What was the historical Shakyamuni like? We can outline the general situation from the Buddhist scriptures.
The founder of Buddhism was Shakyamuni (565-486 BC), meaning the sage of the Shakya people, which is of course the title of later generations, just as The Chinese called Confucius the Sage of Kong. When Shakyamuni was a layman, he was called Siddhartha, when the Shakya clan ruled the Kingdom of Shakya (in present-day Nepal), the capital was the Kapilava Acropolis, the reign of Shakyamuni's father, King Jingmi, was the heyday of the Kingdom of Shakyamuni, and there were 9 large cities outside the capital, of which the elder of The Heavenly Arm City had 8 daughters, the eldest daughter and the younger daughter were married to the King of Pure Rice, and the eldest daughter was Lady Maya, the mother of Shakyamuni. Mrs. Maya dreamed of becoming pregnant with a white elephant, which is the famous story of "taking the elephant into the womb". Lady Maya was pregnant in October, and gave birth to Shakya in a garden on the eighth day of April, and legend has it that nine dragons spit warm water from the air and bathed him for the "Nine Dragon Empowerment", which became an important festival of Buddhism, the Buddha's Birthday Festival, and the monastery held a grand bathing Festival. (Liu Song) asked Nabhadra to translate the Past and Present Cause and Effect Sutra, Volume 1, and recorded: "Since Madame Ershi has entered the garden, the roots are silent, and october is satisfied. At the beginning of the sunrise on the eighth of February, the lady saw a large tree in the garden, named Carefree, with fragrant flowers and extremely lush branches, that is, she raised her right hand to pluck it, and the bodhisattva gradually came out from the right side. Under the tree of time, the Seven Treasures and Seven Stems of Lotus flowers also grew, as big as wheels, and even if a bodhisattva fell on a lotus flower. The unsupported waiter, taking seven steps on his own, raised his right hand and the master roared: I am the most honored and victorious of all the heavenly beings, and the immeasurable birth and death are exhausted in this life, and this life benefits all the heavens. Saying that it was already said, the Four Heavenly Kings took the body of the prince with heaven and placed it on the treasure machine. Shakti Huan was holding the treasure cover in his hand, and the Great Brahma King was holding a white whisk and standing left and right. The Nanda Dragon King and the Upanishad Dragon King were in the void, spitting out pure water, one warm and one cool, and pouring the prince's body. The body is golden, there are thirty-two phases, magnifying the light, illuminating the three thousand worlds. The Eight Heavenly Dragons also perform heavenly tricks in the air, singing praises, burning incense, scattering wonderful flowers, raining clothes and flowers, colorful and chaotic, indescribable. (Eastern Han) Zhu Dali et al. translated the "Cultivation Book" on the scroll: "By April 8, the lady traveled, passed under the trees of the displaced people, and all the flowers bloomed. When the star came out, the lady climbed the branch, and she was born from the right side, fell to the ground and took seven steps, raising her hand and saying: Heaven and the world, only I am respected. All three realms are suffering, and I should be at peace. When the heavens and the earth are in great swing, the three thousand thousand earths are not clear. The four kings of Shakyamuni and their subordinates, the dragons, the ghosts, the forks, the gaunthales, the Gautas, and the Ashuras, all came to guard them. There are dragon king brothers, one Garo, two Yu Jialuo, left rain warm water, right rain cold spring, Shiva Mo holding the heavenly clothes wrapped in it, heavenly rain flower incense, playing piano drum music, incense burning incense, pounding incense, void side plug. Madame hugged the prince, took the dragon car, and guided the palace. ”
Unfortunately, Lady Maya died seven days after giving birth, and the Buddhist scriptures record that Shakyamuni was born from his mother's right armpit, and now it is thought that Maya died of dystocia (broken abdomen). India is rainy, and judging from the Factual Empowerment of the Nine Dragons (one says the Second Dragon Empowerment), it may be that Maya was in the garden when shakya was giving birth to Shakya, and he died of an illness caused by giving birth in the rain in the wild.
