Buddha, “the Awakened One”, is a descriptive name for all those who have attained Enlightenment, the goal of Buddhist spiritual practice. Buddhists believe that everyday human beings are asleep and unaware of the human condition, but the Buddha are those who are awakened to the true nature of reality as taught in the Four Noble Truths.

The name of the historical Buddha is Siddhartha Gautama; Siddhartha (meaning ‘one whose goal is accomplished’) and Gautama his family name. He was born into a noble family of the Sakya clan and therefore he is also known as Sakyamuni (the sage of the Sakyas). His father was a king of Kapilavastu, a city in the south of present-day Nepal. The name Buddha became his title after his Enlightenment/ awakening.

The exact dates of Buddha’s life are still uncertain and debated across the Buddhist world: 624-544 BCE (before current era) in Sri Lanka and south-east Asia, 448-368 BCE in east Asia, 566-486 BCE or 563-483 BCE in secondary Western literature, and according to recent scholarship c.485-405 BCE.

The Buddha was born in Lumbini, a park not far from Kapilavastu; the fortune tellers saw his 32 marks of a Great Being and foretold that he would be either a Universal Monarch or a Buddha. He spent this first 29 years in the royal palace in Kapilavastu and accepted the prevailing Indian worldview about the cycle of life and death, transmigration, karma and liberation. He was concerned about the problem of human suffering and how to resolve it. He married and had one son.

At 29 he went forth to seek liberation from human predicament: practiced asceticism, fasting, breath control, concentration and finally developed his own style of practice.
In Bodhgaya at the age of 35 he attained awakening and liberation (Nirvana), and liberation from its suffering (Dukkha). After this enlightenment the Buddha went to Sarnath where he delivered his first discourse on the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Noble Path.

After his awakening he attracted many followers and established a monastic order (Sangha) of monks and nuns. The remaining 45 years of this life he spent as a wandering teacher traveling through north-east India. The Buddha taught that others could replicate his experience.

The Buddha died in Kusinagara at age 80 and was cremated outside this town. His teaching (Dharma) was memorized by his disciples and transmitted orally until it was written down several centuries later.

Buddhism is a Western term, which became popular in the 19th century to refer to the teaching of the Buddha. There is no direct equivalent for this term in the Buddhist sources where terms like “the Teaching of the Buddha”, “the Word of the Buddha” and “the Doctrine of the Buddha” are used instead.

Indian Buddhism developed in three main stages, each of them containing a great diversity of schools and practices:
• In the first 400 years after the Buddha’s death a diversity of early Buddhist schools developed in India. The only one to have survived down to modern times is Theravada (the Teaching of the Elders). It is characterized by its Pali Canon, the earliest complete set of Buddhist scriptures.
• A major movement in Buddhist tradition called Mahayana (The Great Vehicle) began c.2nd century CE and reinterpreted fundamental doctrines of earlier schools. It placed great emphasis on the twin values of wisdom (Prajna) and compassion (Karuna) and included the Bodhisattva (Enlightenment being) who sacrifices the attainment of their own Nirvana to devote themselves to the services and liberation of others.
• Around the 7th century CE a special path called Tantric Buddhism (also Vajrayana, - Diamond Vehicle or Mantrayana – Mantra Vehicle) arose within Mahayana Buddhism. It claimed to provide a quicker, alternative path to Enlightenment through lay practitioners, rather than monks and nuns. Buddhism mostly disappeared from India c.12th century CE, but remains the most important Indian influence on the rest of Asia and can be found in the following areas:

Southern Buddhism

the Theravada school (with elements of Mahayana) is present in: Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and partly in India, Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Bangladesh. It has the oldest Buddhist Canon composed in Pali language.
Eastern Buddhism – the Chinese version of Mahayana school (with elements of Tantric Buddhism) is found in: China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam. It has a Buddhist Canon in Chinese language.

Northern Buddhism

Tantric Buddhism (the late version of the Mahayana), is present in: Tibet, Mongolia, Bhutan, Northern Nepal and some provinces of the Russian Federation. It has a Buddhist Canon in Tibetan and Mongolian languages.

Western Buddhism

Buddhism had vary early contacts with western cultures through individuals such as Alexander the Great (4th century BCE) and the Greek King Menander (1st century CE), but its study by western academics did not begin until c.1800. It now flourishes around the world, as a religion/philosophy/way of life. Since the 1960s, western Buddhism has grown enormously becoming one of the fastest growing religions in Australia.