23 Facts About Gautama Siddhartha

Gautama Siddhartha taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and severe asceticism, a training of the mind that included ethical training and meditative practices such as effort, mindfulness, and jhana.

Indeed, according to the Buddhist tradition, following the Nidanakatha, the introductory to the Jataka tales, the stories of the former lives of the Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha was born in Lumbini.

Sources which present a complete picture of the life of Siddhartha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies.

Traditional biographies of Gautama Siddhartha often include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events.

Gautama Siddhartha's father Suddhodana was "an elected chief of the Shakya clan", whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime.

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Early texts suggest that Gautama Siddhartha was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition.

Legendary biographies tell the story of how Gautama Siddhartha left his palace to see the outside world for the first time and how he was shocked by his encounter with human suffering.

Shortly after seeing the four sights, Gautama Siddhartha woke up at night and saw his female servants lying in unattractive, corpse-like poses, which shocked him.

Gautama Siddhartha traveled to the river Anomiya, and cut off his hair.

Gautama Siddhartha rejected the offer but promised to visit his kingdom first, upon attaining enlightenment.

Majjhima Nikaya 4 mentions that Gautama Siddhartha lived in "remote jungle thickets" during his years of spiritual striving and had to overcome the fear that he felt while living in the forests.

However, Gautama Siddhartha felt unsatisfied by the practice because it "does not lead to revulsion, to dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to knowledge, to awakening, to Nibbana", and moved on to become a student of Udraka Ramaputra .

The Mahasaccaka-sutta and most of its parallels agree that after taking asceticism to its extremes, Gautama Siddhartha realized that this had not helped him attain nirvana, and that he needed to regain strength to pursue his goal.

At this point, Gautama Siddhartha remembered a previous experience of dhyana he had as a child sitting under a tree while his father worked.

Gautama Siddhartha's sangha enjoyed the patronage of the kings of Kosala and Magadha and he thus spent a lot of time in their respective capitals, Savatthi and Rajagaha.

Gautama Siddhartha is said to have gifted Jeta's grove to the sangha at great expense .

Gautama Siddhartha then repeated his final instructions to the sangha, which was that the Dhamma and Vinaya was to be their teacher after his death.

Gautama Siddhartha then entered his final meditation and died, reaching what is known as parinirvana .

Gautama Siddhartha especially critiqued animal sacrifice as taught in Vedas.

Gautama Siddhartha compared samsaric existence to a fire, which is dynamic and requires fuel in order to keep burning.

Gautama Siddhartha taught that mendicants or "beggars" were supposed to give up all possessions and to own just a begging bowl and three robes.

Gautama Siddhartha taught them to "hold regular and frequent assemblies", live in harmony and maintain their traditions.

Gautama Siddhartha posits that the Fourth Noble Truths, the Eightfold path and Dependent Origination, which are commonly seen as essential to Buddhism, are later formulations which form part of the explanatory framework of this "liberating insight".