The Buddha was a teacher in ancient South Asia whose teachings gave rise to Buddhism. He is known as Siddhartha Gautama and as Shakyamuni, the sage of the Shakyas. Buddha is a title meaning “awakened one.” Buddhist accounts remember him as a person who left household life, tested ways of practice, attained awakening and taught others how to pursue liberation from suffering. The discourses and the images made centuries later tell parts of that story in different ways. The Noble Search, MN 26 The discourse to Saccaka, MN 36 Pala-period stele at The Met
What the sources tell us about his life
Buddhist tradition associates his birth with Lumbini, in present-day Nepal. There a pillar erected by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the third century BCE identifies the place as the Buddha’s birthplace. The inscription shows that the site was already publicly identified with his birth by Ashoka’s time. It was erected long after the Buddha lived. The early discourses, meanwhile, preserve accounts of his search and teaching within the communities that transmitted them. UNESCO’s Lumbini record The Noble Search, MN 26
The familiar palace story presents the future Buddha encountering old age, illness, death and a renunciant. A discourse known as The Noble Search puts his decision in terms of the problem he wanted to solve. A person subject to aging, illness and death can search for things subject to the same conditions, or pursue a release from them. In this account he goes forth while still young, even as his parents grieve. The narrative gives renunciation a purpose that can be understood independently of the palace setting. The Noble Search, MN 26
Learning from teachers and testing austerity
In the same discourse, Gautama studies with Alara Kalama and then Uddaka Ramaputta. He reports mastering what was taught and leaving each setting because the attainment did not provide the release he sought. The distinction between mastering a practice and reaching the goal matters. A state of meditation could be an achievement while leaving his original question about suffering unresolved. The Noble Search, MN 26
In the discourse to Saccaka, Gautama describes going so far in fasting that his body became painfully thin. The turning point comes when he recalls a concentrated state he experienced in the shade of a rose-apple tree. He recognizes that its pleasure is distinct from sensual indulgence and decides he needs food to pursue that kind of practice. The five ascetics attending him see him eat and leave, believing he has abandoned his efforts. The story presents his decision as an adjustment based on what he had learned through practice. The discourse to Saccaka, MN 36
From awakening to a teaching others could follow
In the Noble Search, the Buddha hesitates after awakening because he doubts others will understand what he has discovered. Brahma Sahampati urges him to consider that some people are ready to learn. He thinks of his two former teachers and learns that both have died. His attention turns to the five people who had attended him during his earlier practice. The Noble Search, MN 26
The Buddha later seeks out the five ascetics at the Deer Park near present-day Sarnath. The discourse traditionally regarded as his first sermon sets out a middle way between devotion to sensual pleasure and self-mortification. It identifies suffering, its origin in craving, its cessation and the path that leads to cessation. Each truth has a task associated with it. Suffering is to be understood, its origin abandoned, its cessation realized and the path developed. The sermon gives listeners work they can undertake beyond hearing the account of what the Buddha attained. The Noble Search, MN 26 Setting the Wheel in Motion, SN 56.11
One sculpture from Bihar in The Met’s collection depicts the first sermon. The Buddha’s hand gesture signifies the turning of the wheel of teaching. An inscription on the lotus base identifies the stonecutter as Vijaka, which gives a name to one person who helped transmit the story through an image. A portable shrine fragment from Gandhara puts scenes of childhood and departure above an emaciated figure and a scene of the sermon. The sculptor gives those episodes neighboring positions in a small object. The viewer can follow the movement from leaving home to practice and public teaching without needing every episode to be represented. Gandharan portable shrine at The Met The Met’s Buddha preaching at Sarnath
How the community remembers his death
The discourse on the Buddha’s passing places his final days at Kushinagara and records instructions to his attendant Ananda. After his death, the teaching and the monastic discipline are to guide the community. A Pala-period stele gives his passing a place at the top, while the central figure touches the earth at awakening. Scenes of birth and first teaching appear around it. The carving brings separate moments into one view and places the awakening at its center. The discourse, by comparison, gives the community a way to understand its obligations once the person who taught it has died. The discourse on the Buddha’s passing, DN 16 Pala-period stele at The Met
Conclusion
The accounts of Gautama’s life trace a search that became a path others could practice. The discourses explain what he tried, why he changed course and what he asked his hearers to do. Inscriptions and works of art record how later communities remembered the life and its places. Together these sources explain why Buddhists remember Gautama both as the awakened one and as a teacher. UNESCO’s Lumbini record The discourse to Saccaka, MN 36 Setting the Wheel in Motion, SN 56.11 Pala-period stele at The Met
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