All Milestones in the Life of the Buddha

The milestones in the life of the Buddha are the events Buddhist canonical and reference literature treats as the turning points of Siddhartha Gautama becoming, and then teaching as, the Buddha. The Enlightenment of the Buddha, traditionally located under the Bodhi tree, is recorded in the Pali Canon as the point at which he attained the awakening that gave him the title Buddha. The First Sermon at Sarnath is remembered as his first teaching of the Dharma to his former companions, setting the wheel of the teaching in motion. The Parinirvana of the Buddha is his death, understood in Buddhist tradition as his final release from the cycle of rebirth. Encyclopedic and canonical sources treat these three events as the recognized framework for his teaching career, from attainment through first teaching to final passing.