According to reliable historical data, Prince Siddharta Gautama was born in the 6th century BC into the family of a maharaja named Shudhodana. The name given to him meant "one who achieved his goal." The birth of the boy was preceded by numerous prophecies predicting him the path of either a powerful ruler, or a wandering hermit. The father preferred that the first of the predictions come true, and did everything so that the son did not leave the palace. Siddhartha Maya's mother died seven days after the birth of her son. Siddharta lived in his father's palace for twenty-nine years, unaware of worries and suffering. However, the unknown life flowing outside the walls of the palace remained inaccessible. Yielding to the persuasions of Siddharta, his father organized a solemn procession for him outside the palace, having previously ordered to remove all sick and old people from the streets. Nevertheless,Siddharta managed to escape from the procession accompanying him, he retired to one of the gateways and suddenly saw life as it is. He was surprised that people are prone to suffering and disease, getting old and dying. This "news" robbed him of peace. One night, he decided to secretly leave his father's house, vowing to find a way to help people. He joined the wandering ascetics and for many years wandered with them in the forests, torturing the flesh, trying to achieve the unity of Atman and Brahman, Soul and Cosmos. But, in the end, he abandoned asceticism and discovered a new path for himself, the path of self-contemplation and meditation. Both asceticism and meditation were not something new for India, but the conclusion drawn by Siddharta was very important, and went down in history as the "middle path" - the rejection of severe asceticism that kills the body and idle laziness that closes the path to knowledge. He meditated for a long time until near the village of Gaya, sitting under the shade of a huge banyan tree, for three nights he achieved enlightenment. What has he achieved?
On the first night, he saw all of his many previous rebirths. He learned that 83 times he was a saint, 58 times - a king, 24 times - a monk, 18 times was born as a monkey, 13 times was a merchant, 12 times was a chicken, 8 times - a goose, 6 times - an elephant, a fish, a rat, a carpenter, blacksmith, frog and hare. A total of 550 rebirths.
On the second night, Siddharta learned the law governing the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth. He called him "Dharma", and the very teachings of Siddharta, which he preached to the end of his life, began to be called in the same way, and he himself was called Buddha, which means "awakened."
Buddha discovered that every part of the universe, not just people, is subject to change and decay. Everything that has been created must disappear. All parts of the universe and humanity are not perfect and not independent from other systems. They consist of many elements that are in continuous motion, constantly separating and connecting in new combinations. This regrouping is governed by law. In the world of living beings, this law is expressed by a causal relationship called "karma".
During the third night, Buddha learned the Four Noble Truths:
Knowledge of suffering. Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering; worry, unhappiness, pain, disappointment and despair are suffering; the inability to get what you want is also suffering.
The cause of suffering. Lies in desire and ignorance.
“But what is the noble truth about the cause of suffering? It is in desire, which is the cause of rebirth, it is in thirst and attachment, desire to feel, desire to be, desire to destroy oneself."
Promotional video:
Liberation from suffering. Suffering must be completely destroyed - this is the main goal of Buddhism. This is complete liberation from rebirth (samsara) and immersion in nirvana.
The path of liberation from samsara. Following the Noble Eightfold Path. This should determine the way of life.
The Noble Eightfold Path.
Correct knowledge, view, acceptance of the Four Noble Truths.
Correct attitude, thinking - striving for goodwill, peacefulness, rejection of sensual desires, hatred and anger.
Correct speech is lies, chatter and gossip are illegal.
Correct actions. Determine the spectrum of moral behavior. Not murder, not theft, marital fidelity.
Doing the right thing is a way of earning your living without harming others.
Correct effort. Spiteful impulses should be suppressed, and good ones should be encouraged for the development of kind words and deeds.
Correct consciousness. Attention, careful weighing of thoughts, words, actions and emotions, do not give in to the urges of desires.
Correct self-control. The path of concentration serves to release everything that pulls back.
The first and second parts of the Eightfold Path have to do with self-contemplation. The third, fourth and fifth - to morality. The sixth, seventh and eighth are for spiritual discipline. These rules are not harsh, and not strict - this is the middle path without the extremes of asceticism or unbridledness.
On the fourth night, the Buddha learned the Three Characteristics of Being:
All components of being are transitory. Everything that we consider constant is nothing but a sequence of events. Our desires and needs create the illusion of permanence.
All components of being are deprived of their "I". Our delusion is that we think we are made up of an unchanging ego. Hence all our attachments.
All components of being are filled with suffering. Human nature can never be satisfied with impermanence
The second philosophical discovery he made on the fourth night is the theory of causality or the law of interdependent origin. By this time, basically two types of philosophical approaches were widespread in the world - eternalism and nihilism. The eternalist approach is presented in the classical ancient Indian Vedas, according to which the human personality is eternal. But this is not provable, so it creates desires and leads to suffering. Nihilism, on the other hand, consists in the assertion that all events are not related to each other, which is contrary to everyday practice, and also excludes the cure of any disease. The Doctrine of the Middle Way of Buddha states that everything is impermanent, but everything obeys causality according to the three characteristics of causality - objectivity, necessity, immutability and conditionality. This approach helped the Buddha to interpret the law of karma more deeply than was done in Hinduism. The Buddha saw that getting rid of samsara or cyclic rebirth in the six worlds of existence depends on the person himself, on his cleansing of his karma and conscious work on himself.
Siddharta, who discovered all this, knew all the laws of the universe and the path to Nirvana. He decided to take advantage of it immediately. However, the god Brahma asked Siddharta not to succumb to temptation and share his knowledge with people. Over the next 44 years, the Buddha preached his new knowledge, presenting it in different ways, according to the different abilities of his listeners. The first such sermon was given by him in the Sarnath Deer Park near Varanasi, during which he spoke about the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. It is this teaching given in Sarnath that is called the First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma. In the town of Rajgir, he made the Second and Third Turns of the Wheel of Dharma, where he taught deep philosophical and esoteric foundations of the teaching. Because the teachings of the Buddha were taught at different levels,in the future, several directions of Buddhism arose.
The Buddha ended his life in the town of Kushinagar, where he attained the great liberation, called Paranirvana in Buddhism.
After the death of the Buddha, his teachings spread rapidly throughout Asia, and over the past decades - in Europe and America.
We will visit Sarnath, Bodhgaya and Rajgir. But let's start our visit to Buddhist sites (a pilgrimage if you want) in Kushinagar, near the Nepalese border.
So, we leave Dehradun and drive more than 800 kilometers through the state of Uttar Pradesh.