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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