From whom did Gautama Buddha first learn the techniques of meditation after leaving home?

After leaving home, Gautama first became a disciple of the teacher Alara Kalama, from whom he learnt techniques of meditation.

About Alara Kalama:

• He was a teacher of meditation who lived near Vaishali (or, in some accounts, near Rajagriha).
• He taught Gautama a state of meditation called "the sphere of nothingness".
• Gautama quickly mastered this state, and Alara Kalama offered to make him a joint leader of his group.
• But Gautama felt that this did not lead to final liberation from suffering, so he left.

His next teacher:

• Gautama then studied with Uddaka Ramaputta, who taught him a higher state called "the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception".
• Again, Gautama mastered it but was not satisfied, and left.

The search continues:

• He then practised severe austerities for some years, with five companions, eating very little, until he became very weak.
• Realising that extreme self-torture did not lead to wisdom, he gave up austerities and accepted food (rice pudding) from a village girl named Sujata.
• His five companions left him, thinking he had given up the search.
• He then meditated under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya and attained enlightenment.
• This experience led him to teach the "Middle Path", avoiding both extreme luxury and extreme austerity.

After enlightenment:

• The Buddha wanted to teach Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta first, but learnt that both had died.
• He then went to teach his five former companions.

Important disciples of the Buddha:

• "Ananda": his cousin and personal attendant, famous for his memory.
• "Sariputta" and "Moggallana": his two chief disciples.
• "Upali": an expert on monastic rules.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Uddaka Ramaputta was his second teacher.
• ✗Ananda and Sariputta were his disciples.