The Bodhisattva’s Descent
According to Mahayana tradition, before his final birth as Siddhartha Gautama, the Bodhisattva dwelled in Tushita Heaven, a celestial realm associated with future Buddhas, where he awaited the appropriate time to enter the human world for the benefit of all beings. Having cultivated wisdom, compassion, and the Bodhisattva path through countless lifetimes, he chose to be born among humanity so that he might reveal a path leading beyond suffering and toward awakening.
Born into a royal family in Lumbini, in what is now Nepal, Siddhartha was the son of King Suddhodana and Queen Maya. Shortly after his birth, the sage Asita visited the infant prince and foretold that he would become either a universal monarch or a fully awakened Buddha who would guide countless beings toward liberation. Hoping his son would become a great ruler rather than a spiritual teacher, King Suddhodana surrounded Siddhartha with luxury and comfort, shielding him from sickness, old age, death, and the harsher realities of life.
Yet even as a child, Siddhartha displayed an unusual sensitivity to suffering. During a royal plowing festival, he is said to have noticed worms and insects being unearthed and killed by the plows and was deeply moved by their suffering. In another well known story, he rescued a wounded bird that had been shot by his cousin Devadatta, arguing that life belongs not to the one who would destroy it, but to the one who protects it. These stories foreshadow the compassion that would later become the hallmark of his teachings.
In time, Siddhartha married Yasodhara, and together they had a son, Rahula. Yet despite his privileged life, he sensed a deeper calling. Realizing that neither wealth nor power could protect those he loved from suffering, aging, illness, and death, he became determined to find a path that could bring genuine freedom not only for himself, but for his family, his kingdom, and ultimately all beings.
The Seeker
At approximately twenty eight years of age, Siddhartha encountered what Buddhist tradition remembers as the Four Sights: an elderly person, a sick person, a corpse, and a wandering spiritual seeker. These encounters shattered the illusion of permanent comfort and revealed the universal realities of aging, illness, and death. At the same time, the holy seeker suggested that there might be a way beyond suffering.
Deeply moved, Siddhartha renounced his royal life and embarked on a spiritual quest. For seven years he wandered throughout northern India, studying with renowned philosophers, meditation masters, and spiritual teachers. He mastered profound states of concentration and learned from many of the most respected minds of his age, yet neither intellectual knowledge nor extreme asceticism brought the liberation he sought.
Through these experiences he discovered what would later be called the Middle Way. At one level, the Middle Way rejects the extremes of indulgence and self mortification. At a deeper level, it points beyond rigid views and dualistic extremes. Later Mahayana teachers would further illuminate this insight, revealing a wisdom that transcends fixed notions of self and other, existence and nonexistence, samsara and nirvana.
Awakening Beneath the Bodhi Tree
At the age of thirty five, Siddhartha seated himself beneath a Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya and vowed not to rise until he attained complete awakening.
During the night, traditional accounts tell us that he recalled countless past lives and perceived the vast cycle of birth, death, and rebirth through which beings wander. He saw how karma and ignorance sustain the suffering of samsara and understood the causes and conditions that bind beings to this cycle. He also faced the temptations of Mara, the lord of death, often understood as both a mythic figure and the embodiment of fear, craving, self doubt, and egoic attachment. Remaining unmoved, he touched the earth as witness to his resolve and continued his meditation.
As dawn approached and the morning star appeared, Siddhartha penetrated the nature of reality itself and attained complete awakening. He became known as Shakyamuni Buddha, the Awakened One. He realized the interdependent nature of all existence and the inseparability of wisdom and compassion. He saw that liberation is found not through grasping, aversion, or fixed views, but through awakening to reality as it truly is.
Later Mahayana tradition expresses this realization through the famous declaration found in the Avatamsaka Sutra:
“Wonder of wonders! All beings possess the wisdom and virtue of the Tathagata, but because of their attachments and delusions they do not realize it.”
