Thursday, October 24, 2013

Life and Sayings of Buddha (Part I)

By Syed Manzoor Alam, New Age Islam
October 24, 2013
“In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.”                                                                                                                         Buddha, the Enlightened One
“Mankind will not go astray after having found the right road, unless from disputation.”                                                                                  Prophet Muhammad
To know about Buddhism we have to ask first of all the most basic question- Who was the Buddha? Who was this person who set this incredibly rich and complex religious tradition in motion? And if you are at all curious about the impact that this person had on the lives of people in India, where he was born and in all the other countries in Asia and modern America, where Buddhism has become an important part of the religious landscape, it is also natural to ask another question- how did the life of this person, we call the Buddha, become so deeply woven into the lives of the people who called themselves Buddhists.
Historically we have just a few facts about the life of the Buddha. We know or we think we know that he was born in the family of King Shuddhodana and Queen Maya about the year 566 B.C.E in Southern Nepal. Now some historians put the date to around 5th Century, so we notice that at the very beginning there is some uncertainly about Buddha’s life. 

 

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