ABSTRACT
Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, had his given name, Siddharta, and his family name, Gotama. As he belonged to the Sakya clan, he was called Shakyamuni. Among the earliest religions in the world, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam are known as the world’s three major religions. Sakyamuni’s efforts to create Buddhism can be summed up in two aspects: creating and preaching his doctrine, and establishing system of sangha life. Eliminating the suffering of life is to achieve the goal of relief. Brahmanism believed that the ultimate goal of relief was to unify the “ego” of individual soul and “Brahman”, which dominated the universe –, the realm of “Brahmaatma-aikya”. The creation of Buddhism by Sakyamuni was a major event in the history of eastern civilization. The Buddhism founded by Sakyamuni experienced its early stage in India, and then successively experienced three stages of Buddhism: Sectarian Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, and descended in India at the beginning of the thirteenth century.
