Buddha’s path is a peaceful one. In His journey, Buddha spent most of His entire life seeking enlightenment, and He achieved it. He then gifted the world His wisdom by sharing His teachings and work through His organization—Buddhism.

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In His search, The Buddha learned that the only way a soul could evolve and obtain a heightened level of enlightenment is through separation from the pursuit of material goods and pleasures. He discovered that the soul attains humility after detachment from materialism is achieved. He learned that it is by being humble, that one protects oneself from falling into the traps of vanity, greed, and living for pleasure through materialism. Humility and compassion towards others assure love. Creating love and harmony is how one evolves. 

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One of the greatest teachings that The Buddha taught is that you will be protected from suffering by making peaceful choices. By following a peaceful path in this world, making harmonious and compassionate choices, you will save your soul from suffering and attain the state of Nirvana and experience bliss in your afterlife. 

 

Lord Buddha, also frequently known as Siddhartha Gautama and Shakyamuni, was born in Lumbini, in what is today southern Nepal. Named Siddhartha Gautama at birth, Buddha incarnated as a Prince in a small kingdom just below the Himalayan foothills. His father was a chief of the Shakya clan. It is said that twelve years before His birth the Brahmins prophesied that He would become either a Universal Monarch or a Great Sage. Brahmins are the caste from which Hindu priests are drawn, and are responsible for teaching and maintaining sacred knowledge. 

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Buddha, or Siddhartha, spent His early years enjoying all of the pleasures and indulgences that His father’s wealth and power could provide Him. He grew up in princely luxury, shielded from the hardships of the outside world. He was schooled by Brahmins and trained in archery, swordsmanship, wrestling, swimming, and running. At age 16, He married the beautiful princess Yashodhara, who gave birth to their son. 

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Buddha continued His life with all the comforts and luxuries that He has always known. 

 

However, when the Prince was 29, He encountered a sudden inner spiritual crisis. On a trip to the city, Siddhartha saw several people starving, homeless, and sick—visibly suffering. Through all of these years, He was unaware of the suffering that existed in the world outside His mansion walls. He was sheltered from the realities of how many people do not live as He does, comforts with privileges—but instead they suffer. Buddha felt overwhelmed with empathy and compassion for the people who were struggling. This began Siddhartha’s search for clarity as to why there was suffering in the world. 

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Siddhartha felt strongly about wanting to understand why some people suffered and others did not. He was determined to find the answers, and thus changed the course of the life which was already planned for Him. 

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Unable to enjoy the riches and comforts of His lavish lifestyle any longer, Siddhartha made a life-altering change at this point. He denounced His riches, comforts, and His future kingdom. He decided that the only way to find out why suffering existed was to leave His privileged world and live with the impoverished to experience what it was like to be starving, homeless, and struggling—in hopes of finding clarity. 

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The prince left His father’s kingdom and the royal life behind and entered the forest where He cut off His hair and exchanged His royal robes for the simple dress of a hunter. From that point on, He ate whatever was placed in His begging bowl. Early in His wanderings He encountered Bimbisara, the king of Magadha and eventual patron of the Buddha, who, upon learning that the ascetic was a prince, asked Him to share His kingdom. The prince declined but agreed to return when He had achieved enlightenment. 

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Over the next six years, the Prince studied meditation and learned to achieve deep states of blissful concentration. But, He quickly matched the attainments of His teachers and concluded that despite their achievements, they would be reborn after their death. He next joined a group of five ascetics (monks)—Kondañña, Assaji, Bhaddiya, Vappa, and Mahānāma—who had devoted themselves to the practice of extreme forms of self-mortification which involves the practice of self-denial with the belief that this way of practicing could lead one to Nirvana, to liberation. Extreme fasting, denial of clothes and shelter, sitting in the same posture for long hours, not killing insects and life-forms even if they are harmful are few forms of self-mortification. 

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While meditating in the woods, Buddha was found by a milkmaid named Sujata. She mistook Him for a tree spirit because He was so emaciated. Concerned, she offered Him some rice milk which revived Him. He ended His asceticism and went to the nearby village of Bodh Gaya where He sat on a bed of grass beneath a Bodhi tree and made a vow to God to remain there until He is given the answer of why there is suffering in the world. 

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Now known as Buddha, He remained in the vicinity of the tree for seven weeks, savoring His enlightenment. He meditated, fasted and prayed to God to answer His question. Finally, after the seventh week of deep meditation, Buddha received His answer from God. 

 

Buddha was given a clear vision and message from God Almighty explaining the answer that He sought clarity on for so many years. 

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Buddha saw a vision in His Third Eye of a circle with a wheel inside it. God told Him that “every soul will re-birth on Earth, until they have been purified of all their sins and mistakes—no matter how many lifetimes it takes. Once a soul reaches its level of perfection and is deemed pure and holy, free of all sins, then they are allowed to live full-time in Nirvana, Heaven, with Me (God). Until then, suffering is a necessary step for souls to learn from and to clear up their negative Karmic debt that they have accumulated from errors in past lives.” 

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God told Buddha to teach people this principle of life on Earth. He also asked Buddha to teach people not feel sorry for the suffering because their circumstances were created by themselves, but instead to feel and give compassion to them and to help them. God showed Buddha it is a mistake for people to turn their back on the suffering, especially if they have so much more and are not suffering themselves. He enlightened Buddha that the wise choice is to turn towards the suffering and offer them relief and mercy. 

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Buddha adopted these lessons from God, along with another important one. Buddha also learned that it is only through peaceful thoughts that non-harmful actions are created; and it is only through peaceful choices that one will create positive karmic blessings and not the negative karmic consequences that will cause them to experience negative suffering someday, as well as continuing to re-birth on Earth. These ideas became the foundation of Buddha’s teachings, known as Buddhism.