Legend has it that Shakya was born to walk, step by step, raise his hand and swear that "heaven and the world, only I am the only one", now no one will believe that born to speak, born to do such legendary things, not to mention that the vow of "heaven and the world, only I am the only one" is not commensurate with the Buddhist idea of equality of all sentient beings.
(Eastern Jin Dynasty) Kalyudra's translation of the Twelve Travels Sutra records: "The bodhisattva's father's name is Bai Jing, and his father has four brothers. King Baijing had two sons, his great name was Siddha, and his younger son was Nanda. The bodhisattva's mother's name is Maya, and Nanda's mother's name is Qu Tanya. The bodhisattva's uncle was named King Ganlujing, and he also had two sons, the eldest son was named Tunda, and the younger son was named Ananda. After Maya's death, Shakya was raised by Lady Maya's sister (aunt), the younger daughter of the Elder Shanjue, and later Qu Tanmi became the first monk with Shakya. Shakya received a good education in his youth, and later Buddhists deified Shakya, saying that he was so powerful that he could throw an elephant, wear seven drums with arrows, and so on. When Shakyamuni became an adult, he married three concubines, Yayuthara, Manutara, and Qudami (Quyi), of which Yayuthara had a son, Rahu, so it is more famous in the Buddhist scriptures. However, shakya and Yerutara's husband and wife had a bad relationship, and there was almost no conjugal life, and the untranslated name of the "Sutra of Grace" Volume 1 has a foreign attack that says: "Na marries QuYi, but does not perform the ritual of a woman, making him sad." Shakya himself often attacked her in the Buddhist scriptures, and the (Eastern Jin Dynasty) Kumarosh (344-413) translated the Great Wisdom Treatise, volume 17, records that after Shakya became a Buddha, Yayothara wanted Shakya to return to his worldly life, so he recruited folk remedies to make a hundred flavor joy pills for his son Raju to send, hoping that Shakya would like delicious food and return to the palace to live with her. After eating it, Shakya was determined as usual, and told his disciples that Not only did Jhadra not only want to harm him now, but also harmed him when he was an adulteress in his previous life, so he told the following corner of the immortal (Xuanzang's "Tang Dynasty Western Records" called "one-horned immortals") Bunsen story: In the past, in the past, there were immortals in the mountains of The Borneo Kingdom, and deer drank their urine and had a life. The child is like a man, but the head has a horn, and its feet are like deer, and the doe will send the child to the immortal. The immortals knew that they were their own children, so they raised them and named them "a corner". And a corner of the year, through the eighteen kinds of sutras, to obtain the five divine powers (Heavenly Eye Pass, Heavenly Ear Pass, He Heart Pass, Fate Pass, Ruyi Pass), known as a corner immortal. One day, when he encountered a torrential rain, he accidentally slipped and fell and injured his foot, and the immortals cursed twelve years without rain, resulting in no food and five fruits, and the people were poor and had no way to live. The King of Brahnay recruited those who could make a corner of the immortals lose the five links, and the adulteress (prostitute) Fanta came to recruit. Fan Tuo and a corner of the immortal bath, so that a corner of the immortals to have desire, so that it becomes an adulterous affair, that is, lost its divine powers, the day is heavy rain for seven days and seven nights. Seven days later, after the food she brought was finished, the adulteress said that there were many delicacies under the mountain, and the fairy was moved, so the prostitute rode down the mountain on the shoulder of the immortal, and the king worshiped the immortal as a minister. The immortals in one corner were not accustomed to life in the palace, and they thought of the mountains and forests, so they returned to the mountains, and soon after they improved, they regained the five links. "The Buddha told the monks: A corner of the immortals is my body, and the adulteress Isjendra." Mogao Caves Northern Zhou 428 Caves East Wall Gate South Painting a Hat Layman (Luo Juluo) raises a cup to the Buddha, a person walking on his shoulder riding a person, is this story painting. His wife cooked some delicious food for him to eat, and he ate it and called his wife an "adulterous woman", which also showed that Shakya sometimes lacked the idea of fraternity, and the Buddhist precepts restricted women more than men, all of which were related to the loss of maternal love from childhood.
