Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha, is the founder of Buddhism.

According to the earliest Buddhist traditions, the Buddha was born in the fifth century into a relatively wealthy family in Kaplilavastu. He was raised by an adoring father who sought to protect him from the sight and knowledge of evil. He married early and had a son while he was still a youth.

According to legend, he rode forth from his home in his chariot at age 29. By the roadside he saw an aged man, a sick man, and a corpse on a litter. Shocked by his first experience with old age, sickness, and death, the prince lost all joy in living. One night he left his sleeping wife and infant son and rode away into the forest. He denounced the world, and through all sorts of penances, even to the point of almost starving to death, he sought to gain insight into life's meanings. As he meditated in solitude under the Bo tree, which Buddhists call the tree of wisdom, he experienced a spiritual awakening, known as "the enlightenment."

After six years of study and meditation he finally found 'the middle path' (so called because it eschews extreme asceticism as well as indulgence) and was enlightened. After enlightenment, the Buddha spent the rest of his life wandering through India and teaching the principles of Buddhism until his death.