Adrian Glauser

Buddha came from a noble and wealthy Indian family and was named Siddharta, which means “fulfilment of all desires”. Disturbed by the sufferings of living beings, and realising that superficial pleasures could not bring man true happiness, he left his family at the age of twenty-nine to seek the Way. After six years of searching and asceticism, at the end of his strength, he understood that man could not find liberation from suffering through these practices. So he sat down in the lotus posture under the Bodhi tree, with the firm resolution not to rise again until he had completely solved the basic problem of life. Unmoved and in deep inner silence, he realised the awakening. Without seeking or fleeing anything, without creating separation, he saw things as they are, that is, in the unlimited reality of being, and thus became Buddha, the Awakened One.

The Buddha’s teaching has its source in his lived experience. In Shakyamuni’s time, there were numerous philosophical systems and religions that brought with them opposition and disputes. Each had its own doctrine of absolute truth and claimed that the other teachings were erroneous. Buddha declared such disputes to be hollow and refrained from any metaphysical discussion. These questions did not seem to him to be at the core of an authentic search for wisdom, for they put a distance between man and the path that frees him from suffering. His arguments were based on two points: assert nothing that is not certain; assert nothing that is not useful for people. One can compare Buddha to a doctor who proposes a cure to sick human nature. He did not intend to create a new religion, but to help man understand the source of his suffering and free himself from it.