By Victor M Fontane
Prince Siddhartha Gautama, son of King Suddhodana (king of the Sakya people) and Queen Mahamaya, part of the Gautama clan, was born on April 8, 563 BC in the park of Lumbini, in what is now southern Nepal and was predicted that he will become a great world monarch or a Buddha–a supremely enlightened teacher. Then Prince Siddhartha reached enlightenment, becoming a Buddha at the age of 35. The Gautama Buddha then traveled to the deer park near Benares, India, where he gave his first sermon and outlined the basic doctrines of Buddhism. According to Buddhism, there are “four noble truths”: (1) existence is suffering; (2) this suffering is caused by human craving; (3) there is a cessation of the suffering, which is nirvana; and (4) nirvana can be achieved, in this or future lives, through the “eightfold path” of right views, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
For the rest of his life, the Buddha taught and gathered disciples to his sangha, or community of monks. He died at age 80 on December 8, 528 BC (achieved Mahaparanirbvana) telling his monks to continue working for their spiritual liberation by following his teachings. Buddhism eventually spread from India to Central and Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, and, in the 20th century, to the West.
Today there are around 535 million Buddhist in the world that in May 26, celebrate The Vesak festival to honor the birth, enlightenment (Nirvana) and death (Mahaparanirbvana) of Gautama Buddha.
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