Shakyamuni scolded his wife as an "adulterous woman" and often showed no mercy to his enemies, and (Liu Song) Buddha Shi Gongzhu Daosheng translated the Five Laws of Five Points, Volume 3, that his uncle's son Tunda (Devadatta, meaning heavenly teaching) made a vendetta against Shakya and once pushed a stone down the mountain from the top of the mountain to crush Shakya who came out of the mountain meditation cave. Shakya dodged in time, but the stone fragments still injured his foot, and Shakya, who had escaped from death, looked at the top of the mountain and scolded, "Ru will now have an endless sin, and if you vomit the blood of the Buddha with disgust, you will fall into the hell of the endless nose." ”
Due to the loss of his mother's love, the drunken court life was still unable to make Shakyamuni happy, and his worries changed at the age of 29. In this year, he traveled to the four gates and saw pregnant women, the elderly, the sick, and the dead on the side of the road, which was a huge contrast with life in the court, and he was very confused, and his entourage told him that anyone would experience such pain, but the palace did not let him see it, which stimulated Shakyamuni a lot. The greater stimulus was that in this year, Yayuthara was pregnant, and Shakyamuni could not get rid of the shadow of his mother dying in childbirth, so he decided to leave home to practice and think about whether there was a way to liberate himself from these sufferings. From the modern point of view, when his wife was about to give birth and the elderly king needed him to inherit the throne, there was some lack of sense of family and social responsibility. The Outer Path also attacked Shakya for these things, and the lost translator's name, Book 1 of the Book of Rewards, records: "There is a Brahman, a party of six masters and disciples, whose people are intelligent and eloquent, who are able to reach the Four Heavenly Scriptures, who have calculated the numbers, who have taken advantage of auspiciousness, who have changed yin and yang, who know the hearts of the people, and who are also the masters of popular singing and guidance, and who are worshipped by many people." ...... Yu Ananda: Guru Qu Tan, the seed of all interpretations, speaks of goodness and goodness, has great merit, and has only empty names, but no practice. Master Ru is an evil man. When he is born seven times, his mother will die, and he will not be an evil person. Beyond the palace, the father and king are distressed, mad and obsessed, confused, sprinkling their faces with water, and it will take seven days to wake up, why did Yun lose my birth today, and wept loudly, weeping with sorrow: The kingdom is Ruyou, I only have Ru's one son, why does Yun abandon me into the mountains? Master Ru, Qu Tan, did not know the favor and did not care about the record, so he went forward, so he should know that he was not filial piety. The father and king, in order to build a palace, married Qu Yi, but did not perform the ritual of a woman, and made him sad, so that he should know that there is no grace to divide people. Ananda was ashamed. ”
After the death of Shakya's father, King Jingyi, Shakya's cousin Maha Nan became the king of the Kapilava Wei Kingdom, and the Exiled King Xingbing of the Kingdom of Jusara destroyed the Kapila Wei Kingdom, and the Maha Nan sank to the bottom of the water, and many of the people were cut off their hands and feet, and even when slaughtering the city, they carried out a collective massacre due to the large number of people, and gathered together to "make the tyranny elephants kill." (Eastern Jin Dynasty) Sangha Tipa translated the Zengyi Ahan Sutra, book 26, and records: "When the exiled king killed 99.9 million people, shed blood into a river, and burned the city of Kapilava. ”
Shakya can be said to be a pure monk, from the prince to the wanderer, there is a huge gap, (Sui) Jana Bo Duo translation of the "Buddhist Book of The Collected Sutras" volume 23 recorded, Shakya became a monk the next day, when he was hungry and begging for food, he found that there was not even a bowl, so he had to pick a lotus leaf to make a feeding vessel: "The repetition is to read: I am begging for food now, there is no bowl vessel." If I have food, where will it be served? Is it the bodhisattva, left and right, before and after, the vessel has not been obtained, suddenly saw a large flower pond, saw that there was a person who said: Benevolent, Ru can beg me this pond lotus leaf? Even if he enters the pool, he takes the leaves of the lotus to worship the bodhisattva. It was time for the bodhisattva, to receive the lotus leaf, to beg for food from the city. "Shakyamuni experienced six years of practice, mainly visiting the ascetic immortals, the fire immortals, and the meditation immortals, all of whom were not satisfied, decided to practice asceticism himself, and could not find the cause of life's suffering, and Shakya's 6-year exploration process also proved that he was an ordinary practitioner, not a saint.
