Page 95 - รวมเล่มศาสนาในประเทศไทย ภาคภาษาอังกฤษ

Founder: Lord Buddha and Sangha
2 Five days after his birth, 108 Brahmins were invited by King Suddhodana to
3 sixteen, he married Yashodhara or Phimpha, the daughter of King Suppabuddha of Devdaha.
1 Mural painting on The Life of The
Lord Buddha
Depicting the scene when he
preached to the relatives
Wat Wang, Phatthalung
2 Somdet Phra Nyanasamvara, Somdet
Phra Sañgharãja Sakalamahã
Sañghaparinãyaka
3 Somdet Phra Maha Ratchamangala
charn (Chuang Varapanyo)
Wat Pak Nam
The Supreme Patriarch in Charge
1
Buddhism has long history of more than 2,500 years, since the Buddhism era.
The founder of Buddhism is Lord Buddha.
The Lord Buddha
The Lord Buddha was born as a Prince Siddhartha, a son of King Suddhodana and
Queen Mahamaya of Shakya Republic in the capital of Kapilavastu. He was born in Lumbini,
on a full moon of 15 day of the 6 lunar month, in the Year of the Dog, 80 years before the
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Buddhist Era. (Lumbini and Capital of Kapilavastu are now in modern-day Nepal.)
receive his food offering. The king called upon eight Brahmins to read the future of his son.
While seven of them predicted that the prince would grow up to become either a great King
with a vast empire or a great holy man and savior of humanity, the Brahmin “Kaundinya”,
the youngest, was confident that the prince would renounce the world and become a Buddha.
Then, the prince was given the name “Siddhartha,” meaning “one who achieves his aim.”
Seven days after his birth, his mother, the Queen Mahamaya died.
As a young prince, Siddhartha was fully educated in all the 18 branches of arts
from the most renowned teacher, Viswamitra. The King Suddhodana eager that his son should
become a king like himself, was determined to shield his son from anything that might result
in him talking up the religious life. And so, Siddhartha was kept in one or another of their
three palaces, and was not permitted to see the elderly, the sickly, and the dead, or anyone who
had dedicated themselves to spiritual practices. When the young prince reached the age of
At the age of 29, during excursions from the palace, Prince Siddhartha
encountered four signs reflecting realities of human. These signs includes an old man, a sick
person, a corpse, and a monk or a yogi. Through them he realized that the vanity of youth,
as well as one's health, and even life, may end at any time; furthermore, he realized that the
only way out of this suffering world of samsara was through finding and following the right
spiritual path. After the birth of his son, Rahula (meaning “fetter”), Siddhartha left the palace
and kingdom behind and engaged in an ascetic path. At the river Anoma, the price renounced
the world by cutting off his hair, abandoning his royal dress and exchanging it for the robes
of an ascetic. After six years of hardship and practicing, at the age of 35, Prince Siddhartha
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attained complete Enlightenment, or Buddhahood on the full moon day of the 6 lunar months,
at Uruvelasenanigama subdistrict, Capital of Baranasi.
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