Buddhism

==The Buddha==
[[File:BRP Lumbini Mayadevi temple.jpg|thumb|[[Maya Devi Temple, Lumbini|Mayadevi Temple]] marking the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]]'s birthplace in [[Lumbini]]]]
[[File:Mahajanapadas (c. 500 BCE).png|right|thumb|Ancient kingdoms and cities of India during the time of the Buddha (c. 500 BCE) – modern-day India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan]]
[[File:ปางบำเพ็ญทุกรกิริยา ประเทศไทย.png|thumb|The gilded "Emaciated Buddha statue" in an [[Ubosoth]] in [[Bangkok]] representing the stage of his [[asceticism]]]]
[[File:Four Scenes from the Life of the Buddha - Enlightenment - Kushan dynasty, late 2nd to early 3rd century AD, Gandhara, schist - Freer Gallery of Art - DSC05124.JPG|thumb|Enlightenment of Buddha, Kushan dynasty, late 2nd to early 3rd century CE, Gandhara]]
{{Main|The Buddha}}

Details of the Buddha's life are mentioned in many [[Early Buddhist Texts]] but are inconsistent. His social background and life details are difficult to prove, and the precise dates are uncertain, although the 5th century BCE seems to be the best estimate.{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|pp=13–14}}{{Refn|group=note|Buddhist texts such as the [[Jataka tales]] of the Theravada Buddhist tradition, and early biographies such as the ''[[Buddhacarita]]'', the [[Lokottaravāda|Lokottaravādin]] ''[[Mahāvastu]]'', the [[Sarvastivada|Sarvāstivādin]] ''[[Lalitavistara Sūtra]]'', give different accounts about the life of the Buddha; many include stories of his many rebirths, and some add significant embellishments.{{sfnp|Swearer|2004|p=177}}{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|pp=15–24}} Keown and Prebish state, "In the past, modern scholars have generally accepted 486 or 483 BCE for this [Buddha's death], but the consensus is now that they rest on evidence which is too flimsy.{{sfnp|Keown|Prebish|2010|pp=105–106}} Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order, but do not consistently accept all of the details contained in his biographies."{{sfnp|Buswell|2004|p=352}}{{sfnp|Lopez|1995|p=16}}{{sfnp|Carrithers|1986|p=10}}{{sfnp|Armstrong|2004|p=xii}}}}

Early texts have the Buddha's family name as "Gautama" (Pali: Gotama), while some texts give Siddhartha as his surname. He was born in [[Lumbini]], present-day [[Nepal]] and grew up in [[Kapilavastu (ancient city)|Kapilavastu]],{{refn|group=note|The exact identity of this ancient place is unclear. Please see [[Gautama Buddha]] article for various sites identified.}} a town in the [[Indo-Gangetic Plain|Ganges Plain]], near the modern Nepal–India border, and he spent his life in what is now modern [[Bihar]]{{Refn|group=note|Bihar is derived from ''Vihara'', which means monastery.{{sfnp|Gombrich|1988|p=49}}}} and [[Uttar Pradesh]].{{sfnp|Gombrich|1988|p=49}}{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|pp=13–14}} Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named [[Śuddhodana|Suddhodana]], his mother was [[Maya (mother of the Buddha)|Queen Maya.]]<ref name="Thomas2013p16">{{cite book|author=Edward J. Thomas |title=The Life of Buddha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zfb9AQAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-20121-9 |pages=16–29 }}</ref> Scholars such as [[Richard Gombrich]] consider this a dubious claim because a combination of evidence suggests he was born in the [[Shakya]] community, which was governed by a [[Gaṇasaṅgha|small oligarchy or republic-like council]] where there were no ranks but where seniority mattered instead.{{sfnp|Gombrich|1988|pp=49–50}} Some of the stories about the Buddha, his life, his teachings, and claims about the society he grew up in may have been invented and interpolated at a later time into the Buddhist texts.{{sfnp|Gombrich|1988|pp=18–19, 50–51}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Kurt Tropper |title=Tibetan Inscriptions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wKFbFXQSqqUC |year=2013|publisher=Brill Academic |isbn=978-90-04-25241-7 |pages=60–61 with footnotes 134–136}}</ref>

Various details about the Buddha'a background are contested in modern scholarship. For example, Buddhist texts assert that Buddha described himself as a [[kshatriya]] (warrior class), but Gombrich writes that little is known about his father and there is no proof that his father even knew the term ''kshatriya''.{{sfnp|Gombrich|1988|p=50}} ([[Mahavira]], whose teachings helped establish the ancient religion [[Jainism]], is also claimed to be ksatriya by his early followers.{{sfnp|Gombrich|1988|pp=50–51}})

