Buddha.
What do you call a man of unbreakable fortitude of spirit, of perfectly clear vision, of universal and unbounded compassion? You call him Buddha.
The man who became Buddha was born Siddhatha Gautama, in Northern India, over 2500 years ago. He was born a Prince in a warrior clan, got married, and had a son. Even though he lived amidst pleasure, luxury and ease, he was still profoundly dissatisfied. So dissatisfied that one night, in his 30th year, taking one last look at wife and child, he crept silently out of his palace. Riding his horse up to the border of his kingdom, he cut off hair and beard and donned the saffron coloured robe of a wandering ascetic.
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He first lived under the teachers of the day, and then formed his own group with five disciples. His practice of austerities brought him a certain fame. But, after six years of that kind of life, he had to conclude that he was no nearer to transcending, or understanding, the human condition.
With his ceasing of austerities, his group left him in disgust saying he had reverted to the lowlife. He went off into the forest, alone. There he dwelt with renewed strength, developing meditative concentration.
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On the full moon night in May, whilst sitting absorbed in the contemplation of the body and its breathing, knowledge arose, vision arose, light arose. He attained Full and Perfect Enlightenment. He had reached at state of unbroken fortitude of spirit, perfectly clear vision, and universal unbounded compassion. He had rooted out greed, hatred and ignorance, and he had overcome suffering in all its possible forms.
After his attainment of Enlightenment he had attained what there was to attain in life, he was perfectly and completely content. Yet, out of compassion for this suffering world, he spent the last 45 years of his life teaching the means by which others may also reach that experience. What we today call Buddhism, in all its different cultural forms, is our inheritance of that teaching.
You can read here a translation of the Fire Sutta, from the Majjhima Nikaya.
© Centre Bouddhiste de l’Ile de France 2003.
[in French] [Introduction] [Buddha] [Buddhism] [Meditation] [Sangharakshita] [FWBO] [the Centre]
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Dernière mise à jour:
04 avril, 2007.