The Buddha and his teaching

The Buddha ("the awakened one") was Siddhartha Gautama, born as a prince of the Shakya clan in what is now the border region of Nepal and India, probably in the fifth century BCE (scholars differ by about a century on the dates). The tradition says that he left his home in his twenties to seek an end to suffering, practised hard, then found his way by meditation under the bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, and taught for some forty-five years until his death at Kushinagar.

The Four Noble Truths

1. There is suffering (dukkha): life includes pain, loss and dissatisfaction.
2. Suffering has a cause: craving and clinging.
3. Suffering can end: this is Nirvana.
4. There is a path to the end of suffering: the Eightfold Path.

Three marks of existence

Things are impermanent (anicca), unsatisfying when clung to (dukkha), and without a fixed, independent self (anatta).

Ethics

Lay Buddhists take five precepts: to refrain from killing, stealing, wrong sexual conduct, false speech and intoxicants that cloud the mind. Compassion, generosity and mindfulness are central. The Dhammapada is one of the best-loved short books of the tradition: see the chapters.

The verses are F. Max Muller's English translation of 1881, in the public domain; its wording is of its time. The notes are our own. This site is an introduction and not a substitute for a teacher, and it is independent of any Buddhist organisation.