Buddhism is the Western term for the teaching of the Buddha or the religion founded by the Buddha. In the East it is known as the Buddha Sasana. ‘Buddha’ is not aname. It is a title, meaning the Enlightened One or the Awakened One. The Buddha’s personal name was Siddhattha1 and his clan name was Gotama.2 Thus he was sometimes called Siddhattha Gotama. Few people, however, now make use of these names. They simply call him the Buddha or Gotama the Buddha.
The Buddha lived twenty five centuries ago in North India. He was born a prince of the Sakyan kingdom which was located at the foot of the Himalaya. His father, who was the king ruling over the Sakyas, was called Suddhodana. The Queen who was the Prince’s mother was called Maya. As a prince, he grew up in the midst of luxury, led the happy life of a privileged youth and married Princess Yasodhara. His beautiful cousin, who bore him a son, Rahula.
This happened for the first time when he took chariot rides in the streets of his father’s capital, Kapilavastu. Then he saw four sights which altered his whole life. The first three of them – a man feeble with old age, another with a grievous disease, and a corpse – filled him with a longing to find some way to help his fellow men and to discover the true meaning of life. The fourth sight, a monk, gave him a hope of the possibility of learning about Truth and finding a way out of suffering. Then, at the age of 29, Prince Siddhattha left his father’s palace, left his dearly loved wife and newborn son, and led the life of a wandering ascetic, devoting himself to finding some way of overcoming suffering.
At the full moon of May, forty five years before the Buddhist Era, while sitting under the Bodhi tree at Gaya, he found his answer and at tained the Enlightenment. The Great Man, now known as the Buddha, went first from Gaya to Sarnath mear Benares where he gave his first sermon in the Deer Park. From then through the remaining 45 years of his life, he wandered from place to place teaching his discoveries to all who would listen to him and organizing his followers who renounced the world to form the Sangha.
Though it is now more than 2500 years since the passing away of the Buddha, the Dharma he taught remains our Teacher as he himself named it. The Sangha which consists of the followers who study, prac tise and disseminate the Dharma, has received this torch of light from the torchbearer himself and carried it on and on to us throughout lands and centuries. The three of them – the Buddha, the founder; the Dharma, the teaching; and the Sangha, the Order of disciples – form the Triple Gem which all Buddhists value the best of all precious things, and the Threefold Refuge which guides them on the Path of the true good life. Each year on the Visakha Full Moon, throughout the world, millions of men and women gather together to commemorate the birth, enlightenment and passing away of this Great Man.
The Birth reminds them of the fact that a man, by training himself through his own effort and intelligence, can achieve supreme attainments even to be a Buddha; the Enlightenment, that only through the discovery of the Buddha did the timeless Dharma become known to the world; and the Passing Away, that though the Buddha as a person was gone, the light of the timeless Dharma will still be kept shining so long as there is a Sangha, a community of righteous followers, to carry on the torch by treading the path of self enlightenment themselves and helping others towards the same goal.
There are two types of Buddhas. And both seemingly reach a level of enlightenment called Nirvana, the end of suffering (while still alive here on Earth) and acquire some supernatural powers. This is a brief about both types of Buddhas. In the Pali Canon, a collection of 16 volumes containing 12,800 pages of translation about communications about the study of Buddha Dharma’s ideaology / spirituality, the transcripts reference two types of Buddhas. These are Samyaksambuddha or Sammasambuddha and Pratyeka Buddha or Paccekabuddha. A brief description of each follows.
Samyaksambuddhas (Pali: Sammasambuddha) Students of this order reach Buddhahood. Then they teach other people about the truth or enlightenment of Buddha Dharma and teaching his methodology / philosophy / ideology / religion, guiding them to a sense of spiritual awakening. Siddhartha Gautama, referred to as The Historical Buddha, fits in this category type, described as a Samyak-sambuddha. Pratyekabuddhas (Pali: Paccekabuddha) Somewhat similar to the Samyaksambuddhas above in that they reach the state of Nervana with powers, this type of Buddha is also known as Silent Buddhas, becuase they decided to not share their knowledge with others.
Disciples of a Sammasambuddha are called Savakas (hearers or followers) or Arahants (Noble One). These terms have slightly varied meanings but can all be used to describe the enlightened disciple. Anubuddha is a rarely used term, but was used by the Buddha in the Khuddakapatha as to those who become Buddhas after being given instruction. Enlightened disciples attain Nirvana and Parinirvana as the two types of Buddhas do. The most generally used term for them is Arahant.
One 12th century Theravadin commentary uses the term Savakabuddha to describe the enlightened disciple. According to this scripture there are 3 types of Buddhas. In this case, however, the common definition of the meaning of the word Buddha (as one who discovers the Dhamma without a teacher) does not apply any more. Mainstream Theravadin and Mahayana scriptures do not recognize this term and state there are only two kinds of Buddha.