{"id":196,"date":"2025-12-29T06:24:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T06:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/?p=196"},"modified":"2026-01-01T10:20:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T10:20:02","slug":"life-of-the-buddha-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/?p=196","title":{"rendered":"Life of the Buddha 11"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chapter 11: The Attainment of Enlightenment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

(1)\u00a0The Great Being, even before the sun had set,<\/strong>\u00a0had thus vanquished the forces of M\u0101ra through his perfections. The leaves of the Bodhi tree, with a color like that of sapphire and ruby, fell down in offering. When the first watch of the night arrived, the Bodhisattva attained the Knowledge of Recollecting Past Lives (pubbeniv\u0101s\u0101nussati-\u00f1\u0101<\/em>\u1e47a<\/em>) in its many aspects, by the power of which he recalled the continuous streams of existence he had formerly inhabited. He recalled from the first and second lives all the way back through hundreds of thousands of lives, and through cosmic cycles of contraction and expansion, remembering their details, names, clan lineages, the food he ate, his experiences of pleasure and pain, and the lifespan of each existence.<\/p>\n\n

(2)\u00a0Immediately following the middle watch of the night,<\/strong>\u00a0he purified his divine eye and attained the Knowledge of the Passing Away and Re-arising of Beings (cut\u016bpap\u0101ta-\u00f1\u0101<\/em>\u1e47a<\/em>). With this divine eye, he saw beings passing away and being reborn, whether lowly or noble, beautiful or ugly faring well or poorly, all according to their karma. He saw: “Alas! These beings, endowed with misconduct of body, speech, and mind, who revile the Noble Ones, who hold wrong views and undertake actions based on wrong views, at the breaking up of the body, after death, are reborn in states of deprivation, in unhappy destinations, in perdition, in hell. On the other hand, those beings who are endowed with good conduct of body, speech, and mind, who do not revile the Noble Ones, who hold right views and undertake actions based on right views, at the breaking up of the body, after death, are reborn in a good destination, in the heavenly worlds of the gods.”<\/p>\n\n

(3)\u00a0Following that, he directed his knowledge<\/strong>\u00a0from the middle watch of the night onward. The Great Being directed his wisdom towards the law of causality, the truth of Dependent Origination (pa<\/em>\u1e6diccasamupp\u0101da<\/em>), during the final watch. The Great Being contemplated, “The beings of this world arrive at suffering through birth, old age, sickness, and death, and are born again, all because they do not know the way to free themselves from this suffering.” Then this thought occurred to him: “With what existing, do old age and death come to be? What is the condition for old age and death?” Wise reflection arose in him: “When birth exists, old age and death exist. Old age and death have birth as their condition.”<\/p>\n\n

(4)\u00a0Then this thought occurred to him:<\/strong>\u00a0“With what existing, does birth come to be? What is the condition for birth?” He understood: “When becoming exists, birth exists. Birth has becoming as its condition. Becoming has clinging as its condition. Clinging has craving as its condition. Craving has feeling as its condition. Feeling has contact as its condition. Contact has the six sense bases as its condition. The six sense bases have name-and-form as their condition. Name-and-form has consciousness as its condition. Consciousness has formations as its condition. Formations have ignorance as their condition.” Having thus traced the root of suffering, he then contemplated in forward order\u00a0again: “Formations have ignorance as their condition. Consciousness has formations as its condition. Name-and-form has consciousness as its condition. The six sense bases have name-and-form as their condition. Contact has the six sense bases as its condition. Feeling has contact as its condition. Craving has feeling as its condition. Clinging has craving as its condition. Becoming has clinging as its condition. Birth has becoming as its condition. Old age and death have birth as their condition. And along with them arise sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair.”<\/p>\n\n

The eye of knowledge, wisdom, insight, and light arose in him concerning these truths which he had never heard before.<\/p>\n\n

