Welcome to this deck on the life of the Buddha. The story of how Siddhartha Gautama went from a pampered prince to the founder of one of the world's great religions is one of the most dramatic journeys in religious history. But this is not just a story for its own sake. Every event in the Buddha's life is also a teaching. The AQA exam will ask you to describe these events, explain what they mean, and use them as evidence in your answers. By the end of this deck, you will know the key events in order, understand why each one matters for Buddhist teaching, and be able to deploy them confidently in 4-mark and 5-mark exam answers.

Siddhartha Gautama was born around the fifth century BCE in Lumbini, in what is now Nepal. His birth was said to be miraculous. According to tradition, his mother Maya dreamed that a white elephant entered her side, and when Siddhartha was born, he immediately took seven steps and declared that this would be his final rebirth. A holy man named Asita visited the newborn prince and predicted that he would become either a great king or a great spiritual teacher. His father, King Suddhodana, desperately wanted his son to be a king. So he made a decision that would shape everything that followed: he would shield Siddhartha from all suffering, all sickness, all death, and all religious life. The young prince was raised in a palace of luxury, surrounded by beauty, entertainment, and pleasure, with every comfort imaginable and no knowledge of the pain that existed beyond the palace walls.

The turning point in Siddhartha's life came when he ventured outside the palace walls. According to the Jataka tales, specifically Jataka 075, Siddhartha made four journeys and encountered four sights that shattered his sheltered world. These are known as the Four Sights, and they are one of the most important stories in all of Buddhism. The Four Sights are: a sick person, an old person, a dead person, and a holy man. Each sight revealed something about the nature of human existence that Siddhartha had never been allowed to see. The first three showed him the reality of suffering. The fourth showed him that there was a path beyond it. Together, they set him on the road to becoming the Buddha.