Buddha Shakyamuni

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Buddha Shakyamuni

Buddha Shakyamuni (Skt. Śākyamuni; Tib. སངས་རྒྱས་ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ་, Wyl. sangs rgyas shAkya thub pa) — the Indian prince Gautama Siddhartha, who reached enlightenment (and thus became a buddha) in the sixth century B.C., and who taught the spiritual path followed by millions all over the world, known today as Buddhism.

Dates

Dates for the parinirvana according to:

  • 2420 B.C.E. the Pandita Sureshamati
  • 2150 B.C.E. the rGya-bod-yig-tshang
  • 2146 B.C.E. Üpa Losal
  • 2136 B.C.E. Atisha
  • 2133 B.C.E. Sakya Pandita
  • 949 B.C.E. The Blue Annals refering to a Chinese tradition from Fo-lin and accepted by the Japanese schools: Jodo, Jodo-Shinshu and Nichirenshu
  • 881 B.C.E. Pakpa Lhundrup (followed by Butön and Dudjom Rinpoche)
  • 876 B.C.E. Butön based on the Kalachakra tantra
  • 835 B.C.E. Jonangpa school scholars
  • 750 B.C.E. Tshalpa Kunga Dorje, based on the history of the Sandalwood Buddha
  • 718 B.C.E. Kamalashila
  • 651 B.C.E. Orgyenpa
  • 544/543 B.C.E. Shakyashri, last abbot of Vikramashila
  • 544 B.C.E. Theravadin tradition
  • 489 B.C.E. based on the reign of Ashoka being 218 years after the parinirvana
  • 486 B.C.E. "dotted record" which came to China through Samghabhadra
  • 483 B.C.E. some modern scholars (an adjustment to the "dotted record")
  • 386/383 B.C.E. modern Japanese scholars
  • 371 B.C.E. based on the reign of Ashoka being 100 years after the parinirvana

Disciples

Epithets

There are many epithets for the Buddha. The Amarakosha lists them as follows:

Omniscient One, Gone to Bliss (Skt. Sugata), Awakened One, King of Dharma, Thus Gone One (Skt. Tathāgata),
Always Good, Blessed Lord (Skt. Bhagavan), Victor over Māra, Victor of the World, Victorious One,
Possessor of Six Super-Knowledges, Possessor of Ten Strengths, Speaker of Non-Duality, Remover of Obstacles,
King of Sages, Full of Glory, Teacher, The Sage, Sage of the Śākyas,
Lion of the Śākyas, Accomplisher of All Aims, Son of Śuddhodana,
Gautama, Kinsman of the Sun, Son of Māyādevī.[1]

Traditional Biographical Sources

Further Reading

  • Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, What Makes You Not a Buddhist (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2007)
  • Sir Edwin Arnold, The Light of Asia
  • Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path White Clouds (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1991)
  • Tulku Thondup, Masters of Meditation and Miracles, edited by Harold Talbott (Boston: Shambhala, 1999), 'Shākyamuni Buddha'.

Oral Teachings Given to the Rigpa Sangha

Notes

  1. The Sanskrit is as follows:
    sarvajñaḥ sugato buddho dharmarājastathāgataḥ
    samantabhadro bhagavān mārajillokajijjinaḥ
    ṣaḍabhijño daśabalo 'dvayavādī vināyakaḥ
    munīndraḥ shrīghanaḥ shāstā muniḥ śākyamunistu yaḥ
    saḥ śākyasiṃhaḥ sarvārthasiddhaḥ śauddhodaniśca saḥ
    gautamaścārkabandhuśca māyādevīsutaśca saḥ
    And the Tibetan translation:
    བདེ་གཤེགས་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན། ། ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས ། །
    ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས། །བདུད་འདུལ་འཇིག་རྟེན་རྒྱལ་བ་པོ། །
    མངོན་ཤེས་དྲུག་ལྡན་སྟོབས་བཅུ་པ། །གཉིས་མེད་གསུངས་རྔུ་དང་རྣམ་པར་འདྲེན། །
    ཐུབ་པའི་དབང་པོ་དཔལ་སྟུག་དང་། །སྟོན་པ་ཐུབ་པ་ཉིད་རྣམས་སོ། །
    ཤཱཀ་ཐུབ་ཤཱཀྱའི་སེང་གེ་དང་། །དོན་རྣམས་གྲུབ་པ་ཟས་གཙང་སྲས། །
    གོ་ཏ་མ་དང་ཉི་མའི་གཉེན། །ལྷ་མོ་སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་སྲས་རྣམས་སོ།

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