What You Should Know:

About Shakyamuni Buddha

Shakyamuni Buddha is the historical founder of Buddhism. The Sanskrit name Shakyamuni means “Sage of the Shakyas.” The Sanskrit term buddha means “awakened one.” Buddhism teaches that there have been other buddhas in the past and there will be buddhas who will appear in the future. Buddhas also appear in different worlds where suffering beings need to be taught how to liberation. Some buddhas preside over “pure lands” where conditions are optimum for attaining liberation from suffering. Nevertheless, Buddhism also teaches that there are so many beings in so many worlds over such vast periods that most never get a chance to encounter a buddha or to learn and practice the Dharma. Therefore, It is considered a rare and precious opportunity to meet a buddha or even hear the Dharma.

Shakyamuni Buddha’s father was Shuddhodana, the king of the Shakya clan, whose capital was  Kapilavastu. Two sites claim to be where Kapilavastu had been, one in Lumbini Province, Nepal, and the other in Uttar Pradesh, India). The Buddha’s mother was Queen Maya. The name of his family or clan was Gautama, and his given personal name was Siddhartha.

On her way to her parent’s home, Queen Maya gave birth to Siddhartha at Lumbini Park. It is said upon birth the infant Siddhartha declared, “Above and under heaven. I alone am revered.” In Japan, the Buddha’s birthday is celebrated on April 8. We will discuss the possible dates for the Buddha’s birth and death at the end of this article. Seven days after his birth, Maya died, and he was brought up by Mahaprajapati, the younger sister of his mother and the second wife of his father.

When Siddhartha grew up, the king sought a wife for his son. A message was sent to Suprabuddha of Koli asking for his daughter, Yashodhara. The answer came that daughters of the family were given only to those who excelled in various arts and martial exercises. Siddhartha proved himself the superior of all. Among the defeated Shakyas were two cousins of his, Ananda and Devadatta. He married Yashodhara and became the father of Rahula.

After Rahula’s birth, Siddhartha saw four things during four separate excursions from the palace that prompted him to leave home to seek buddhahood. They were the sight of an old man, the sight of a sick man, the sight of a funeral procession, and the sight of a shramana, a wandering ascetic.

Determined to find a solution to life’s suffering, Siddhartha abandoned his family at nineteen (another version says twenty-nine) years old to seek the way of liberation through asceticism. When he renounced the world, five of his attendants also became the five ascetics and followed him by order of the king. The five ascetics were Ajnata Kaundinya, Ashvajit, Bhadrika, Vashpa (according to some sources it was Dashabala Kashyapa), and Mahanaman. At first, Siddhartha practiced yogic meditation under the instruction of Arada Kalama and then Udraka Ramaputra. However, he was not satisfied with merely attaining altered states of consciousness through meditation. Siddhartha and the five ascetics then went to the village of Uruvilva near the city of Gaya in the kingdom of Magadha. In this village, they practiced asceticism under three fire-worshippers. The fire-worshippers were the brothers Uruvilva Kashyapa, Gaya Kashyapa, and Nadi Kashyapa. After six years Siddhartha gave up asceticism. The five ascetics left him and went to Varanasi the capital of Kashi.

After giving up ascetic practice, he sat in meditative absorption under the Bodhi tree. During the first watch of the night before attaining buddhahood, he recalled and reviewed all his past lives and all the circumstances that brought him to the Bodhi tree. During the second watch of the night he used the divine eye to perceive the past, present, and future lives of all other beings. In the third watch of the night, he contemplated all that he had reviewed earlier in terms of suffering, its causes, its cessation, and the way to its cessation. He finally attained an unsurpassed, complete, and perfect awakening at dawn. He became the Buddha (Awakened One) at the age of thirty (or thirty-five). In Japan, the Buddha’s awakening is celebrated on December 8. After seven weeks, he went to the Deer Park in Varanasi to find the five ascetics to begin the turning of the Wheel of the Dharma. The five ascetics heard the Dharma and became the first monks, the first arhats, and the first members of the Sangha. In this way, the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha were established, and the dispensation of Shakyamuni Buddha was initiated in the Saha world.

After that, the Buddha went back to Uruvilva and expounded the Dharma to the three Kashyapa brothers. They and their one thousand followers became disciples of the Buddha.

Then he went to Rajagriha, the capital of Magadha. He expounded the Dharma on Mt. Sacred Eagle outside the city and other places in the city itself. King Bimbisara and Queen Vaidehi and their court physician Jivaka became his lay followers and royal patrons. Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, who were prominent ascetic disciples of Sanjaya Vairatiputra living near Rajagriha, also became followers of the Buddha along with two hundred and fifty other disciples of Sanjaya. During that first visit, the ascetic Mahakashyapa (the first patriarch after the Buddha’s final nirvana) encountered the Buddha on the road outside the city and became a follower.