One day, he came to the Nilian Zen River to wash away the sour and smelly dirt on his body for many years, and due to years of asceticism, his body was weak, and he could not go ashore after bathing. Fortunately, he met the village woman Nandhpora and fed milk, so that Shakya's physical strength was restored. (Liu Song) asked Nabhadra to translate the Past present cause and effect sutra, volume 3, and recorded: "Go to the Nilian Zen River and bathe in water." After bathing, the body was barren and could not get out of itself, and the gods came down, and in order to press the branches, they had to climb out of the pool. Outside the forest, there was a cow herding woman, named Nandhpo, who lived in heaven and came to advise: The prince is now in the forest, and Ru can be provided. When a woman smells it, her heart rejoices, and in the midst of time and earth, a thousand-leaf lotus flower is born naturally, and there is chyle on the flower. When a woman sees this, she has a strange heart, that is, she takes the chyle and goes to the prince's house, and the head is bowed and bowed, and it is offered. Even if the prince is given by his daughter. Bathing and drinking milk marked Shakya's renunciation of asceticism.
Shakya came to a place called Buddha Gaya and sat under a Bipola tree to become a Buddha, so this tree is called Bodhi Tree by Buddhists, Bodhi means enlightenment, at the age of 35, Buddha Gaya is still a famous Buddhist relic. Later Buddhist texts also record that before Shakya became a Buddha, the demons were afraid and tried not to make Shakya a Buddha with various spells such as beauty and force, and Shakya finally defeated the demons and realized what he said when he was born, "Heaven and earth, only I am the only one", which is the famous incarnation of demons.
Shakyamuni's first teachings after becoming a Buddha were in a place called Luyeyuan (sarnath in present-day India), which Buddhism calls "The First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma in Luyeyuan", and only 5 of his followers became the first bhikkhus. It is generally believed that the content of Shakya's teachings is the "Four Noble Truths", that is, suffering, collection, annihilation, and the Tao, that is, the suffering of life, the causes of suffering, the way to get rid of suffering and their methods, which are the basic teachings of Buddhism. The method and path from the shore of birth and death to the other shore of nirvana is the "six degrees", that is, the six basic Buddhist ideas of generosity, taking vows, forbearance, perseverance, meditation, and wisdom.
There are many precepts for bhikkhus and bhikshunis, and the basic self-discipline principle is the "Noble Eightfold Path," that is, right view, right thinking, right speech, right karma, right life, right convenience, right mindfulness, and right concentration. In order to distinguish normal people, they are all shaving their hair, only the leader Shakya is hairy, in the Buddhist statue, all buddhas have hair, and it is curly hair, which is called a bun in the Buddhist scriptures.
