About the Buddha

31. Was the Buddha a God?

A: No. The Buddha was not a God. He lived from approximately 563 to 483 BC; his given name was Siddhattha (Skt: Siddhartha) and his family name Gotama (Gautama). Gotama, also known as Śākyamuni or Shakyamuni ("sage of the Shakyas") as he was born into the Sakyan clan in a small republic nestled in the Himalayan foothills. A Buddha is a human being who has woken up and can see the true way the world works.


32. Why do they call him Buddha? What does 'Buddha' mean?

A: Buddha simply means ONE who is fully enlightened. They wanted to call him the Buddha because it means "One who is Awakened". A Buddha is a very holy person in Buddhism. The word Buddha means "He woke up" in Sanskrit. Since Buddhism tradition thinks Buddha is an ideal person, tradition reached a notion of 36 ideal features of Buddhas. Some of those features include: he knew all about how to live a peaceful life and how to not to suffer in an afterlife. He can help others become enlightened too in a proper way.



33. Have there been other Buddhas?

A: According to Theravada tradition, many Buddhas have come and gone over countless eons. Every once in a great while, after a long period of spiritual darkness blankets the world, an individual is eventually born who, through his own efforts, rediscovers the long-forgotten path to Awakening and liberates himself once and for all from the long round of rebirth, thereby becoming an arahant ("worthy one," one who has fully realized Awakening). If, then, his paramis are fully developed, he is able to deliver his message (sasana) to the world and is called a Buddha. The most recent Buddha was born Siddhattha Gotama in India in the sixth century BCE. He is the one we usually mean when we refer to "The Buddha." A Theravada commentary says that Buddhas arise one at a time in this world element, and not at all in others. However, Mahayana Buddhists believe there are innumerable other Buddhas in other universes. The fundamental teaching in Mahayana Buddhism is that everybody has the opportunity and possibility to become a Buddha. Every human being has this potential. The Buddha did not keep his discovery to himself but, out of his love and compassion, he wished that all sentient beings might discover this inherent potential within themselves. This realisation, this recognition of our Buddha nature, is very important for all of us.



34. Is Tathāgata the Buddha, Śākyamuni, or someone else? (see also Q.28)

A: Literally, the word means both one who has thus gone (Tathā-gata) and one who has thus come (Tathā-āgata). Hence, the Tathagata is beyond all coming and going. The Buddha of the scriptures is always reported as referring to himself as the Tathagata instead of using the pronouns me, I or myself. This serves to emphasize by implication that the words are uttered by one who has transcended the human condition, who is beyond the otherwise endless cycle of rebirth, beyond all death and dying, beyond all suffering.


35. Who is Amitābha?

A: Amitābha is the principal buddha in the Pure Land sect, a branch of Buddhism practiced mainly in East Asia. "Amitābha" is translatable as "Infinite Light," hence Amitābha is often called "The Buddha of Infinite Light."