From this perspective, awakening is not the acquisition of something new but the uncovering of what has always been present. The Buddha’s realization revealed not only his own freedom, but the profound potential for awakening within all beings.
The Mission
For the next forty five years, the Buddha traveled throughout northern India sharing the Dharma and establishing a spiritual community dedicated to awakening. Known as the Sangha, this community welcomed monastics and laypeople, nobles and laborers, men and women. In a society shaped by rigid social divisions, the Buddha affirmed the spiritual dignity and awakening potential of all beings.
The Buddha’s wife Yasodhara, his son Rahula, his aunt Mahaprajapati, and many members of his extended family eventually joined the Sangha and became important participants in its growth. Mahaprajapati would go on to establish the first order of Buddhist nuns, helping ensure that the path remained open to all.
The Buddha taught with remarkable flexibility and compassion, offering different teachings according to the needs and capacities of those before him. This principle later became known as skillful means (upaya), the compassionate ability to guide people toward awakening through whatever methods would best benefit them.
The Teachings
The Buddha’s teachings address both the reality of suffering and the possibility of liberation. They encourage ethical living, meditation, wisdom, compassion, mindfulness, and the cultivation of a heart dedicated to the welfare of others.
Mahayana Buddhism understands the Buddha’s teachings as unfolding through Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma. The First Turning revealed the Four Noble Truths, dependent origination, and the path leading beyond suffering. The Second Turning illuminated emptiness, nonduality, and the Bodhisattva path, showing how wisdom and compassion work together for the liberation of all beings. The Third Turning revealed Buddha Nature, affirming that beneath confusion and suffering lies an innate capacity for awakening present within everyone.
Rather than separate doctrines, these turnings may be understood as complementary expressions of a single awakening. Together they reveal the depth of the Buddha’s wisdom and the universality of his compassion.
The Lotus Sutra beautifully summarizes the Buddha’s purpose:
“The Buddha(s) appear in the world for one great cause alone: to open the door of Buddha wisdom to all beings.”
The Tathagata
While historians remember Shakyamuni as a remarkable teacher who lived in ancient India, Mahayana Buddhism also understands him as the Tathagata, the embodiment of Suchness (Tathata), and a manifestation of the Dharmakaya, the timeless reality from which all Buddhas arise. From this perspective, the Buddha’s life is not merely the story of an extraordinary individual but the manifestation of boundless wisdom and compassion appearing in the world for the benefit of all beings.
Through the centuries, Buddhist traditions have illuminated different dimensions of the Buddha’s awakening. Some emphasize meditation and direct realization, others faith and devotion, and others the universal presence of Buddha Nature. Though their methods may differ, they all point toward the same realization of wisdom, compassion, nonduality, and liberation.
Parinirvana
At the age of eighty, the Buddha entered Parinirvana. Surrounded by monastic and lay disciples, he encouraged them to continue practicing the Dharma with diligence, wisdom, and compassion. Among his most beloved final teachings are the words:
“Be a lamp unto yourselves. Let the Dharma be your refuge.”
Modern scholars suggest that his passing may have resulted from complications associated with mesenteric infarction, though the exact cause remains uncertain.
The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra teaches that while the Buddha’s physical life came to an end, the reality of Buddhahood remains present through the Dharma and the Buddha Nature inherent within all beings. The historical Buddha passed into Parinirvana, but the wisdom and compassion of the Tathagata continue to illuminate the path of awakening. In this way, the Buddha remains a living source of refuge, guidance, and inspiration for the world.
In Zen, this living reality is discovered through direct realization of one’s true nature. In Pure Land and Shin traditions, it is experienced through confidence in the Buddha’s liberating wisdom and compassionate activity. In the Buddha Nature traditions, it is recognized as the luminous reality that has never been absent.
The Buddha’s invitation remains as vital today as it was beneath the Bodhi tree: awaken to wisdom, embody compassion, and participate in the liberation of all beings.
Written by Rev. G.R. Lewis, M.A. © G.R. Lewis,
Buddhist Faith Fellowship, May 2026
