The Encyclopedia of World Religions

64 S Buddha, the

or desire, brought about by ignorance of reality. The disease, however, can be cured. The Buddha taught that duhkha disappears once one eliminates craving. But that requires an entire transforma tion of one’s thought, practice, and perceptions, a transformation that results from practicing the Buddha’s eightfold path. Several principles underlie the Buddha’s teach ing. One of them is “no-self” (Sanskrit, anatman). This principle denies that people have an eternal soul or an unchanging self or essence, such as one finds, for example, in the teachings of C HRISTIANITY and H INDUISM (see ATMAN ). A related principle, “no permanence” (Sanskrit, anitya ), emphasizes that change characterizes all existence. A third princi ple, “co-dependent origination” (Sanskrit, pratitya samutpada ), highlights the interrelatedness of all things. According to this teaching, everything is tied together in a complex net of causes, so that there can be no “first cause” from which all beings derive. Many religions have worried about the origin of the universe or the fate of human beings after death ( see COSMOGONY and AFTERLIFE IN WORLD RELI GIONS ). The Buddha urged his followers to ignore these questions, not unlike the teachings of J UDA ISM . In the image of his famous “Fire Sermon,” human beings have awakened to find themselves in a house on fire. They should not worry about how the fire started, nor should they be concerned with what they will do after the fire has been extin guished. They should direct all their efforts to put ting the fire out. SIGNIFICANCE The Buddha is known as the Tathagata, Sanskrit for “the one who went that way.” The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, is important not because he revealed the messages of a god but because he discovered and taught the path that human beings can follow to attain release from suffering. He is most revered in the tradition of Buddhism known as Theravada, predominant in southeast Asia. A formula that Theravada often invokes signals the Buddha’s importance: “I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the teachings

of rebirth ( see KARMA ) as well as the path to release from suffering ( see NIRVANA ). As morning dawned, he achieved enlightenment ( bodhi ) and became the Buddha. Out of compassion for the sufferings of all sentient, or conscious, beings and at the urg ing of a Hindu god, the Buddha remained in his human body to teach others the path he had dis covered. He gave his first sermons at the deer park in Sarnath (near B ANARAS , India) to ascet ics—persons who deprive themselves of luxuries for religious purposes—with whom he had been living. Hearing his teachings, they too quickly attained liberation (nirvana) and became the first Buddhist ARHATS . During the remaining years of his life, the Buddha wandered widely over northeast India, teaching his path and ordaining followers—men at first, later women, too—into the SANGHA , the order of wandering mendicants. At the age of 79 he ate some spoiled food offered by a lay (unordained) follower and died or, as Buddhists say, entered the ultimate nirvana ( parinirvana ) in Kushina gara (today Kasia, India). His closest followers decided to treat his body the way they would a royal corpse: They cremated the Buddha’s remains and gave portions of his ashes to several kings. Portions of these remains were later enshrined in STUPAS throughout the Buddhist world. TEACHINGS Unlike M OSES , J ESUS , and M UHAMMAD , the Buddha did not advocate the worship of any particular god. He did not deny that gods existed, but he thought that because gods are living beings, they, too, ultimately need to escape from suffering. (In the Buddhist view nothing is eternal, not even gods.) Like a compassionate physician, the Bud dha diagnosed and prescribed the cure for the suf fering that plagues all sentient existence. The Buddha’s diagnosis and prescription are formulated most compactly in his FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS . The Buddha identified the symptoms of our illness as duhkha, suffering, but suffering in the sense that ultimate satisfaction is unavailable in this life. The cause of duhkha is craving, longing,