For six years, he submitted himself to rigorous ascetic practices, studying and following different methods of meditation with various religious teachers.  But he was never fully satisfied.  One day, however, he was offered a bowl of rice from a young girl and he accepted it.  In that moment, he realized that physical austerities were not the means to achieve liberation.  From then on, he encouraged people to follow a path of balance rather than extremism.  He called this The Middle Way.

That night Siddhartha sat under the Bodhi tree, and meditated until dawn.  He purified his mind of all defilements and attained enlightenment at the age of thirty-five, thus earning the title Buddha, or "Enlightened One".  For the remainder of his eighty years, the Buddha preached the Dharma in an effort to help other sentient beings reach enlightenment.