1. Buddha’s original name, Siddhartha Sakyamuni Gautama, if translated into English, would mean Gautama who belongs to the Sakya tribe and who has reached the goal of perfection.
2. Gautama Buddha was a contemporary of Mahavira.
3. His father ruled the tribe of Sakya in a region near the present-day Nepal.
4. Gautama found that he had nothing to learn from the teachers of the old religions.
5. The religions proclaimed that the only way to salvation was through living the life of an ascetic. But despite practicing asceticism, Gautama could not arrive anywhere near the truth. And one night, as he sat under a bodhi-tree struggling with his doubt and his loneliness, a great peace descended on him.
6. He was no longer Gautama, the sceptic, but became Buddha, the Enlightened.
