The Buddha and the Dhamma
The Life of the Buddha
The Buddha was born as Siddhattha Gotama, a prince of the Shakya clan in what is now southern Nepal, traditionally around the fifth century BCE. His father, King Suddhodana, shielded him from the hardships of ordinary life, surrounding him with pleasure and luxury inside the palace walls. Yet, according to Buddhist tradition, the young prince was destined to seek a deeper truth.
The turning point came when Siddhattha ventured outside the palace on four separate occasions and encountered the Four Sights. He saw an old man, a sick man, a corpse and finally a wandering holy man who appeared at peace. These encounters shattered his sheltered worldview and revealed the universal reality of suffering. Siddhattha resolved to abandon his royal life and seek liberation.
The Four Sights—an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a wandering ascetic—convinced Siddhattha Gotama to renounce his princely life and seek an end to suffering. The fourth sight showed that a path of spiritual seeking was possible.
After years of extreme asceticism proved fruitless, Siddhattha sat beneath a Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, vowing not to rise until he had found the truth. According to Buddhist tradition, he was tempted by Mara, the force of craving, desire and fear. The defeat of Mara in this encounter symbolises the overcoming of the three poisons—greed, hatred and delusion—that bind beings to the cycle of rebirth. At dawn, Siddhattha attained Enlightenment, becoming the Buddha (the ‘Awakened One’). He had reached Nibbana—the blowing out of craving, hatred and delusion.
The Dhamma
After his Enlightenment, the Buddha did not remain silent. He chose to share what he had discovered, and his first teaching—the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (recorded in Samyutta Nikaya 56.11)—was delivered to five former companions at the Deer Park at Sarnath. This discourse set out the Middle Way, avoiding extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, and presented the Four Noble Truths.
The word Dhamma (Sanskrit: Dharma) carries two connected meanings. First, it refers to the eternal law or truth that governs existence—the way things actually are. Second, it refers to the body of the Buddha’s teachings that reveal and explain that truth. Buddhists take refuge in the Dhamma as one of the Three Jewels (also called the Three Refuges): the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha (the community of practitioners). These three form the bedrock of Buddhist life.
Buddhism is not monolithic. The two principal branches—Theravada (‘Way of the Elders’) and Mahayana (‘Great Vehicle’)—both revere the Dhamma but emphasise different aspects. Theravada Buddhists, prevalent in South-East Asia, focus on the Pali Canon (the Tipitaka) as the authoritative record of the Buddha’s teachings. They emphasise the individual path to Nibbana through personal discipline and meditation.
Mahayana Buddhists, prevalent in East Asia and Tibet, have a broader canon that includes later sutras. They understand the Dhamma as encompassing not just the historical Buddha’s words but the eternal truth accessible through many enlightened beings (Bodhisattvas). This leads to a wider understanding of how the Dhamma can be taught and received. Both traditions agree that the Dhamma describes the nature of reality and the path to liberation.
Dependent Origination
Dependent origination (also called conditionality or paticca-samuppada) is one of the most important insights of the Buddha’s Enlightenment. It teaches that everything that exists arises because of causes and conditions. Nothing in the universe exists independently or by itself. When the conditions for something cease, that thing ceases too. The formula is often expressed as: “When this is, that is. From the arising of this comes the arising of that. When this isn’t, that isn’t.”
Dependent origination is described in detail through the 12 links (nidanas), which map out how one condition leads to the next across three lifetimes: past, present and future. The chain begins with ignorance (avijja), which gives rise to mental formations, consciousness, mind-body, the six senses, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, becoming, birth, and finally ageing and death. The Tibetan Wheel of Life illustrates this chain pictorially, showing how beings cycle through existence driven by these conditions. Crucially, because suffering arises from conditions, it can also cease when those conditions are removed—this is the logical basis for the Third and Fourth Noble Truths.
The Three Marks of Existence
The Buddha identified three universal characteristics of all conditioned existence. These are known as the Three Marks of Existence. Understanding them deeply is considered essential for liberation.
The Three Marks of Existence are: Dukkha (suffering/unsatisfactoriness), Anicca (impermanence), and Anatta (no fixed self or soul). Everything that is conditioned shares these three marks. The Dhammapada (verses 35–36) warns that the mind is hard to control and that bringing it under discipline leads to happiness.
Dukkha is commonly translated as ‘suffering’ but its meaning is richer. It includes obvious physical pain, the dissatisfaction of pleasant things ending, and the all-pervasive unsatisfactoriness underlying even neutral experiences. All conditioned things are dukkha because they cannot provide lasting, permanent satisfaction.
Anicca (impermanence) means that nothing conditioned lasts forever. Every physical object, every thought, every emotion, every relationship is subject to change and eventual ending. Buddhists believe that clinging to impermanent things is a primary cause of suffering, since we try to hold onto what cannot be held.
Anatta (no-self) is perhaps the most distinctive and challenging of the Buddhist teachings. It holds that what we call ‘the self’ is not a fixed, permanent, independent entity. Instead, what we think of as ‘I’ is a constantly changing process—a flow of physical form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness (the five khandas). There is no unchanging soul or ‘atman’ (unlike Hindu teaching) that passes from life to life.
Theravada Buddhism emphasises anatta as the rejection of any permanent self, linking it directly to the five aggregates. Mahayana Buddhism extends this with the concept of sunyata (emptiness)—the idea that all phenomena, not just the self, lack inherent, independent existence. Both traditions agree that misunderstanding the self is the root of craving and therefore of suffering. The significance of anatta for Buddhists is profound: letting go of the false belief in a permanent self is central to the path to liberation.
The Buddha’s Importance Today
For Buddhists, the historical Buddha’s significance goes beyond biography. He is the exemplar—the one who proved that liberation from suffering is possible for a human being. His teachings (the Dhamma) provide the map, and his life provides proof that the journey can be completed. The Majjhima Nikaya 22 (Alagaddupama Sutta) records the Buddha saying that he teaches one thing and one thing only: ‘suffering and the ending of suffering.’ This focus keeps the tradition practical and grounded in human experience rather than abstract theology.