Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama ( in Sanskrit Siddhartha Gautama ( सिद्धार्थ गौतम ) or Siddhattha Gotama, in Pali, according corrected long chronology * 563 BC in Lumbini, Nepal, † 483 BC in Kushinagar, India) taught as the Buddha (literally the Awakened, see Bodhi ) the Dharma ( the teachings literally ) and as such was the founder of Buddhism.
- 3.2.1 Mahavastu
- 3.2.2 Buddhacarita
- 3.2.3 Lalitavistara
- 3.2.4 Jataka tales
Chronology
The death of Siddhartha was formerly a chronological reference point for Indian history. As the beginning of the Buddhist era, he played an important role. The oldest known calculations were made in Sri Lanka. They refer to the information there, dating back to the period from the 4th to the early 6th century BC Mahavamsa chronicles Dipavamsa and. This one came on a year of death, which is similar to the Western calendar 544 or 543 BC. Starting point of the calculation was the tradition to the effect that 168 years and are 218 years between the death of the Buddha and the accession to power of the king Chandragupta Maurya between the death of the Buddha and the ruler consecration of King Ashoka. This approach is known in the research as " uncorrected long chronology " or " Southern Buddhist chronology ". He is traditionally common in the Theravada Buddhists of Southeast Asia. There were also datings in much earlier periods.
In the early 19th century, European research took the approach of " uncorrected long chronology " as he handed down the latest in the sources and thus was the most credible. However, in 1837 doubted George Turnour, the editor of the Mahavamsa, the " uncorrected long chronology ". He accepted the surviving information about the time intervals between the death of the Buddha and the rule sprints of the two kings, put the latter but at about sixty years later. This gives a new chronology, which is referred to in the research as "corrected long chronology " returned. According to her, the death of the Buddha in the period 486-477 BC This approach falls remained until the second half of the 20th century in Europe significantly. In Asia, the vast majority of Buddhists held fast " uncorrected " on the traditional dating 544/543 BC; Therefore, the 2500th anniversary of the alleged death was celebrated in 1956.
Based on the " corrected long chronology " was calculated as the death year 483 BC, when birth year 563 BC This dating was among educated Buddhists appeal, but could not " uncorrected " prevail against the traditional itself.
Recent research has "corrected long chronology " abandoned; it is represented only sporadically. Currently, different datings are discussed, all of decades later than the time frame of the " corrected long chronology ". Often the life of the Buddha after this " short chronology " about a century later recognized as after the " corrected long chronology ". The currently prevailing approaches for dating the death vary between about 420 and about 368 BC
Name
Siddhartha Gautama is the Sanskrit form of the name. In Pali Siddhattha Gotama he is. We now know that Pali is not the language of the oldest surviving texts of Buddhism, but Sanskrit. Siddhartha, the original name, which he received from his parents, means " who has reached his / target " or " wish fulfilled ". Gautama or Gotama means " leader of the herd " or " biggest bull". However, the name was also comparable with our family name - he showed the membership of the Gautama clan at ( Sanskrit: Gautama gotra, Pali: Gotama gotta, see Gotra ), whose members all were able to be addressed.
In addition to the designation as the Buddha - the " Awakened One " - Siddhartha Gautama were also awarded honorary names, including Tathagata (Sanskrit तथागत Tathāgata " the So - Thither came " ) and Shakyamuni (Sanskrit शाक्यमुनि Śākyamuni " the way [ of the people ] of the Shakya " ).
Life
Accounts of the life of Gautama Siddhartha was only after his death by members of the Sangha, the community of Dharma practitioners, collected and provided exclusively orally for a long time. The traditional presentation of the life of the Buddha can be summarized as follows:
The surviving life story
Childhood and youth
According to tradition, Siddhartha was born into a noble family of the north Indian people of the Shakya. His parents, King Shuddhodana and his wife Mahamaya, belonged to a Kshatriya caste and reigned in the capital Kapilavastu (now located in Nepal ). Before his birth, Siddhartha is supposed to be his mother appeared in a vision in the form of a white elephant. He was born in a full moon night in Lumbini. On this day is still committed the Vesakh hard in many Buddhist countries today, the highest Buddhist holiday on which his birth, his awakening and his input is thought in the Parinirvana. During his birth announced according to the legend, the seer Asita that this child would become a great king or a great holy man. Shuddhodana Thereupon his son, whom he wanted to make a king, neither instruct religious, yet he admitted that Siddhartha should get human suffering face.
Even as a child showed Siddhartha extraordinary talents and wisdom. At the age of 16, he was married to Princess Yasodhara. They lived in a palace, where they all belonged to the good life, was available and he hardly left.
Adulthood
However, he was dissatisfied and unfulfilled. The age of 29, soon after the birth of his only son Rahula, he left the supposedly carefree life he led until then in the palace, and took walks around the area. He saw for the first time the reality of life and the suffering of humanity compared. The legend tells of encounters with a crippled old man, a sick with fever, a rotting corpse and, finally, an ascetic ( "Four Marks"). He realized that these realities - aging, sickness, death and pain - are inextricably linked to the life, that prosperity and wealth, however, do not last, and decided to look for a way out of the general suffering.