(5)\u00a0Then this thought occurred to him:<\/strong>\u00a0“When what does not exist, do old age and death not exist? Through the cessation of what do old age and death cease?” Wise reflection arose in him: “Old age and death cease with the cessation of birth. Birth ceases with the cessation of becoming. Becoming ceases with the cessation of clinging. Clinging ceases with the cessation of craving…” And so on, until: “This is how the entire mass of suffering ceases.” As the Bodhisattva was contemplating this law of causality, with its twelve links, in both forward and reverse order, according to their arising and cessation, the ten thousand world systems quaked twelve times, down to their watery foundations.<\/p>\n\n

(6)\u00a0The Great Being, causing the ten thousand world systems to resound,<\/strong>\u00a0attained enlightenment regarding the true nature of things, both conditioned and unconditioned, through the wisdom born from the magnificent perfections he had accumulated. He was freed from the darkness that is the accumulation of latent tendencies, and he blossomed forth with the accomplishment of omniscience. Endowed with innumerable virtues, the very nexus of the noble path’s wisdom, he was like a blooming lotus, resplendent with glorious and beautiful qualities shining with utmost brilliance. He attained the supreme, perfect enlightenment, a state which gods,\u00a0garu<\/em>\u1e0das<\/em>, humans,\u00a0n\u0101gas<\/em>, and gandhabbas<\/em> cannot assail. This occurred at the moment of dawn, on the first day of the waning moon.<\/p>\n\n

(7)\u00a0At the moment he attained omniscience,<\/strong>\u00a0the ten thousand world systems were all adorned with decorations. Victory banners, hoisted by the gods, appeared in the east, west, south, and north of the central world system. Banners and flags were established from the surface of the earth all the way up to the Brahm\u0101 world. Trees burst forth with magnificent blossoms. Lotuses bloomed everywhere, covering all surfaces. Trees, branches, and vines had flowers hanging down from them. Lotuses also hung down from the sky. Lotuses broke through the earth and stone, erupting and blooming. The ten thousand world systems were completely covered with lotuses. Thus the Blessed One, worshipped by the gods with incalculable offerings, having attained omniscience, then uttered the cry of victory, the verse that all Buddhas proclaim:<\/p>\n\n

“Anekaj\u0101ti sa<\/em>\u1e43s\u0101ra<\/em>\u1e43, sandh\u0101vissa<\/em>\u1e43 anibbisa<\/em>\u1e43,<\/em>
Gahak\u0101ra<\/em>\u1e43 gavesanto, dukkh\u0101 j\u0101ti punappuna<\/em>\u1e43.<\/em>
Gahak\u0101raka di<\/em>\u1e6d\u1e6dhosi, puna geha<\/em>\u1e43 na k\u0101hasi,<\/em>
Sabb\u0101 te ph\u0101suk\u0101 bhagg\u0101, gahak\u016b<\/em>\u1e6da<\/em>\u1e43 visa<\/em>\u1e45khata<\/em>\u1e43.<\/em>
Visa<\/em>\u1e45kh\u0101ragata<\/em>\u1e43 citta<\/em>\u1e43, ta<\/em>\u1e47h\u0101na<\/em>\u1e43 khayamajjhag\u0101.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n

The meaning is:<\/strong>\u00a0Through many births in the cycle of existence, I have wandered without finding (the path). Seeking the builder of this house (craving), I have experienced the suffering of repeated birth. O house-builder (craving), you are now seen! You shall not build a house (a body) for me again. All your rafters (the defilements) are broken. The ridgepole of the house (ignorance) is shattered. My mind has reached the unconditioned (Nibb\u0101na). I have attained the destruction of all cravings. He remained seated on the throne of enlightenment where he had attained this state for seven days. He attained enlightenment on a Wednesday, on the full moon of the month of Vis\u0101kha, in the year of the Rooster.<\/p>\n\n

(End of the Chapter on the Attainment of Enlightenment, Chapter 11)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Chapter 11: The Attainment of Enlightenment (1)\u00a0The Great Being, even before the sun had set,\u00a0had thus vanquished the forces of M\u0101ra through his perfections. The leaves of the Bodhi tree,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buddhism","tag-pandit-chhim-sumn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions\/402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}