ENLIGHTENMENT-BUDDHAHOOD - The life of the Buddha

ENLIGHTENMENT-BUDDHAHOOD 

In the evening after Sujata's lovely meal he went to Gaya and looked for a suitable place to sit down and meditate. He sat under a tree called the Bodhi tree with his face to the East and made an earnest wish with very strong determination that "Though my skin my nerves and my bones, shall waste away and my life blood dry I will not leave this seat until I have attained the highest wisdom called supreme Enlightenment that leads to Everlasting Happiness"

      So he practised the concentration (deep thinking) of breathing in and breathing out on this Wesak Full Moon eve. During this period of concentration on the breathing in and breathing out many evil thoughts began to come to his mind - desire for worldly things. dislike for a holy pure and good life, hunger and thirst, feeling of great thirst and hunger; craving- the intense desire or liking, longing for all things, laziness and idleness; fear of things like devils, evil spirits, doubt, stupidity, stubbornness, wish to have everything for oneself; wish to be praised and honoured and to do things for fame; thinking very highly about oneself and looking down upon others. These thoughts began to disturb his concentration; but he was more firm than ever. He became more calm and brave and continued his concentration. At last he destroyed all these thoughts during the earlier part of the night and got the power of seeing his own past lives. 

 

 In the second part of the night he got the power of seeing the death of living beings and their rebirth and in the third part of the night-in the following morning-he got the power of understanding the cause of all evil and how to get rid of them. Thus he became the wisest person in the world who could answer all the questions that everybody put to him. All the answers to the questions lodged in his mind for so many years were then found. He knew how to end sorrow, unhappiness, suffering, old age and death. He also found out the real peace. Happiness and freedom. He knew everything more than man could ever know and he became perfect.