Who Was Buddha Or Siddhartha Gautama?
Author: Tony Ha

Founder of Buddhism, Pāli: Gotama Buddha or Gautama Buddha
was a spiritual instructor in ancient India, between an
estimated 563 BCE and 483 BCE (possibly even a century later).

An excellent book on Buddha's life is, "Introduction to
Buddhism," by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. He discusses how Buddha
being the founder of the Buddhist religion called Buddha
Shakyamuni, after Buddha's real last name "Shakya" combined
with "Muni" for Able One. A lesson in history tells the story
of his life:

History Lesson
Long ago around 624 BC, King Shuddhodana and Queen Mayadevi
Lumbini reigned in an area now belonging to Nepal, then
referred to as northern India. The queen has a dream one
evening that a white elephant came down from the heavens or
more specifically Tushita heaven, the Pure Land of Buddha
Maitreya, and penetrated her womb. This elephant told the queen
that she was had just conceived a baby, a powerful and pure
being, from the same place the elephant was from, Tushita
heaven, the Pure Land of Buddha Maitreya.

When Queen Mayadevi went into labor, she did not suffer
painfully as most women do with birthing pains. Instead, the
queen encountered or was a part of a vision, said to be pure
and special. In this vision, she was standing with a branch of
a tree held in her right hand. While this was going on, gods
Indra and Brahma lifted the baby effortlessly and without pain
from her, and ceremoniously honored him, AKA Buddha Skakyamuni,
offering ritual ablutions to him.

Royal prince Buddha Skakyamuni was born. Or more to point, when
the King Shuddhodana saw his son and felt as though he had
fulfillment of his own wishes, he named his young prince
"Siddhartha."

The king asked for predictions about his son's future from a
Brahmin seer. And the seer conducted a careful investigation.

He found that the prince could become either a world ruler or
chakravatin king, or a Buddha, fully enlightened. But the reign
of chakravatin kings is over, so he would surely become a
Buddha. And the prince would influence and help many, many
people worldwide just like the sun's rays.

And so it has come to pass and Buddha has indeed influenced
many, many people around the globe. His reach seems to be
similar to that of the sun's rays after all.


About The Author: Tony Ha is a freelance writer who writes
about buddhism. He loves to write about Siddhartha Gautama at
http://www.fundamentalbuddhism.com/who-was-buddha.html & he
reads about the four noble truths at
http://www.fundamentalbuddhism.com/four-noble-truths.html .