Buddhism, that wonderful teaching which declares life to be sorrow and yet is free'from pessimism; which apparently inculcates the profoundest egoism and yet is charged with the loftiest morality which denies the I, the soul, and yet teaches absolute responsibility for our own deeds through rebirth; which is without God or faith or prayer and yet offers the most certain salvation, — this wonderful teaching was founded by Gautama, of the aristocratic Sakya clan — the proud Sakyas. His father's name was Suddhodana; his mother's, Maya. His birthplace was the town of Kapilavastu, situated on a southern spur of the Himalayas, in modern Nepal. He was born about 560 b.c., according to some about 500 b.c. His personal name was Siddhartha. Brought up in the greatest luxury, married early, and the father of a son, in his thirtieth year he arrived at a perception of the true nature of life. He saw and felt that all life was sorrow, and, pained and disgusted, black-haired, in the bloom of youth, he left his father's palace as a mendicant, in order that by religious exercises and mortifications he might find salvation from the universal sorrow.
