by Daniel Whelan

Created on: February 23, 2007   Last Updated: March 22, 2007

The Buddha was born in roughly 560 BC in Northern India. The Buddha travelled the eastern world teaching about nirvana (the cessation of all suffering) and enlightenment the state he had achieved through meditation.

The Buddha was mythically born in unbelievable circumstances. Fathered by the king of the Shakaya clansmen Shuddhodana Gautama. His mother queen Maya dreamt of a white elephant coming down from the heavens and entering her body through her womb. The white elephant entering her womb was a sign that she was to give birth to a pure and powerful being. The myth that it came down from heaven was a sign that the child was from Tushita heaven.

According to custom the queen had to go back to her parent's home for the child's birth so she set off to do so, on her way she took a rest in the beautiful Lumbini gardens. She reached out her hand to pluck a branch and as she did so the baby was born. Legend has it that when the child was born he walked seven steps while saying "AGGOHAM ASMI LOKASSA" meaning "Chief am I in this world". The child was called Siddhartha. A hermit who noticed radiance about the castle then said this about him "This Prince, if he remains in the palace when grown up will become a great king and subjugate the whole world. But if he forsakes the court life to embrace a religious life he will become a Buddha saviour of the world."

One day Siddhartha went out of the castle with his father. They were watching a farmer plough his field when Siddhartha noticed a bird fly down from the sky and fly away with a small worm, he then thought "Alas! Do all living creatures kill each other?" The prince was deeply impacted by this and as he grew older he began to think increasingly about the suffering in human life.

His father tried desperately to turn his mind to other things. The king arranged his marriage to Princess Yashodhara. Then he spent ten years on different pavilions for each season, being involved in joyful activities such as, music and dancing, but his thoughts seemed to naturally deflect back to the problem of suffering in the world and trying to understand the real reason for existence.

He began to think about the luxuries of the palace and his rejoicing lifestyle he had always had a huge desire to go out and see the world, so he persuaded his friend the charioteer Channa, to take him out secretly to see the world, on his journey he saw four things an old man, a sick man and a corpse. When he saw the old man he asked his charioteer what it

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