Buddhism
A Concise Introduction
Chapter One
The Man Who Woke Up
Buddhism begins with a man. In his later years, when India was afire with his message and
kings themselves were bowing before him, people came to him even as they were to come to
Jesus asking what he was. How many people have provoked this question-not "Who are
you?" with respect to name, origin, or ancestry, but "What are you? What order of being do
you belong to? What species do you represent?" Not Caesar, certainly. Not Napoleon, or even
Socrates. Only two: Jesus and Buddha. When the people carried their puzzlement to the
Buddha himself, the answer he gave provided an identity for his entire message:
"Are you a god?" they asked.
"No."
"An angel?"
"No."
"A saint?"
"No."
"Then what are you?"
Buddha answered, "I am awake."
His answer became his title, for this is what "Buddha" means. The Sanskrit root budh denotes
both "to wake up" and "to know." Buddha, then, means the "Enlightened One," or the
"Awakened One." While the rest of the world was wrapped in the womb of sleep, dreaming a
dream known as the waking state of human life, one of their numb ... read full excerpt from: Buddhism ebook