Shakyamuni has since practiced for 45 years and has lived in countless places. During this period, it was not all smooth sailing, and the "Disciple Qualities" in the translation of the Vimalakirti Sutra by Kumarosh recorded the stories of many disciples being ridiculed by Vimalaya, one of which was: One day Shakya fell ill, and the disciple Ananda went outside to beg for cow's milk, and Vimal saw the situation and sneered: "If you come to the body, the body of Vajrayogini, all evils have been broken, and all the good and universal will be society, what is the disease?" When what's the annoyance? Silently, Ananda, do not slander as it comes, do not let the strangers hear this rude language, and do not let the great weeds and the bodhisattvas of other pure lands hear the language of Si. Ananda, the Reincarnation Saint King has no disease with few blessings, and if the immeasurable blessings come, the universal victors will be victorious. Do it, Ananda, don't make me ashamed. If the Outer Path Brahma hears this, he will think of it as a recitation: What is the name of a teacher, self-illness cannot be saved, but can save all diseases. Ren ke go quickly, do not let people smell. When you know, Ananda, such as the coming body is the Dharma body, not the thinking body, the Buddha is the worldly dignity, too three realms, the Buddha's body has no leakage, and all the leaks have been exhausted. The Buddha's body does nothing and does not fall into numbers. What is the disease of such a body? When what's the annoyance? Ananda was ashamed and speechless.
Once, Shakya had a cold, and also asked a doctor, (Eastern Jin) Hui Jue, etc. to translate the "Sage and Fool Sutra" volume 3 recorded: "As I smell. For a time the Buddha was in the middle of the Luoyue Qi Mountain. Then the world is respected, and there is a wind in the body. The king of Gion medicine, for the combination of medicinal crisp. With thirty-two kinds of miscellaneous medicines, the Buddha took thirty-two taels a day. Tivada was always jealous, and his heart was high, and he wanted to be in line with the Buddha. Smelling the Buddha's honor in the medicinal crisp, he was greedy in love. If you want to serve the Buddha, restore the realm, and be in harmony with me. Ershi Domain, Compound and Harmony, Because of the words of the language: Four or two in the day. Devadatta asked: How many Buddhas are wearing? Gamma replied: Thirty-two days. Devadatta: I should also serve thirty-two pairs. Gamma replied: He who comes to the body is not the same as Ru. If you take more, you will be more troubled. Devadatta: If I obey it, self-sufficiency can be eliminated, but what is the difference between my body and the Buddha's body? But with me serve. That is, to practice the Buddha, he also takes thirty-two taels every day. The medicine flows into the veins in the body, the body strength is weak, can not be dissipated, lifting the branches, extreme pain, moaning and calling, annoyed and swirling. The world's mercy, that is, the hand of the remote, to rub its head, the medicine is gone, and the pain is removed. Shakya could relieve Devadatta (Devadatta) of the disease of "lifting one's body and suffering from extreme pain", but it was strange that he had to heal the king of Gyata for a small cold.
Shakya himself suffered so much, not to mention the disciples, and the eldest disciple, Mu Lian, was almost beaten to death. Book 18 of the Sutra of Zengyi Ahan records: "His Holiness the Dalai Lama, when he was dressed and holding a bowl, wanted to enter the city of Luoyue and beg for food. At that time, the staff of Brahma Zhi saw the eyes coming from afar, and each of them said in a word: This is the disciple of Shamen Qu Tan, who wants to come to beg for food, and among the disciples of Qu Tan, none of them are out of this person, and I will wait for everyone to surround him and kill him. At that time, Pi Fanzhi was surrounded and captured, and each of them killed them with tiles and stones, and then they gave up. The body is everywhere, the flesh and bones are rotten, the pain is unbearable. "Being severely injured because I was a disciple of the Buddha was very pitiful.
