THE PHILOSOPHY OF LORD BUDDHA

 

                THE PHILOSOPHY OF LORD BUDDHA

            Lord  Buddha was originally the son of an Indian Kshatriya king named Suddhodana. His own name was Siddhartha Gautama. He was born in 623 B.C. in the well-known gardens of Lumbini, situated between India and Nepal.

            He passed away in 480 BCE at the age of 80 when he had become a wandering ascetic at the age of 35 years after abandoning the princely life and practicing rigorous penance of observing fasts and inflicting pain on his body for about six years.

            This approach however did not enlighten him. He did not achieve the light by which human beings could overcome the pangs of suffering related to sickness, old age and death. He, therefore,  gave up fasting, started meditating deeply under a papal tree near Gaya and finally the day came when he suddenly attained the knowledge which made him the Buddha, the  Enlightened one.    

            After becoming the Buddha, he began to teach his philosophy of the four noble truths and the eight-fold path. The former were explained  as:

            Life is full of suffering; the cause of suffering is selfishness and desires; suffering ends when desires vanish; and desires can be made to vanish  by adopting  the eight-fold path consisting of :

1.     Right Faith.

2.     Right Resolve.

3.     Right Speech.

4.     Right Conduct.

5.     Right Living.

6.     Right Effort.

7.     Right Remembrance.

8.     Right Meditation.

Lord Buddha also preached the middle path void of extremism. It means : one should avoid over-indulgence and over-abstention. If over-eating is punitive, over-fasting, too, has the same consequence.  

According to him, it is the middle path which  leads to enlightenment and happiness.

Besides the above-mentioned ways he also laid emphasis on self-control. For example, anger should not be allowed to  remain anger; it should be converted into kindness.

The philosophy of Lord Buddha is called Buddhism which is even today practiced in a number of countries all over the world.

The first emperor to adopt Buddhism was Ashoka the Great(Died 232 BC).

Even the parents and other members of  the family of Siddhartha Gautama , now known as Gautama Buddha, adopted Buddhism.

                                          ********

G.R.Kanwal

26 September 2026