So he left his wife Yasodhara, the palace and the kingdom of his parents and began to lead the life of an ascetic. He learned the yogic practices and meditation as students from two respected Brahmin hermits, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta. First, he turned to India at that time widespread pain asceticism. He spent six years as in the valley of the Ganges, but he found neither peace of mind nor the desired answers. Near starvation, he realized that this could not be the way to liberation. So he gave up the traditional religions and their methods and devoted himself to looking after his own way from this point on meditation, non-possessory life of a mendicant leader, but no longer in strict asceticism.
Many years later, when Siddhartha became the Buddha, his former wife Yasodhara came together with her mother Pajapati, the foster mother of Siddhartha, as a nun in the Order of the Buddha, and finally became the Arhat.
Awakening
At the age of 35 he was in a full moon night in the depths of sinking under a poplar fig ( today, in memory of the awakening of the Buddha, known as the Bodhi tree ) when he ( and often inaccurate with " enlightenment " translated "awakening" ) Bodhi obtained. Hatred, desire and ignorance fell away from him. He became the "Buddha", the Awakened One.
After his awakening Gautama held in the Deer Park at Isipatana (modern Sarnath ) near Benares before a group of five ascetics, his former companions, his first sermon and proclaimed the four noble truths. The five companions were thus the first members of the Buddhist ( monk ) community ( Sangha ). From that day on, he taught for 45 years in north-east India this " middle path " between luxury and asceticism, the eightfold path of virtue, meditation and wisdom, which would lead to awakening. He spoke to people of all walks of life, before kings and peasants, Brahmins and outcasts, moneylenders and beggars, saints and robbers. The distinctions of caste systems or the differences between the social groups he did not recognize. The way he taught all men and women was open, who were willing to understand him and to go.
Death
From his death, reports the Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN 16), the "Great Sutra of Pari- Nirvana": 80- year break, the Buddha to his final journey. He is accompanied by followers who listen to his discourses.
One story tells how he a lotus flower in silence turns a short time before his death on Vulture mountain before the assembled monks in his hand. All the monks are at a loss to Mahakashyapa on which about smiles and thus brings the quality of its internal Wesensschau expressed. Then Buddha explains all his wisdom and his spirit had now been transferred to Mahakasyapa. Thus the wheel ( Dharma ) of the Buddhist teaching is set in motion and Mahakasyapa is the first of a series of Buddhist patriarchs. This story is the founding myth of Zen Buddhism.
Buddha's last words
In a forest in Kushinagar, in present-day Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, he dies (in some traditions after the diet of a tainted mushroom soup ) and goes into the Pari- Nirvana one ( the final Nirvana). His last words were, according to those present: " Well then, monks, let it be said: must vanish every phenomenon tirelessly as you like to fight." Phenomena are reproduced in other translations as " composite things." Shortly before the Buddha is said to have told his cousin and personal assistant Ananda:
"Did I because that, Ananda, not previously announced that just everything is a loving and pleasant, be different, be made , must be different? How could here be obtained Ananda, that what born, become, composed, subject to decay, since this should not fall: it does not exist. "
Hagiographic sources
What is known about the life of Buddha Shakyamuni, springs from the hagiographical traditions. The authors previously Shakyamuni - vitae were not interested, only to be handed down historical facts about the life of Sakyamuni. Rather, this was about the representation of a religious ideal. Strictly speaking, is rather of the Buddha hagiography than to speak of the Buddha biography. The significant sources are briefly presented, available at the life of Sakyamuni.
Mahavastu
The Mahavastu ( Eng.: Great story, and the full title is Mahavastu - Avadana ), which originated in the Mahasanghika school of Hinayana tradition, tells the way Shakyamuni through his previous existences until the beginning of his next to the Bodhi experience teaching in his birth as Siddhartha Gautama. The period of life of Shakyamuni's teaching is probably therefore not discussed here because it can be inferred from the sutras. The main story begins at the time of the Buddha Dipankara and reports how Shakyamuni over praised him to attain Buddhahood itself later. Following the narrative jumps in the recent past, and reports of Shakyamuni's rebirth in the Tushita Heaven, where all the future Buddhas prepare for their Buddhahood. Next, it is shown how Shakyamuni decided to enter the womb Mahamayas to be born in human form. This main narrative is interrupted in many places by allegorical side stories, doctrinal discussions, etc..
Buddhacarita
When Buddhacarita is a penned in Sanskrit epic of Ashvaghosa (2nd century AD)., One converted to Buddhism Brahman, who is one of the most important art poets of ancient India. The life of the Buddha is using all jewelry means ( Sanskrit: alamkara ) presented to the Parinirvana of Indian art seal of the birth. The obligatory for a literary epic battle description is offered in 13 singing with Shakyamuni's fight against the tempter Mara and his hosts. Literary close relations connect the epic the Ramayana, the Indian "original art poem ," the Ashvaghosa must have known. The Sanskrit original of Buddhacarita is only partially preserved. The content of the work, however, is completely evident from the Tibetan and the Chinese translation.
