Let’s find out about The Buddha’s family Tree and Did Buddha really exist or not.
Gautama Buddha was an ascetic and spiritual teacher who lived during the latter half of the first millennium BCE in South Asia. He was the founder of Buddhism and is revered by Buddhists as an Enlightened being whose teachings sought a path to freedom from ignorance, craving, rebirth and suffering. Born in Lumbini (present day Nepal)in the Shakya clan , he spent the majority of his adult life in modern day Nepal and India, attaining enlightenment under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya. He preached his first sermon on the Four Noble Truths in Sarnath, where the Buddhist sangha or community also came to life, and is believed to have passed away from earthly existence by achieving nirvana in Kushinagar. One of the greatest and most influential philosophers in history, the Buddha has since been venerated by numerous religions and communities across Asia.
The Buddha was born into an aristocratic family in the Shakya clan, but renounced lay life. According to Buddhist tradition, after several years of mendicancy, meditation, and asceticism, he awakened to understand the workings of the cycle of rebirth and how it can be escaped. The Buddha then travelled in the lower Gangetic plain, teaching and building a religious community. The Buddha taught a middle way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the Indian śramaṇa movement. He taught a training of the mind that included ethical training, self-restraint, and meditative practices such as jhana and mindfulness. The Buddha also critiqued the practices of Brahmin priests, such as animal sacrifice and the caste system.
A couple of centuries after his death, he came to be known by the title Buddha, which means “Awakened One” or “Enlightened One”. Gautama’s teachings were compiled by the Buddhist community in the Vinaya, his codes for monastic practice, and the Suttas, texts based on his discourses. These were passed down in Middle Indo-Aryan dialects through an oral tradition. Later generations composed additional texts, such as systematic treatises known as Abhidharma, biographies of the Buddha, collections of stories about the Buddha’s past lives known as Jataka tales, and additional discourses, i.e. the Mahayana sutras.
