Life of Siddartha Gautama

By facebooker_255026471907861
  • 563 BCE

    Birth

    Siddhartha Gautama is born in Lumbini, to his father, King Suddhodana, ruler of the Sakya tribe, and his mother, Queen Mayadevi. The father gives his son the name of Siddhartha (the one who obtains success and prosperity), his second name is Gautama (name of the clan).
  • Period: 563 BCE to 547 BCE

    First Spiritual Experience

    During a ploughing ceremony, Siddhartha makes his first unprecedented spiritual experience, where in the course of meditation he develops the first jhana (meditative absorption) through concentration.
  • Period: 547 BCE to 533 BCE

    Life in the Palace

    The young prince spends thirteen more years together with his wife in the royal court of his father. Siddhartha enjoys the lavish court life while his father is trying to screen him from all troubles and worries.
  • 533 BCE

    The Four Sights

    One day, Siddartha leaves the palace for an excursion and there he encounters what so far has been purposely veiled from him: He sees a decrepit old man, a diseased person, a corpse being cremated, and a sadhu (holy man, hermit). Siddhartha realises that there is old age, sickness, and death, and that people ultimately have little control over their lives. The fourth sight provides the inspiration that leads to a dramatic change in his life.
  • 533 BCE

    Renunciation

    In the night of his 29th birthday, Siddhartha gives up his life as a prince and secretly leaves the court while everyone is asleep. He travels far and crosses the river Anoma, where he shaves his hair and hands over his princely garments to his groom Channa, with instructions to return them to the palace.
  • 528 BCE

    Enlightenment

    While meditating under a Bodhi tree in Bodh-Gaya, south of Gaya in the state of Bihar, India, the Bodhisattva experiences the Great Enlightenment, which reveals to him the way of salvation from suffering. He spends seven weeks meditating in the vicinity of the site of the Bodhi tree and attains the status of a fully realised Buddha at the age of 35.
  • 528 BCE

    First Sermon

    Buddha finds his former five disciples in Benares. In his first sermon he teaches them what will become the gist of Buddhism. Upon hearing it, one of the disciples instantly attains the status of an arhat (one with enlightened wisdom). This event marks the beginning of the Buddhist teaching and his disciples become the first five members of the sangha (Buddhist order).
  • 527 BCE

    Home

    The Buddha briefly returns to the palace of his father to convert the royal family and ordains many of the Sakya tribe.
  • 483 BCE

    Nirvana

    Having achieved the goal of spreading the teaching to the greatest number of people, Buddha dies at the age of eighty years, as a result of food poisoning. He dies in a forest near Kusinagara, Nepal, in the company of his followers reclining on a bed where he speaks his last words: "All compounded things are ephemeral; work diligently on your salvation." With these words on his lips, he passes into the state of Nirvana.
  • Period: 533 to 528

    Spiritual journey

    After a long and exhausting period of searching and self-mortification, he finally becomes disillusioned with the Indian caste system, Hindu asceticism, and the religious doctrines of his time. He gives up the ascetic life and loses all of his disciples as a result. Nevertheless, he continues his search for truth through the practice of meditation.