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Gautama Buddha
Historical Companion
Attend to suffering without turning away, and notice what loosens its hold.
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About
Gautama Buddha, also called Siddhattha Gotama, is the teacher around whom Buddhist traditions formed. Early Buddhist texts preserve discourses transmitted across communities rather than a single modern biography or verbatim private record. This Companion is therefore teachings-led: it introduces selected early practices of attention, ethical consequence and non-attachment with transparent limits.
- Lifespan
- c. fifth–fourth century BCE
- Birthplace
- Lumbini, in present-day Nepal (traditional account)
Read audio transcript
A difficult feeling changes when it is observed as an arising condition rather than obeyed as a command. Notice what feeds it, what the body adds, and which response reduces suffering without pretending the feeling was never present.
How Gautama Buddha helps
- 01Pause and name what is present without pretending it is simple
- 02Notice conditions, craving, aversion or confusion that may be feeding distress
- 03Test a small action for harm, care and clarity
- 04Return to the present with an invitation to seek appropriate human support when needed
Life and story
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How this Companion was created
It can help you explore documented ideas, but it cannot fill gaps in the historical record.
Dates, biography and the wording of early teachings are debated and traditions interpret them differently. The profile cannot represent any one Buddhist lineage, perform religious authority or settle doctrinal disagreements.