“enlightened one”. Title of Prince Gautama Siddhartha (c. 563-483 BC)
Religious leader, founder of Buddhism, born at Lumbini in Nepal. At the age of 29 he left his wife and son and a life of luxury, to escape from the material burdens of existence. After six years of austerity he realized that asceticism, like overindulgence, was futile, and chose the middle way of meditation. He became enlightened under a bo, or bodhi, tree near Buddh Gaya in Bihar, India. He began teaching at Varanasi, and founded the Sangha, or order of monks. He spent the rest of his life traveling around N India, and died at Kusinagara in Uttar Pradesh.
The Buddha's teaching consisted of the Four Noble Truths: the fact of frustration or suffering; that suffering has a cause; that it can be ended; and that it can be ended by following the Noble Eightfold Path—right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration—eventually arriving at nirvana, the extinction of all craving for things of the senses and release from the cycle of rebirth.
1. Founder of Buddhism; (c 563-483 BC); worshipped as a god; Also called: the Buddha, Siddhartha, Gautama, Gautama Buddha.
2. One who has achieved a state of perfect enlightenment.