Claiming no divine mission on earth, the Buddha aspirant [or bodhisatta as he was called prior to his enlightenment] was born in Lumbini as far back as the sixth century B.C., close to the foot-hills of the Himalayas, as the only son of a provincial ruler who was known by the name of  Suddhodana. The son came to be called Siddhartha of the Gautama clan.

At twenty-nine years of age, he left behind his household life which included his wife and his new born son and went in search of a way of release from the painful vissicitudes of life. He worked under two reknowned masters of  the time named Âlâra Kâlâma and Uddaka Râmaputta whose entire gamut of spiritual disciplining did not take Siddharta beyond the jhânic states of trascendence [above some of the human limitations] while still being bound to an earthly life. It was no total riddance of or escape from the cycle of human existence. This is not what Siddhartha expected. So he left them, somewhat disappointed.

Then he tried the hard way of austerities or asceticism, prevalent in India at the time, till he was reduced to a mere skeletal frame as remarkably depicted in the reknowned Gandharan piece of sculpture. It is thereafter that he successfully experimented with a meaningful process of meditative mind culture, leading to a mature intellectual grasp of the reality of the human life process. Thus he became the Fully Enlightened One or Sammâ  Sambuddha. He was the master of this self-discovered knowledge. He was indebted to none.' Having discovered  it  myself, whom shall  I name as my  teacher ?' He asked : Sayam abhiññâya kam uddiseyyam.

The Dhamma, the message he delivered to the world thereafter, embodies this wisdom. This, he has himself pointed out to his disciples during his life time. He who sees the Dhamma sees me, he firmly indicated, and assured further that he who sees him well and truly shall see the Dhamma [Yo dhammam passati so mam passati yo mam passati so dhammam passati. S.N.III.120]. It is remarkakable how Charles Eliot has summed this up precisely in his Japanese Buddhism : " The real significance and importance of the Buddha is not in his human individuality but in his teaching, which transcends the limits of personality." [Japanese Buddhism by Charles Eliot - 1935. Edwin Arnold & Company, London.p. 46].
 

In our very first Bulletin - Word of the Buddha No.1 - we have indicated the ascent of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni  to the stature of Amitabha in the Mahayana teachings,  through concepts of time and space, as Amitabha of  Infinite Space and Amitayu of Infinte Time. We note here a similar process of glorification for the Dhamma when it is made the basic component of the Three Bodies of the Buddha  or the Trikâya doctrine. Dharma or Dhamma is held as the eternal law or truth which exists in the universe as the Dharma-kâya. It is the created body or  Nirmâna-kâya  which manifests itself in the world as the historical Buddha. The radiant presence of the Buddha in Paradise is named the Sambhoga-kâya. Thus we see the harmonious and logical evolution of the Buddhalogical concepts in the historically subsequent or later Mahayana, in relation to its parent body or mainstream Theravada tradition.

012.  Those wise ones who are incessantly meditative, and are constant in their diligent endeavour,
reach their supreme goal of  Nirvana which is freedom from bonds. If one is alert  [ physically and
mentally ], is mindful, is pure in his activities, acts with deliberation, is full of restraint and lives a
righteous life and is ever heedful, the glory of such a person steadily increases. [ Dhammapada  vv. 23
& 24 ]