According to early texts such as the Pali ''Ariyapariyesanā-sutta'' ("The discourse on the noble quest", [[Majjhima Nikāya|MN]] 26) and its Chinese parallel at [[Madhyama Agama|MĀ]] 204, Gautama was moved by the suffering (''[[dukkha]]'') of life and death, and its [[Samsara|endless repetition]] due to [[Rebirth (Buddhism)|rebirth]].<ref>Analayo (2011). ''[https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/compstudyvol1.pdf A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya Volume 1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221203202/https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/compstudyvol1.pdf |date=21 December 2022 }} (Introduction, Studies of Discourses 1 to 90)'', p. 170.</ref> He thus set out on a quest to find liberation from suffering (also known as "[[Nirvana (Buddhism)|nirvana]]").<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wynne |first=Alexander |title=Did the Buddha exist? |journal=Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies |date=2019 |volume=16 |pages=98–148 |url=http://jocbs.org/index.php/jocbs/article/view/193 |access-date=2 December 2022 |archive-date=2 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221202154933/http://jocbs.org/index.php/jocbs/article/view/193 |url-status=live }}</ref> Early texts and biographies state that Gautama first studied under two teachers of meditation, namely [[Āḷāra Kālāma]] (Sanskrit: Arada Kalama) and [[Uddaka Rāmaputta|Uddaka Ramaputta]] (Sanskrit: Udraka Ramaputra), learning meditation and philosophy, particularly the meditative attainment of "the sphere of nothingness" from the former, and "the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception" from the latter.{{sfnp|Wynne|2007|pp=8–23}}<ref>{{cite book |author=Hajime Nakamura |title=Gotama Buddha: A Biography Based on the Most Reliable Texts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nt8QAQAAIAAJ |year=2000 |publisher=Kosei |isbn=978-4-333-01893-2 |pages=127–129 |access-date=10 July 2016 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055826/https://books.google.com/books?id=Nt8QAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Refn|group=note|The earliest Buddhist biographies of the Buddha mention these Vedic-era teachers. Outside of these early Buddhist texts, these names do not appear, which has led some scholars to raise doubts about the historicity of these claims.{{sfnp|Wynne|2007|pp=8–23}}{{sfnp|Bronkhorst|2013|pp=19–32}} According to Alexander Wynne, the evidence suggests that Buddha studied under these Vedic-era teachers and they "almost certainly" taught him, but the details of his education are unclear.{{sfnp|Wynne|2007|pp=8–23}}{{sfnp|Hirakawa|1993|pp=22–26}}}}

Finding these teachings to be insufficient to attain his goal, he turned to the practice of severe [[asceticism]], which included a strict [[fasting]] regime and various forms of [[Pranayama|breath control]].<ref name="Analayo 2011 p. 236">Analayo (2011). "''A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya Volume 1 (Introduction, Studies of Discourses 1 to 90)''", p. 236.</ref> This too fell short of attaining his goal, and then he turned to the meditative practice of ''[[Dhyāna in Buddhism|dhyana]]''. He famously sat in [[meditation]] under a ''[[Ficus religiosa]]'' tree — now called the [[Bodhi Tree]] — in the town of [[Bodh Gaya]] and attained "Awakening" ([[Enlightenment in Buddhism|Bodhi]]).<ref>{{cite book |last1=K.T.S |first1=Sarao |title=The History of Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya |date=2020 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=9789811580673 |page=62 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H5n9DwAAQBAJ&q=history+of+the+mahabodhi+temple |access-date=16 November 2021 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055821/https://books.google.com/books?id=H5n9DwAAQBAJ&q=history+of+the+mahabodhi+temple |url-status=live }}</ref>{{according to whom|date=March 2024}}

According to various early texts like the ''Mahāsaccaka-sutta,'' and the ''[[Samaññaphala Sutta]],'' on awakening, the Buddha gained insight into the workings of karma and his former lives, as well as achieving the ending of the mental defilements (''[[asava]]s''), the ending of suffering, and the end of rebirth in [[saṃsāra]].<ref name="Analayo 2011 p. 236"/> This event also brought certainty about the [[Middle Way]] as the right path of spiritual practice to end suffering.{{sfnp|Bronkhorst|2011|pp=233–237}}{{sfnp|Schuhmacher |Woener|1991|p=143}} As a [[Buddhahood#Samyaksambuddha|fully enlightened Buddha]], he attracted followers and founded a ''[[Sangha (Buddhism)|Sangha]]'' (monastic order).{{sfnp|Gombrich|1988|pp=49–51}} He spent the rest of his life teaching the [[Dharma]] he had discovered, and then died, achieving "[[Parinirvana|final nirvana]]", at the age of 80 in [[Kushinagar]], India.{{sfnp|Keown|2003|p=267}}{{sfnp|Keown|Prebish|2010|pp=105–106}}{{according to whom|date=March 2024}}

The Buddha's teachings were propagated by his followers, which in the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE became various [[Schools of Buddhism|Buddhist schools of thought]], each with its own [[Tripiṭaka|basket of texts]] containing different interpretations and authentic teachings of the Buddha;{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|pp=54–55}}<ref>{{cite book |author=Barbara Crandall |title=Gender and Religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zq7UAwAAQBAJ |edition=2nd |year=2012 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-4411-4871-1 |pages=56–58 |access-date=10 July 2016 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055820/https://books.google.com/books?id=Zq7UAwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=britannicatipitaka/> these over time evolved into many traditions of which the more well known and widespread in the modern era are [[Theravada]], [[Mahayana]] and [[Vajrayana]] Buddhism.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Sarah LeVine |author2=David N Gellner |title=Rebuilding Buddhism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e9C1iF3MAYgC |year=2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-04012-0 |pages=1–19 }}</ref>{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|pp=1–5}}