Buddha is a title, not a name
The man Buddhists call the BUDDHA was Siddhartha Gautama, born in what is now Nepal around the fifth century BC. The traditional account says he grew up as a prince, sheltered from suffering, until on trips outside the palace he saw an old man, a sick man, a dead body and a wandering holy man. He left home to find an answer to suffering, and after years of searching sat in meditation beneath a fig tree at Bodh Gaya in India until he became enlightened.
Buddha means awakened one — the word comes from the same root as AWAKEN. Most Buddhists do not worship him as a god but honour him as a teacher who found a path others can follow. The tree became known as the BODHI tree, the tree of awakening, and a descendant of it still grows at Bodh Gaya.
The laughing fat Buddha is someone else
The cheerful, round-bellied figure found in many shops and restaurants is usually Budai, a Chinese monk said to have lived in the tenth century, who became a folk symbol of contentment and good fortune. Statues of Siddhartha himself normally show a slim, calm figure seated in meditation.
The confusion is understandable, because Buddhism changed shape as it spread. The Theravada tradition is strongest in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Myanmar; Mahayana traditions spread through China, Korea and Japan, where ZEN grew out of an emphasis on sitting meditation and was popular among the samurai; Tibetan Buddhism developed its own rich ritual life. The STUPA of India became the tall PAGODA of East Asia.
Four truths and an eightfold path
At the heart of the teaching are the Four Noble Truths: life involves suffering and dissatisfaction; it comes from craving and attachment; it can end; and there is a way to end it. That way is the EIGHTFOLD Path — right understanding, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration — often pictured as the eight spokes of a WHEEL, the symbol of the DHARMA, the Buddha's teaching.
Buddhists believe in KARMA and REBIRTH, and that the cycle can finally end in NIRVANA, a state of peace free from craving. Lay Buddhists commonly keep five PRECEPTS: not harming living things, not taking what is not given, avoiding sexual misconduct, not lying, and avoiding intoxicants.
Monks, sand and mindfulness
The SANGHA is the community of Buddhists, and especially of the MONK and nun, who shave their heads and wear a simple ROBE whose colour varies by tradition — saffron in Thailand, maroon in Tibet, grey or black in Japan. In Thailand and Myanmar many young men spend a short time as monks, sometimes only weeks, as a rite of passage.
Tibetan monks make a MANDALA from coloured sand, grain by grain, over days or weeks, and then sweep it away and pour the sand into running water — a lesson in impermanence. MINDFUL breathing and MEDITATION have spread well beyond Buddhism into schools and hospitals. The LOTUS, which grows from mud into a clean flower, stands for COMPASSION and awakening, and a TEMPLE often holds a golden statue sitting upon one.