Hey guys.. I have to admit that I'm not too familiar with the specifics of buddhism, but I've always thought that the first buddha (first human to reach satori and all) was a normal human, a prince, that discovered old age, suffering etc.. was shocked and went on his spiritual path from there. In a nutshell. However, I was reading through some posts in the Christianity forum and there is this thread about the virgin Mary.. someone posted a lonnnng article about it that among a lot of other things stated that: "However, there are two types of virgin births found in the world's religions. One type, as in the conception and birth of Jesus and Buddha, involves the Holy Spirit inducing the pregnancy in a virgin without engaging in intercourse. The other type involves an actual physical God interacting with a virgin in some way." So.. Siddharta Gautama's mom was a virgin that got impregnated with some kind of divine spirit? Does anyone have some more information on this, 'cause it feels a tad bit too mythical for such a down-to-earth believe as buddhism... (here is the whole virgin thread: http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60969 .. the post I'm talking about is the long one on the 3rd page).
There are many gods, and demigods that are connected through myth to virgin births. The Buddha and the Christ are not the only ones. Many of the world's "religions", upon investigation, have similar stories connected to them such as important dates, similar miracles, parables, rites, and teachings. The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was not the first Buddha. I forget how many others are said to have preceeded him and of course there have been others to have reached enlightenment after him. Buddha generally means "the enlightened one". His father was Suddhodana (ruler of a small kingdom) and his mother was Maya. She is said to have died immediately after his birth. But, yes there are myths of a virgin birth. There are also stories of miracles performed by the Buddha. It is generally accepted that he did exist as a real person, but there are scholars that claim he (and Christ) were mythical persons. This is an important issue in Christianity, but not as big a deal in Buddhism as he is not considered a god or demigod, only an ordinary man.