Lalitavistara
The Lalitavistara is a Buddha Biography of Mahayana Buddhism, which originated in the 2nd or 3rd century AD. The Lalitavistara is not the work of a single author, but rather the result of centuries of editorial activity. Boy standing next to old games that may come close to the time of the Buddha.
The Lalitavistara is composed of episodes that are preserved in Pali and Sanskrit. The Indologist Moritz Winternitz (1863-1937) explained this by the fact that the Lalitavistara originally goes back to a text of hinayanistischen Sarvastivada school and later revised by a Mahayana author and has been remodeled within the meaning of Mahayana. So Shakyamuni is not here, as in the hinayanistischen tradition, represented as an ordinary man. Rather, it is emphasized that it was equipped from the outset with a perfect knowledge and have passed the way to knowledge only pretended again to show people the way. Even his vow which he took as Sumegha before Dipankara Buddha and his preparation for Buddhahood in Tushita Heaven are, according to this view, part of the demonstration by which he shows all beings the way to Buddhahood. This doketistische position of Mahayana Buddhism was established mainly through the Lotus Sutra. Due to the transformation of the substance within the meaning of Mahayana, acquired the plant in northern India, the formation region of this tradition, widespread popularity. Even outside India acquired the Lalitavistara great notoriety. So the text has been several times translated into Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian.
Jataka tales
In the Pali Canon there is a work of the title " Jataka ". This is a collection of 547 stories, the report from the previous life of Buddha Shakyamuni. The term Jataka has its etymological root in jati (Sanskrit ), which means birth, and is therefore translated as' Vorgeburtsgeschichte ".
Pass all the stories of this collection of five different text parts in their formal structure:
Of this work only the Gathas are considered canonical. The remaining parts are treated as comments and carry the title Jatakatthakatha (German: exposition of the meaning of the Jataka ) or Jatakavannana (German: Explanations of Jataka ). While the Gathas traditionally viewed as Buddha - word, the great commentator Buddhaghosa (5th century AD) is considered the author of the other parts of the overall work. This assignment has been questioned in modern research. However, it is certain that the work between the 5th and the 7th century received its present form. In some places it is clear that the author of the so-called commentary, often linguistically difficult, Gathas has not properly understood.
The didactic intention of the Jataka tales is to clothe the admonition of compliance with the ten Parami or six Paramitas in paradigms from the previous lives of the Buddha. The popularity of the Jataka tales, from The Chinese pilgrim to India I Ching says, indicated by the fact that they were not only in writing, but also represented in relief at the important stupas of India and Southeast Asia.
At the beginning of the Jataka book we find the designed as an introduction Nidanakatha. It is the oldest detailed and cohesive Shakyamuni 's biography in the Pali language and remained one of the main sources of traditional biography of the Buddha Theravada school today.
Furthermore Jataka is also the name of a literary genre. To be found not only in the Pali canon, but also in Buddhist Sanskrit literature Jataka tales. The most famous of written in Sanskrit Jataka collections is the Jatakamala the poet Aryashura ( 4th century AD). In Southeast Asia, several other Jataka stories have been written since the introduction of Buddhism. Famous in particular the collection Pannasajataka (English: Fifty Jatakas ). In addition, in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia numerous other Jatakas be delivered as individual texts.
Relics
When Siddhartha Gautama was dying, he said to the monks, the burial of his corpse should be left to the Upasaka (lay ). So the monks scattered after the demise immediately. However, there was initially a problem zusammenzubekommen enough wood for the cremation of the body, due to insufficient lay follower in the area were. After a short time arrived several delegations who had heard of the death of Siddhartha Gautama. Among these, then broke the dispute over the rightful ownership of the ashes and the bones. It was agreed by ashes and bones were divided. According to legend, the ashes were finally buried under eight mounds ( stupa ).
Under the rule of the Mauryan King Ashoka, who reigned from 232 BC to about 268 BC, seven of these grave mounds were re-opened and the relics into 84,000 stupas - hill-shaped symbolic buildings made of clay or stone - the whole realm of Ashoka distributed. To accomplish this, the remains were probably added parts. In addition, the numbers 8 and 84,000 that have symbolic meaning in Buddhism indicate out that this information is not to be understood literally. From the stupas this early period today only a few remain. These include those in Piprawah (near Lumbini, birthplace of Gautama ) and Vaishali (where the second Buddhist Council was held). In both cases, the chambers were found for the storage of relics inside, although that had been looted but a long time ago. The most famous and important Stupa from the time of King Ashoka is the "Great Stupa " of Sanchi.
Today there are in South, East and Southeast Asia, a variety of Buddhist sanctuaries for themselves in claim remains to host (eg a tooth or bone ) of the Buddha Shakyamuni. These include the Golden Rock and the Shwedagon Pagoda in Myanmar or the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka.