On 563 BCE there was a man named Siddhartha Gautama, who walked the Northern

Indian terrain, later becoming known as the Buddha. As a child, Gautama’s father,

Suddhodana and mother, Maya, surrounded him with every kind of luxury and sought to

protect him from any human suffering. Since Gautama was born a Prince, he received an

exceptional education and a share of Brahmanic spiritual tutoring in the Upanishads and

Vedic Hindu scriptures. Legend had it, when Gautama was a young man, he would leave

his family to wander as an ascetic holy man. Along his journey, he caught his first

glimpse of a dead corpse, a sick person and a withered old man. He could not remain

abliss when the rest of the world around him was suffering. Therefore, his goal was to

discover the truth about life and death. While doing so, Gautama came across a few

Hindu philosophers who believed they had found answers to the truth about life and

death. Gautama was unimpressed with these teachings, so he digressed from the ways of

his early teachers, thus creating a new religion, known today as Buddhism, and Gautama,

the Buddha.

       

suffering and no sense of self. He wanted to go around teaching his beliefs to

people, hoping that one day the world would be free from human suffering.

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