Over 2,500 years in the past, Prince Siddharta Gautama was born in what is now called Lumbini in Nepal. He was born a prince and his birth had been heralded with many distinct signs that indicated a life of greatness. The prince's father went to a wiseman who lived within the kingdom for guidance about his son. The sage man believed that the prince, Siddharta Gautama, would either follow in his father's footsteps and become a great king or he would become a spiritual leader.
Praying that his son would become his heir, the king managed his best to separate the prince from those things that might motivate him toward a spiritual life. The prince was surrounded by extravagance and excess, so many advantages that his royal status could provide. Siddharta Gautama turned out to be to be a smart scholar and exceptional sportsman. He married a exquisite woman whom he loved and they bore a son.
At the age of 29, the prince determined that the world surrounding him was far more problematic than what he experienced in the walls of his palace. Out and about amidst the citizens of the kingdom, he found reality: old-age, sickness and death. The surprise of this finding left the youthful prince shaken. He made the decision then to dedicate himself to ending the suffering. Leaving his wife and child, the prince forsaked his worldly belongings and embarked on a spiritual quest.
Guatama started a course of study with several instructors to understand their practices. With the help of Alara Kalama, he began to understand meditation and learned an exalted form called absorption. This permitted him to attain a state of nothingness where there was no moral or cognitive dimension. While this was valuable it was apparent to the past prince that it wouldn't eliminate the suffering he had seen. Guatama continued his hunt for others who might aid him on his spiritual journey. Udraka Ramputra, helped Gautama to comprehend a state of neither perception or non-perception, but this to was not just what he was looking for. The next step in the journey led Gautama to Uruvilva in North India. It was there that he chose an ascetic way, surviving a life of deprivation for nearly 6 years. This only led to the destruction of his body, weakness and self-destruction. Although it cost him his five followers, Gautama rejected this ascetic lifestyle.
The end of this spiritual journey appeared as far away as ever, so the
Buddha sat down under a Bodhi tree and announced that "flesh may wither, blood may dry up, but I shall not rise from the spot until Enlightenment has been one." After forty days of thought and meditation, the Buddha at last achieved Enlightenment.
It is the Buddhist belief that at that time he accomplished a state of being that surpasses anything else in the world. Each of our normal experiences are based on preconceptions and circumstances: how we were raised, our encounters, faults and mistakes. Enlightenment is a state in which the complex internal workings of existence become obvious and the cause of man's suffering identified.
For the next 45 years, the Buddha journeyed through much of what's today north India. He taught the way of Enlightenment to all or any who desired to comprehend. This instruction had become referred to as the dharma or "the teaching of the enlightened one. The Buddha accepted a number of disciples that subsequently attained their own Enlightenment and so they taught others.
Buddhists believe that Buddha accomplished a state of existence that goes out beyond anything else in the world. If normal knowledge is based on conditions - childhood, mindsets, viewpoints, perceptions, and so forth - Enlightenment is Unconditioned. It was a state when the Buddha obtained insight into the deepest operation of living and for that reason, into the reason for human suffering, the problem that had set Him on His spiritual journey in the first place.
The
Buddha statue we often see doesn not represent a god and did not look at himself as a divine creature. He was simply a man who endeavored to transform himself by means of self reflection and meditation. Buddhists see him as an ideal and his journey as a guideline that could lead them on the path to enlightenment. Most homes that practice Buddhism will display a
statue of Buddha, but this is intended to remind them of their own spiritual journey.