Gauthama Buddha

The Buddha was born as a prince, the only son of King Suddhodhana and Queen Maha Maya of the virtuous and noble Shakya clan around 560 BC.  The place of his birth, Lumbini is now situated within the territories of Nepal.  He was born under a blossoming and fragrant Sal flower tree.


The Buddha Found Out the End of Suffering and called it "Nibbana".


The word "Nibbana" was coined by Him.

Read about - Nibbana

Background

Around 623 BC, in India, the people in general were inclined towards spiritual pursuit.  It was customary, for a young man to get married when he was about 16 years old to a damsel of 14 years.  The young couple lived with their parents and other family members in one household where every adult contributed towards the upbringing of their children.  When the “ripe old age” of 32 was reached in their lives they would become Brahmachari and lead a celibate life in pursuit of spiritual happiness devoted to meditation. This was a traditional practice found in India even in the 20^th century as Mahatma Gandhi’s life shows.  He,.. Mahatma and his wife Kasturba took up the Brahmachari precept, when they were 32 years old, after bringing up 16 children.

During this period in History, the social order was such in India, that there were 4 castes.  The Kshatriyas, Brahmanas, Vaishyas and  Kshudras.  Kshatriya were the royals, who governed and held the highest position in society.  The Brahmanas were the Brahmins who taught the people what is good and bad, the sages who gave good advise (and sometimes bad as well..!) to the Royals and all other people in the society, and as such held a high positions as teachers of religion and righteousness.Vaishyas were the business class, extremely rich, and engaged themselves in commerce, trading between many lands,  bringing in wealth to the country. The Kshudra were the lowest of castes and were generally, the labourers and such, who were looked down upon in society and all sorts of menial and lowly jobs were thrown upon them.

Prince Siddhattha, "The Buddha to be"  was born in such an environment.

Ajahn Punnadhammo of Arrow River Forest Monastery -

I have listened to Ajahn Punnadhammo's teachings and find them very interesting.  I hope the link will help you too. I am from Sri lanka, so far away from his monastery in Thunder Bay near Toronto, Canada. My aim is to help anyone who comes across my blog, to listen to Dhamma talks from all over the world on Buddhist Meditation. So that they won't have to waste time searching for them, themselves, but find what they want in this blogspot at once.

The map below shows where this Monastery is   From Toronto Canada.

Listen now