Sakyamuni Buddha

Sakyamuni Buddha
He lived from 566 to 486 BC. His teachings were passed down orally and they were only committed to writing in Sri Lanka around the middle of the first century BC. They consisted of three baskets or divisions called Pitaka. It has been estimated by scholars that if all the main points of the three baskets were listed in book form, that set of books would be equal to 360 copies of our average encyclopedia today.
The Pitaka consists of 1) the discourses or sermons of the Buddha, 2) the Monastic rules, and 3) the Abhidhamma.
He was born as an average person. This was a good sign because it means you and I can also become a Buddha. You don't need to be the most intelligent ones in the nation like the top 0.000001% of the population to be able to understand the Dharma to became a Buddha. If He was very intelligent, He would have attained Nirvana earlier, because as a child (aged 7) He sat under a rose-apple tree watching His father carrying out the opening ceremony for the ploughing season, He crossed legs and went on meditation and was believed to have reached the different levels of the Jhanas. He could have continued and practised harder and successfully attain Buddhahood without spending the six years which He did later on.
His most learned disciple was Ananda and Ananda was the last of the 1250 disciples to attain arahanthood. Manjusri was the brightest of the 1250 disciples but he was not the first one to attain arahanthood.
The Buddha never claimed there was a royal road to Nirvana. However, He did teach that if a person should develop sincerely (The Noble EightfFold Path ) in the way He described, for seven days, he or she would attain full Enlightenment or the state of non-returner. For more info, please log on to http://satipatthana.org/satipatthana_sutta.html

There are 31 planes if existence, and our human world is the fifth one. This is the only plane where, we the humans can see the things around us with our naked eyes. From level 6 to level 31 are all heavenly realms. From level 1 to 4 are the realms of the ghosts. The ghosts are only able to frighten the humans but are not able to physically hurt us. Otherwise, many people would have been dead, taking into consideration that the ghosts can see us but we cannot see them. The access to those 26 heavenly realms are within the reach of humans who are performing good deeds on this earth. No god hold the keys to those heavens and no god decides who goes there and who goes to hells.
Meditation will strengthen your faith on the religion. After a few months of constant practice, many meditators can see brilliant lights, colours, beautiful images, Buddhas and celestial beings. Please tell yourself that these are your own creations and are therefore not real. Sakyamuni Buddha said it very clearly that He would not be able to return to this earth, knowing that after His era many fakes would appear. The next Buddha will be born as a person when Buddhism no longer exists on this earth. He will practise on his own as a common being and eventually attain Buddhahood and will be able to enlighten others.
When Sakyamuni attained Buddhahood under the Bohdi tree, the Dharma He discovered was very hard to understand and He was thinking of leaving this Earth at that moment. Fortunately, Brahma Sahampati came down from heaven to invite the Buddha to expound the Dharma.
Quote:
"Those Enlightened ones of the past, those of the future, and those of the present age, who dispel the grief of many – all of them lived, will live, and are living respecting the noble Dharma. This is the characteristic of the Buddhas."
Unquote.
Perhaps during His previous life He made a wish that for His final birth as a man, He would be an ordinary being, grow up, get married and have children to show the public that they need not shave off the hair to attain nirvana, just like one couple did during the Buddha's time. This couple was both acrobats, earning a living around every part of India. One day they were fortunate enough to come to perform in front of the Buddha. They both were doing the somersaulting on top of two different bamboo poles, and they both attained Arahantship while on top of the poles. When they came down, the Buddha ordained them on the spot because when a person attains arahanship that person will leave this world automatically within seven days unless he or she becomes a monk or nun.
The Buddha also encouraged His followers to continue earning money. He said every body must put aside some of the profits for the rainy day (our CPF today), and spend a portion of the remaining amount for family maintenance, and another portion for doing Dharma, and invest the remaining portion to keep the business or economy growing.
The Buddha was not a vegetarian. The Buddhists need not be vegetarians. There was one fisherman who invited the Buddha to a dinner of curry fish. The Buddha personally went to the fisherman's hut to accept the meal because He wanted that poor fisherman to have the chance to receive the merit. The Buddha did not tell the fisherman to change the profession even though the Buddhists were and still are advised to refrain from killing. The Buddha also clearly stated it was the citizens’ duties to take up arms to defend their country.
However, if a country attacks another country for selfish reason, and a citizen joins the armed forces, in the process he kills some of the so-called enemies, he creates the personal Karma of killing.
Fixed Karma is committed with speech, mind and body. The example would be a premeditated crime. Every thought, utterance, and deed is a seed that ripens over time. Every one has the potential at every moment to alter the course of the future Karma, by doing good deeds. The Buddha personally said “ If there is no way out, I will not be teaching you today”.
Collective Karma is created when a group of people, for example, go and set fires to destroy properties and living beings. The resulting Karma will be about the same for the future of this group. They will be burned to death in their future live and their properties will be destroyed by others.
Karma means the retribution or reward, in current or future life. Poverty and want are the results of miserly thoughts and actions in past lives. There are common Karma, fixed Karma and Collective Karma. It is the law of nature. Every good action will result in good Karma and every bad action will result in bad Karma. No one can escape it except the Buddhas and the Arahants, whose actions will create no further Karma.
The area covered by the Buddha when He was teaching was about 250 miles from East to West and about 150 miles from North to South. He was able to fly into the air unassisted but very few people ever saw him flying. He walked from place to place most of the time.
The Buddha died at a small town called Kusinara. It was mistakenly reported he died of food poisoning after eating a meal of pork donated by a lay follower. Some people who disliked the Buddha even said He was poisoned by the lay follower.
This was most unlikely because a Buddha or an Arahant could see what was in the food, just like they could see the viruses in the cup of water. There was no way a person could poison him. For whatever reason the food was contaminated, the Buddha knew it because after the meal He told His disciple to dig a hole in the ground and bury the remaining food because no humans or animals could consume that food without being harmed. The Buddha ate the meal because He wanted the lay follower to receive the merit. Eating animal flesh and be poisoned was common during the Buddha's time and it is still common even today just as what we see in the TV every day.
After eating that meal the Buddha became ill but he recovered later on. During that time He was 80 years old. Naturally, He died of failing health later on.
Before attaining parinirvana, the Buddha asked His disciples and all the lay followers if there was any question they wanted to raise. No one raised any question. This proved that He had taught us every thing we need to know to attain Buddhahood. When Ananda wanted to know if there should be a successor, the Buddha said the Dharma should be the guide after He was gone.
The Buddha's last words were:
" Decay is inherent in all things
be sure to strive with clarity of mind for Nirvana. "
(unquote)
Nirvana doesn't mean emptiness because when the Buddha returned to His hometown, the throne was still for him. He refused it and did not want His son to inherit it either. Would a person give up a coveted kingdom for emptiness?
Sakyamuni was the only religious teacher who had said that to protect other people’s religion was to protect your own religion. He never said that to attain Nirvana, a person must be a monk. During His time, there were many lay followers who attained Arahanthood, which was actually Nirvana. The bliss is the same except that the arahants are not able to enlighten others. The Buddha also never said there was a Royal Road to Nirvana, as claimed by some people today. The chanting of certain Sutra alone will not lead you to Nirvana. But if you chant that Sutra and at the same time practise the Noble Eightfold Path earnestly, you will attain Arahanthood. The Buddha clearly stated that regardless of religion and race, a person who had eradicated greed, hatred and delusion would attain Nirvana.

The Buddha never said He wanted to save every living being and He never said He would return to this planet, but He did predict that another Buddha would be born on our present planet and that would be the 5th and the final Buddha for our planet Earth.

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