The Awakened One

Buddhism surprises many newcomers. There is no creator god. There is no eternal soul. There is no divinely revealed book that fell from heaven. What there is, instead, is a diagnosis — as precise as any doctor's — of what ails the human heart, and a treatment plan that has been tested by millions of people across 2,500 years.

The Buddha (which means simply "the awakened one") was born Siddhartha Gautama around 563 BCE in what is now Nepal. He was a prince, raised in luxury, shielded from suffering. When he finally encountered old age, sickness, and death, the shock was so profound that he left everything — wife, child, throne — to find an answer.

After six years of searching, he sat beneath a fig tree (the Bodhi tree) and meditated until, at dawn, he understood. What he understood became the foundation of one of the world's great civilizations. In this lesson, we'll explore that story and that understanding.

The story that defines Buddhism is deceptively simple. Prince Siddhartha, raised in a palace where his father had banished all signs of suffering, goes out one day and sees four things he has never seen before:

1. An old person — and learns that all bodies age 2. A sick person — and learns that all bodies break down 3. A corpse — and learns that all bodies die 4. A wandering ascetic — and sees someone who has chosen to face these realities rather than hide from them

These are the Four Sights. They are the moment Buddhism begins — not with a revelation from heaven, but with a young man refusing to look away from the truth of the human condition.

Siddhartha leaves the palace that night. He will spend six years searching, nearly starving himself to death as an ascetic, before finding what he calls the Middle Way — a path between luxury and self-punishment.