Hearing stories about his son’s travels and following, King Shuddhodana sent his minister Kalodayin (a.k.a. Udayin) to invite the Buddha back to Kapilavastu. Kalodayin also became a follower of the Buddha. Upon the Buddha’s return to Kapilavastu, or soon after, his son Rahula, his cousins Ananda (who became the Buddha’s attendant in the twentieth year of the Buddha’s teaching), Sundarananda, Devadatta, and Aniruddha, as well as their barber Upali and many others joined the Sangha. Mahaprajapati and Yashodhara became the first nuns sometime after the fifth year of the Buddha’s teaching.

After the third year of the Buddha’s teaching, monasteries began to be established such as the Bamboo Grove Monastery in Rajagriha, the Great Forest Monastery in Vaishali, and the Jeta Grove Monastery in Shravasti donated by the wealthy merchant Anathapindada and Prince Jeta where the Buddha spent all the rainy season retreats starting in the twentieth year of his teaching. The last monastery donated was the Amrapali Grove donated by Amrapali in the last year of the Buddha’s life.

Other disciples who are often mentioned in the sutras who joined the Sangha after the establishment of the monasteries were Anathapindada’s nephew Subhuti, Mahakatyayana, and Purna.

For fifty years, the Buddha traversed northern India expounding both the hinayana and Mahayana teachings. The Buddha’s teachings during his fifty-year missionary life were collected and compiled by disciples after his passing as the three baskets consisting of the sutras (Buddha’s discourses), the vinaya (monastic rules, regulations, and procedures), and the abhidharma (systematized and technical commentaries on the discourses). These teachings were organized by Zhiyi, the founder of the Tiantai school, into five periods and eight teachings. According to this system, Nichiren Shonin regarded the Lotus Sutra as the conclusion of Shakyamuni Buddha’s lifetime teachings.

During his fifty years of teaching, Shakyamuni Buddha had to face many difficulties. The worst of these were the attempts of his cousin Devadatta to take over the Sangha. At one point, Devadatta caused a schism in the Sangha, but those who joined him were quickly brought back to the Buddha’s Sangha by Shariputra and Maudgalyayana. Devadatta then urged Prince Ajatashatru to overthrow his father, King Bimbisara. With the help of Ajatashatru, Devadatta sent assassins and then a rampaging elephant to kill the Buddha. When those attempts failed, he tried to kill the Buddha by rolling a boulder down on him. This also failed, although the Buddha’s foot was injured. Devadatta died soon after, though, in the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha predicted that even he would someday attain buddhahood. After Devadatta’s death, Jivaka convinced Ajatashatru to see the Buddha and repent. The Lotus Sutra even lists Ajatashatru as present during the opening assembly of the sutra. Nichiren Shonin saw these persecutions as incredibly significant. Feeling that he had experienced similar persecutions, Nichiren Shonin taught that a practitioner of the Lotus Sutra in the Latter Age of Degeneration could attain buddhahood due to the great compassion of the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha.

Around 485 BCE (other sources say 386 or 383 BCE) Shakyamuni Buddha passed away under the twin sal trees in Kushinagara at the age of eighty.

In the seventh, “The Parable of a Magic City,” chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha is the buddha of this Saha world (the world of Endurance) who, in a previous life, was one of the sixteen princes who were the sons of Great Universal Wisdom Excellence Buddha.

In the sixteenth, “The Duration of the Life of the Tathagata,” chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha reveals his attainment of buddhahood in the remotest past and true identity as the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha. 

Note about the Buddha’s dates:

The Traditional East Asian Chronology that Nichiren and his contemporaries accepted for the life of the Buddha was based upon the Record of Wonders in the Book of Zhou. According to this work, the infant Siddhartha was born on the eighth day of the fourth month of 1029 BCE. The Record of Wonders is no longer extant but appeared in the early sixth century in China. It was much quoted in other works as a source of information about the life of Shakyamuni Buddha. Confucians saw the early years of the Zhou dynasty as a golden age, so making the Buddha’s life coincide with its establishment was a way of underscoring the auspiciousness of the Buddha’s appearance and teachings. In addition, this was long before the time of Laozi and thereby refuted the Taoist claim that Laozi could have been the Buddha’s teacher. Going by this date the Buddha died in 949 BCE. Since the former and middle ages of the Dharma were only supposed to last one thousand years each according to some accounts, Nichiren and his contemporaries believe that the Latter Age of the Dharma had begun in the year 1052.

According to two historical records from Sri Lanka written in the fourth and fifth centuries, the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa respectively, the Buddha died 218 years before the coronation of King Ashoka, which they believed happened in 326 BCE. Since the Buddha lived for 80 years, this would mean he was born in 624 BCE and died in 544 BCE. However, if King Ashoka was crowned in 269 BCE, then the Buddha’s dates would be 567-487 BCE. If King Ashoka was crowned in 265 BCE, then the dates would be 563-483 BCE. The Sarvastivada Vinaya however states the time between the Buddha’s death and Ashoka’s coronations may have been 160 years or 116 years, giving dates for the Buddha of 508-428 BCE or 463-383 BCE respectively. The latter dates were accepted by the Japanese scholar Hajime Nakamura, and is generally accepted within Nichiren Shu. There are also records claiming that only a century passed between the Buddha’s death and Ashoka’s coronation, which would make the Buddha’s dates 448-368 BCE.