What we know now as The original Buddha was born in 563 BCE to king Suddhodana and Queen Maya. The name they gave him at birth was Siddhartha Gautama ( which means a wish fulfilled or aim accomplishment).The king adored his son and wanted him to inherit and rule over his kingdom but Siddhartha was very unhappy with the thought of this. And decided at the age of twenty nine to leave home and venture out on his quest for knowledge and enlightenment. So siddhartha gave his jewels and royal robes to his servant and shaved his head , and he set out for the forests. Now in those days , India's wild forests and mountains were dotted with various seekers after truth. As many as sixty three different schools prevailed. Siddhartha studied under renowned teacher after another. He learned they offered temporary bliss ,but not permanent peace. They couldn't answer the pain still resounding his heart.He even joined the ascetics ( hermits of sorts) and starved himself to the point of only allowing himself one grain of rice a day, but still no avail. At this point a young girl from the village close by passed and saw siddhartha sitting there all skin and bones and barely conscious. And she rushed to his aide with rice milk and helped nurse him back to health and strength. He started to think about the attachment to self and how it can apply a dualist opposition: self and its desires ( "in here")vs. world and it's rewards ("out there").this verses that. So no attachment to self , no dualism. From this point he knew he was on to something and began to meditate for the answers and answers he found in the form of enlightenment. He understood that what we call our life is but a wave not an ocean . He became one with that ocean , and all the rivers and raindrops that feed it. He became enlightened. This was it he found it. Now he was fully awake.This is just a shorter version of the beginning of the Buddha's life , basically after he became awakened and started traveling and teaching he became known as Buddha which in translation means "the awakened one".He went all over and spread what he had learned sitting under the bodhi tree. It has taken him seven years of meditation to really see things truthfully. But his words and all the Buddha's and teachers threw out history who have followed in his paths words are here to help us see our own true Buddha nature , for they say that all of us have it in us to become a Buddha. Its just about attaining that awakened moment and seeing enlightenment for ourselves.