness through meditation and ethical conduct as inextricably linked to reordering social relations. He believed that poverty was a cause of immorality and crime. He rejected punishment as not an effective way to suppress crime, and he called for adequate wages for workers to prevent crime. He urged workers, in turn, to be skilled and energetic in their professions, earn their wages in righteous ways, and spend reasonably in proportion to their income, neither too much nor too little.
The Buddha, coming from the ruling class himself, served as an advisor to kings, and the principles he set forth have shaped the vision of political leadership in Buddhist cultures for centuries. The king had a special responsibility to be an agent for the eternal dharma, the order of truth that is the basis for human duties. The king should give his wealth and reputation for the good of his people and be willing even to give his life for his people. The Buddha was the supreme realization of spiritual authority; the ideal monarch was to be the righteous ruler in the secular sphere.
At the center of Shakyamuni Buddha's life and teaching are the twin virtues of wisdom and compassion. His teaching, example, and the practice of Buddhist meditation have enriched the lives of countless people from many cultures and religious traditions.
Leo D. Lefebure 10.4135/9781412952392.n33 Further Reading Gruzalski, B. (2000). On the Buddha (Wadsworth Philosophers Series). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Ling, T. (1973). The Buddha: Buddhist civilization in India and Ceylon. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books. Mascaro, J. (Trans.). (1973). The Dhammapada: The path of perfection. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books. Nagao, G. The Buddha's life as parable for later Buddhist thought. Eastern Buddhist 24 (2) (1991) 1–32 Nakamura, H. (2000). Gotama Buddha: A biography based on the most reliable texts (G. Sekimori, Trans.). Tokyo: Kosei. Pande, G. C. (1997). The message of Gotama Buddha and its earliest interpretations. In Yoshinori, T., Van Bragt, J., Heisig, J. W., O'Leary, J. S., & Swanson, P. L. (Eds.). Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, and early Chinese (pp. 3–33). New York: Crossroad. Rahula, W. (1959). What the Buddha taught. New York: Grove Press.
Photo : A white marble sculpture of the head of Buddha made between 618 and 960 BCE during the Tang Dynasty in China.
Christie's Images/Corbis.
Source: Encyclopedia of Leadership George R. Goethals & Georgia J. Sorenson & James MacGregor Burns
