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The founder of the Buddhism Spiritual Pathway and the primary guiding light illuminating the Buddhic Way to Enlightenment was Siddharta Gautama. Known after his Enlightenment as the Sakyamuni Buddha and Gautama Buddha, he was born around 563 BCE in Kapilavastu in India into the clan of the Shakyas. The Shakyas were a warrior tribe that inhabited an area just below the Himalayan foothills. His father was a Chieftain so young Siddhartha grew up as a prince surrounded by luxury and shielded from the harsh realities and vicissitudes of ordinary life. At sixteen, he was married to the princess Yasodhara. They had a son Rahula. Many years later, Siddhartha went on a rare visit outside the palace. When he saw an old man, a sick man and a dead man, Siddhartha encountered suffering for the first time in that incarnation. This experience awakened compassion within his heart. Shortly afterwards, he felt an intense desire to go on a spiritual pilgrimage in quest of truth and to find a Spiritual Pathway that would end suffering through Enlightenment. This was the Spiritual Pathway which put an end to pain and suffering later became known as Buddhism or the "Way of the Buddha" by those who followed it. Siddhartha's wife had passed on several years before so he turned the leadership of the Shakya clan over to his son Rahula who had recently married. The Storytelling of the life of Siddharta has been somewhat distorted over the years to justify a monastic lifestyle in preference to that of a married householder in the quest for Enlightenment. An honorable and responsible man, Siddhartha would not have abandoned his wife or child to go on a spiritual journey. Since Gautama Buddha taught the Middle Way of a Balanced Harmonious lifestyle, imbuing the tenets and practices of Buddhism into the daily living of married householders also served as a more grounded path to Enlightenment for many. As a widowed, retired chieftain Siddhartha began his search for truth as a wandering ascetic. In India at that time, the brahmin, the householder and the wandering ascetic were all esteemed and well traveled paths.
First Siddhartha studied Yogic meditation with two Brahmin hermits. Although he succeeded in attaining a lesser degree of the high quality meditative states he was seeking, Guatama Siddhartha was not fully satisfied by this path. So he continued his quest by submitting himself to severe austerities like prolonged fasting and suspended breathing. Instead of the apparent tangible spiritual results he sought, these practices only led him to the brink of death. This was a tuning point for Siddhartha in his journey towards Enlightenment since he decided forthwith to leave behind the prevailing inadequate practices designed by known human teachers. He then went to the Deer Park in Sarnath around ten kilometers from Varanasi in India to contemplate the next steps of his spiritual journey. Soon after arriving, he found shelter under the leafy branches of a Pipal Fig Tree similar to the one in the picture above on the left. A Deer Clan family (Gautama Siddhartha's primary Animal Totem), like the one in the Deer Park at Sarnath shown above in the picture on the right, provided supportive companionship. He remained beneath the Pipal Fig Tree sitting there in contemplative meditation until he attained enlightenment on the night of the full moon. He ascended the Dhyana, the four trance stages, to become Gautama Buddha or the Enlightened One. Because Gautama Siddhartha was meditating beneath the Pipal Fig Tree when he reached an enlightened state of consciousness, the tree became known as the Mahabodhi (Bodhi) Tree. The Deer Park at Sarnath was believed to be the place of his Bodhidharma Enlightenment. It was also the site where he gave his first sermon on the Buddhist Middle Way Spiritual Pathway called "Turning the Wheel of Dharma".
Prior to the rejection of his
teachings by the majority of Hindus living in India, the Deer Park was Gautama
Buddha's Daochang Dwelling Place. Realizing the sanctity of the Deer Park at
Sarnath, the Mauryan Period Emperor Ashoka constructed the Dhamkesh and Dhanekh Stupas. Later
on in the 5th Century, the Chaukhandi Stupa was built atop an earthen mound to
commemorate the location where Gautama met with his first five disciples.
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