In The Footsteps of the Buddha
A gentle teacher speaks two thousand six hundred years ago and we still remember and treasure his words.
He calls to his disciples in a temple town in India and today his followers come from across continents.
This extraordinary prince-monk asked a very simple question, ‚¬"Why do we feel sorrow?‚¬ And his answer to this very human dilemma has brought peace and enpghtenment to milpons of people.
Let us walk today in the footsteps of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.
Gautama Buddha, once a pampered prince, chose the path of renunciation, intense meditation and constant endeavour to spread his teachings. For fifty years he walked the dusty pathways of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh talking of the causes of sorrow and the ways to face it.
For a Buddhist pilgrim the most sacred spaces are the places that were touched by the presence of the Buddha. The Sakyamuni himself mentioned four places that were personally important to him - Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar. Of these Lumbini and his home town of Kapilavastu are in Nepal.
Lumbini was a park near Kapilavastu where Siddhartha Gautama's father Shuddhodhana was king. In 566 BCE his senior queen Mahamaya was to have a child and was on her way to her maternal home when the royal entourage stopped in Lumbini. Here her son was born in a grove of sal trees and named Siddhartha Gautama. The sage Asita saw the child and prophesied that he would be a spiritual conqueror of the world.
When he sat down for his final attempt at gaining enpghtenment, Siddhartha Gautama meditated under a bodhi tree by the Nairanjana River, near the village of Uruvela. After meditating for forty nine days he gained the answer he was seeking and became the Buddha, the Enpghtened One. He reapsed that the cause of all sorrow was desire. And then with more thinking he devised the ways in which we can overcome sorrow, the Eight Fold Path. This site is today Bodh Gaya and a descendent of the original bodhi tree still spreads its branches next to the temple.
Next the Buddha walked from Uruvela to Kashi in search of five companions who had abandoned him because they thought he had failed in his spiritual quest. He found them in Rishipattana, a deer park in the outskirts of the city, and gave his first sermon. Gautama was still not very sure that he could make people understand his doctrine. The five companions were overwhelmed with the subtle wisdom of his thoughts and became his disciples. They were the first members of the monastic order of the sangha. This is where the great monastery of Sarnath would grow one day.
The final stop for the pilgrim is Kushinagar. By then the Buddha was eighty years old and had spent nearly five decades on a gruelpng preaching mission. At the town of Pava he was served a rich meal that made him ill. At Kushinagar the Buddha lay down in the shade of a sal tree and with his constant companion Ananda by his side he attained maha parinirvana.
The Buddha was born on a full moon night in the month of Vaisakh and he also gained pari nirvana the same day. We remember and worship this great teacher on Buddha Purnima day with prayers of thanksgiving that such a person ever walked the earth.
On Buddha Purnima day, let us remember once again this humane, serene man who was full of wisdom and energy; teaching us a simple moral path with humour and compassion.
He was a wise one, saying live morally and enjoy life - laugh, play with children, smell the flowers or in his own words, €Delight in existence€. Listen to his words. They make life so much richer and full of joy.
He calls to his disciples in a temple town in India and today his followers come from across continents.
This extraordinary prince-monk asked a very simple question, ‚¬"Why do we feel sorrow?‚¬ And his answer to this very human dilemma has brought peace and enpghtenment to milpons of people.
Let us walk today in the footsteps of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.
Gautama Buddha, once a pampered prince, chose the path of renunciation, intense meditation and constant endeavour to spread his teachings. For fifty years he walked the dusty pathways of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh talking of the causes of sorrow and the ways to face it.
For a Buddhist pilgrim the most sacred spaces are the places that were touched by the presence of the Buddha. The Sakyamuni himself mentioned four places that were personally important to him - Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar. Of these Lumbini and his home town of Kapilavastu are in Nepal.
Lumbini was a park near Kapilavastu where Siddhartha Gautama's father Shuddhodhana was king. In 566 BCE his senior queen Mahamaya was to have a child and was on her way to her maternal home when the royal entourage stopped in Lumbini. Here her son was born in a grove of sal trees and named Siddhartha Gautama. The sage Asita saw the child and prophesied that he would be a spiritual conqueror of the world.
When he sat down for his final attempt at gaining enpghtenment, Siddhartha Gautama meditated under a bodhi tree by the Nairanjana River, near the village of Uruvela. After meditating for forty nine days he gained the answer he was seeking and became the Buddha, the Enpghtened One. He reapsed that the cause of all sorrow was desire. And then with more thinking he devised the ways in which we can overcome sorrow, the Eight Fold Path. This site is today Bodh Gaya and a descendent of the original bodhi tree still spreads its branches next to the temple.
Next the Buddha walked from Uruvela to Kashi in search of five companions who had abandoned him because they thought he had failed in his spiritual quest. He found them in Rishipattana, a deer park in the outskirts of the city, and gave his first sermon. Gautama was still not very sure that he could make people understand his doctrine. The five companions were overwhelmed with the subtle wisdom of his thoughts and became his disciples. They were the first members of the monastic order of the sangha. This is where the great monastery of Sarnath would grow one day.
The final stop for the pilgrim is Kushinagar. By then the Buddha was eighty years old and had spent nearly five decades on a gruelpng preaching mission. At the town of Pava he was served a rich meal that made him ill. At Kushinagar the Buddha lay down in the shade of a sal tree and with his constant companion Ananda by his side he attained maha parinirvana.
The Buddha was born on a full moon night in the month of Vaisakh and he also gained pari nirvana the same day. We remember and worship this great teacher on Buddha Purnima day with prayers of thanksgiving that such a person ever walked the earth.
On Buddha Purnima day, let us remember once again this humane, serene man who was full of wisdom and energy; teaching us a simple moral path with humour and compassion.
He was a wise one, saying live morally and enjoy life - laugh, play with children, smell the flowers or in his own words, €Delight in existence€. Listen to his words. They make life so much richer and full of joy.
