The Life of the Buddha and His World

Overview

Recall questions on the events of Gautama's life, the four sights, the rejection of asceticism and awakening at Bodh Gaya, the brahmins and samana groups, sacrifice, caste and kingship, and Armstrong's and Nanamoli Bhikkhu's accounts of the life.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Walk through the key events of Gautama's life in order.

   Model answer

   Birth at Lumbini to Suddhodana and Maya; a sheltered princely upbringing at Kapilavatthu; the encounters that shattered it; departure from home; years of study and severe asceticism; the abandoning of that extreme; awakening under the tree at Bodh Gaya; the first teaching at Sarnath and the founding of the community; some four decades of teaching; and death and parinibbana at Kusinara.

2. 2

   What were the four sights, and what did each show him?

   Model answer

   An old man, a sick man, a corpse and a wandering ascetic. The first three confronted him with ageing, illness and death as things no privilege prevents; the fourth showed him that some people had made a life out of confronting exactly that, and it is presented as the moment his own course became clear.

3. 3

   Why did Gautama give up extreme asceticism?

   Model answer

   After years of severe fasting and self-mortification with five companions he found himself weakened to the point of collapse and no nearer insight. He concluded that a starved body cannot sustain the concentration awakening requires, accepted food, and set out what came to be called the middle way between indulgence and self-torment.

4. 4

   What is said to have happened under the tree at Bodh Gaya?

   Model answer

   Buddhist accounts describe him passing through the meditative absorptions and gaining insight in stages during the night: recollection of former lives, sight of beings passing away and being reborn according to their actions, and finally the knowledge that ended the defilements. He is then said to have hesitated to teach, doubting anyone would understand.

5. 5

   What teachings does the life story itself illustrate?

   Model answer

   The four sights teach impermanence and dukkha; the failed asceticism teaches the middle way; the awakening teaches that liberation comes by insight and is available to a human being; the decision to teach illustrates compassion; and the death illustrates that even a buddha's body is impermanent.

6. 6

   Which religious groups was the Buddha operating among?

   Model answer

   The brahmanical priesthood with its Vedic sacrifice and its Upanisadic speculation about atman and brahman, and a wide field of samana wanderers rejecting brahmanical authority, including Jains under Mahavira with their severe ahimsa and asceticism, materialists denying any afterlife, sceptics, and fatalists such as the Ajivikas.

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