A child named Siddhartha was born in northeast India about 560 B.C. His father, Suddhodana, was head of the Gotama family and chieftain of the Sakya warrior caste clan in the foothills of modern Nepal. The son would later be called Gotama Buddha, then Sakyamuni Buddha, the sage of the Sakya clan.

BEN KINGSLEY: Gotama made a key decision that would give Buddhists the basis for calling their outlook the middle way. To sustain his bodily strength, he took a small amount of food from the laypeople who always hover around ascetics in India, yet to avoid sensual desire, he continued to resist attachment to flavors or tastes.

Here then are the beginnings of the Buddhist meditative pattern for those who wish to reach nirvana, an ultimate state of freedom from the unending and wearisome cycle of lives called Samsara. . . . The Buddhist way is to master both hate and love, fear and confidence, desire and aversion the opposing emotions that keep the individual bound to the perpetual wheel of rebirth. It is a sharp, clear awareness of the thoughts, impulses, and emotions that arise within one’s own self.

An enlightened one can judge situations without self-interest. He or she is unswayed by self-regarding emotions, observing clearly and dispassionately.