After Shakya became a Buddha, he went through a difficult period when no one listened to him, and volume 28 of the Sutra of The Great Ahan sutra records: "When the world is the venerable, it is the recitation: many of these four books have slackened, and they do not listen to the Dhamma, nor do they seek convenience, so that they can testify, nor do they ask those who have not received it, nor do they ask those who have not received it to get it." I should now make the multitudes of the Four Parts thirsty for the Dhamma. Then His Holiness did not tell the multitude of the four parts, and did not repeat the attendants, such as Qu Shen's arm, from the time of the qi huan to the thirty-three days. "Running away from home like this is really lonely. Until his death, the mood was not very good, and Kumarosh's translation of the Lotus Sutra, book 1, mentions: "The wisdom I have received is the most subtle first." The roots of all sentient beings are dull, and they are blinded by pleasure. Such as Si and so on, how can the cloud be measured. ...... I would rather not speak, and rush into Nirvana. ”
When he was 80 years old, old and frail, he finally fell ill by eating food provided by the blacksmith Chunda, and now it seems that it is food poisoning. Shakya wanted to drink water before he died, and Ananda could not be satisfied, (Western Jin) Anphachin translated the "Biography of Ashoka" volume 4 Kaye blamed Ananda for this matter, Ananda explained that there was water where there was just a car passing by, because the water was muddy and did not give Shakya to drink water: "(Kaye) repeated the admonition: "Ru is more than ever, when the Buddha came to Nirvana, from Rusuo water, and Ru is not with, Ru is also guilty of the crime of Tujira (precepts). Ananda replied, "I do not take water without shame, but when I am in charge of five hundred new cars, I disturb the water. "As for the specific time of death, it is generally considered to be the time of the full moon on the fifteenth day of the second month of the lunar calendar. Shakya's life was full of twists and turns and sufferings: he was born and his mother died, and after becoming a Buddha, he fought against 96 foreign paths, and finally died of food poisoning, and he could not be satisfied with drinking water on his deathbed. After Shakya's body was cremated, 8 countries came to compete for the relics (unburned things in the ashes, such as gallstones), and finally divided the relics equally and raised a pagoda to provide for them. Stubbs became an important form of offering in Buddhism, and the image of Nirvana is a common subject in Buddhist art.
Buddhism says that after death, according to the difference between good and evil, people enter the six worlds of hell, hungry ghosts, beasts, people, asuras, and heavens, which is for the six reincarnations, but Shakyamuni is an enlightened person and will always be a Buddha, so his death is called "Nirvana", which is a kind of liberation from reincarnation, which exists in the immortal realm of non-birth and immortality, that is, China's "long live".
It is recognized that Shakya lived to be 80 years old. However, there are more than 10 different theories about the year of birth and death, the most reliable of which is the record of the "Records of the Three Treasures of the Past Dynasties", which (Sui) Fei Changfang records in volume 11 of the "Records of the Three Treasures of the Past Dynasties": "After the Teacher's Transmission: After the Buddha's Nirvana, Upanishads have gathered the Vinaya, that is, on July 15 of his year, he was blessed with fragrant flowers, and the next point was placed before the Vinaya, and every year was like this." ...... Luo (SanghaPatra) translated this "Good Seeing Vipassana" at the Bamboo Forest Monastery in Guangzhou in the sixth year of the Yongming Dynasty (490), because they lived together. In the middle of the night of the seventh year of Yongming's reign, he was punished by self-indulgence, such as the former teacher's Dharma, offering incense flowers to the Vinaya, that is, the next point, when his year was counted as nine hundred and seventy-five points. "The disciples of the Buddha recorded one point in the book every year from the year of the Buddha's death, and by 490 there were 975 points, from which it is inferred that Shakya died in 486 BC and was born in 565 BC, roughly the same era as Confucius (551-479 BC).
Buddhism summarizes Shakya's life as the "eight phases," namely, the descent into the heavens, the initiation of the womb, the birth, the renunciation of the family, the surrender of demons, the enlightenment, the turning of the Wheel of Dharma, and the attainment of Nirvana. In Buddhist art, a bodhisattva riding an elephant is generally used to represent the first two phases, that is, the elephant enters the fetus, and the other phases are manifested as the birth of the right armpit under the tree, the horse out of the city in the middle of the night, the siege of Shakya by the demons, the saying of Luyeyuan, the right flank and lying in Nirvana, and the 290 caves of the Northern Zhou of the Mogao Caves are painted with 87 pieces of Shakya's life such as hand throwing elephants, which are very vivid.