Paul Carus, said in his book “The Monist”, that Buddhism represents ''the desire to escape the transiency of life which its incidental vicissitudes and to attain the permanent and enduring bliss of an undisturbed existence where there is no pain, no disease, no death, no incertitude of any kind". (Carus, 1897) In fact, Buddhism is a type of spiritual development prompting a genuine nature of reality. And Buddhist practices are all methods that aim changing individuals with the specific goal to build up a lot of positive characteristics such as kindness, awareness, or wisdom. The experience that grew up inside the Buddhist customs over thousands of years is now considered as a unique asset for each individual who wishes to follow a path. By …show more content…
We can distinguish two key stages in the life of a Buddha: the bodhisattva life, which represents the fact of "being promised to enlightenment," and the Buddha life itself, once enlightenment has been attained. The bodhisattva life serves as a model to the community and the events of this life are characteristic stages of the “spiritual Path”, where the bodhisattva is still considered a man like any other. Only the Buddha is considered exceptional, since he is said to be dedicated to the pursuit of Dharma, which can only be done throughout countless lives. “The past lives of Buddha apparently helped him to highlight the qualities he developed such as detachment, universal love, compassion or effort for example.” (Bulkeley, 2008) Concerning the historical Buddha, whose name was Siddhartha Gautama Sakyamuni, was born in 566 BC, near India, in Kapilavastu. He obtained enlightenment in 531 and had his first sermon some time later in Sarnath, before his "final extinction" at the age of eighty years, in North India, in Kusinagara. The life of the historical Buddha can actually be summarized to four key events: his birth, his enlightenment, his first preaching, and finally his death. But besides that, any document is nowadays available to proof any scientific evidence on the life of Buddha. It is simply presented as