The buddha: Who was he?

I always feel that the beginning is the best place to start so here I go. I am not the most learned person. In fact, I simply read, analyse the reading then put it away for later use in my mind. Sometimes, I will talk about my reading or I will read aloud to my husband but mostly, I read for my own expansion of understanding.

I read the story that repeats around the place about the beginning of Siddharta Gautama's path into becoming an enlightened being. He was born a prince in a place called Lumbini, which is now Nepal. He was raised surrounded by riches but felt that there was more so he left his rich palace. When he left he was confronted with realities: sickness, death and asceticism. He became deeply depressed by these sights and chose to, from that point on, live as an ascetic.

Through a process of learning from teachers and still not feeling like it was enough He realised, after living the ascetic life in an attempt find enlightenment, that this was not the way to go. He became gravely deprived of physical nourishment and was nursed back to health by a milkmaid. Through this He realised that there is a middle path that can be walked and through deep meditation under the Bodhi tree he reached enlightenment. After enlightenment he doubted that the human race would be able to understand the teaching but through the urgings of the Deva he stayed and taught. The first of these were his original ascetic disciples and this formed the basis of the Sangha, which is part of the triple gem trio: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha which translates to: Enlightened being, Teachings of the Buddha and community of those who either are enlightened or follow the Buddha. There is more to the idea of Buddha, but that will come at a later date I feel. It is from here though, that the Buddha then lived for another 50 odd years teaching those that wanted to learn.

Although Buddhism is one of the top 5 major religions, I feel that Buddhism is more a state of being and a way of life. From what I have read so far? This was the beginning of the Buddhist teachings.