Buddhism is the teaching of the Buddha.
He was a wise teacher. His teachings help people to live wisely and happily
today, more than 500 million people in the world follow his teachings. In this
unit, we are going to tell you the story of the Buddha.
About 2,600 years ago, there lived a
great king named Suddhodana. He had a pretty wife called Maya. They lived at
the bottom of the Himalayas mountains in northern India.
One night, Queen Maya had a wonderful
dream. She saw a huge white elephant come into her room. It was holding a lotus
flower. The elephant blew its trunk as it was walking round her bed three
times.
In the morning, the king asked his wise
men about the queen’s dream. They said. “Oh King! A great son will be born to
Queen Maya. “The king and queen were very happy with this news.
Queen Maya gave birth to prince
Siddhartha in a pretty royal park. It was the full-moon day of May. All the trees
were in flower. The bees were humming around the fresh flowers. The birds were
singing sweetly. Everyone was happy because a prince had been born.
The prince was very kind. He never hurt
anything, not even the smallest animals
One day, his cousin shot a swan. It fell
to the ground and was badly hurt. The prince felt sorry for it. He picked it up
and looked after it. He knew that all animals wanted to live. They did not want
to die.
In the palace, the prince had many
teachers. He was a very good student. His father wished that one day he would
become a great king.
The prince grew up to be a strong, handsome,
young man. He married a beautiful girl. They lived happily together.
One day, when the prince visited a
village, he saw four people: one sick, one old, one dead and a holy man. The
first three made him very sad. The holy man made him think about what in meant
to be happy.
At the age of twenty-nine, the prince
gave up his palace life. He left his family to find a way to make everyone
happy.
For the next six years, he when form
place. He learn Form many wise teachers. He had a lot of a way to get rid of
sadness in the world. He became wiser day by day.
At last, he sat under a huge Bodhi Tree.
He meditated over and over on these questions. “Why do people suffer? How can I
help them to be happy?”
At the age of
thirty-five, he found a way for people to end their pain and sadness. From then
on, was called the Buddha.
The Buddha first told his ideas to five
monks, there are problems in all our lives. These problems come from being
selfish. If we get rid of being selfish, we could be wise and happy.”
For the next forty-five years, many
people, rich and poor, young and old, came to listen to the Buddha’s teachings,
“We should always think about what we do. If we do good, good things will
happen to us. If we do Bad, things will happen to us.”
At the age of eighty, the Buddha passed
away.
