King Suddhodana and Queen Maya of Shakya Clan at the Lumbini Park 7 days after the birth, Queen died. Maha-Prajapati (aunt) took care of the prince and brought him up.

He left the palace when he was 29 to find the ultimate truth.

In that era they believed that, by starving themselves or tormenting their physical bodies, they would be reborn in the heavenly states amid eternal pleasure, and that more they suffered during in present life, the more pleasure they would be rewarded within the future.

So they practiced hardship by indulging in all kinds of tough and strenuous acts.

Siddhartha did try in various ways to become an ascetic. He became so thin that his whole bony frame was clearly visible.

He heard a group of girls singing on their way to the city : “With the strings too loose, the lute does not sound. Tighten the strings too much, they will break apart. Not too loose,  not too tight, the lute sounds so nice!”

Tormenting one’s physical body was certainly not the right way to seek the ultimate truth! Thus he decided to stop practicing asceticism and only to continue his mental diligence in his search for ultimate enlightenment.

From that time on, Siddhartha ate every morning. 

One morning a girl named Sujata, who lived in the village, cooked a pot of delicious rice porridge milk and brought it over as an offering to Siddhartha.

That same day, Siddhartha went for a bath in the river, then he sat down under the Bodhi tree by the riverbank and concentrated himself in meditation, hoping to attain enlightenment.

He finally acquired the power of being aware of all previous lives, and the power to see all things and to know the future rebirths of all things.

Realize that the unceasing cycle of death and rebirth of all beings is solely because of one’s karma; that is one’s thoughts and deeds.

He observed that the ultimate cause of turning round of birth and death in the vast sea of worldly suffering, that mankind and all other sentient beings are involved in, is ignorance and the attachment to transient and illusory pleasures.

He knew that he had delivered himself from all passions and delusions, that he had discovered the cause  and the method of elimination of all suffering, and he had attained enlightenment.

This was a great event that occurred before dawn on the full moon day of 5th month. Siddhartha Gautama of Shakya Clan, at the age of thirty-five, attained supreme enlightenment and became the Buddha under the Bodhi tree by the bank of the Nairanjana River.

Buddha began to plan what he should do for the future. The dharma he have comprehended is difficult and profound, and it can hardly be accepted by most people.

He should make it known everywhere so that all people can benefit from it equally, thus he decide to propagate the dharma.

The Buddha said to the disciples “Now you are going to propagate the dharma in other places to give more people the chance of having the same benefit and happiness.

No two of you should go the same way. Be sure to spread the dharma to all places far and near so that human life may be purified and brightened.

Finally, he entered to Nirvana at the age of eighty in the last watch of night of full moon day in the grove outside city of Kusinagara.