Enlightenment, is the ultimate reality, realised through performance of the ten perfections (not spoken of by Buddha)leading to the attainment of Buddhahood. 1. Perfection in Giving, generocity (dana parami)
2. Perfection in Morality (sila parami)
3. Perfection in Renunciation (nekkhamma parami)
4. Perfection in Wisdom (panna parami)
5. Perfection in Energy (viriya parami)
6. Perfection in Patience (Khanti parami)
7. Perfection in Truthfulness (sacca parami)
8. Perfection in Resolution (adhitta parami)
9. Perfection in Loving Kindness (metta parami)
10. Perfection in Equanimity ( upekka parami)
It takes several life times to bring to maturity these perfections. A person, who does perfections to be a future Buddha, is called a Bodhisatta. The Gautam Buddha- Sakya Muni, is said to have lived 550 different lives as a Bodhisatta, before he was born as Prince Siddharta, the final birth before attainment to Buddhahood.
Submerged in worldly pleasure, filled with ill-will, and anger , and groping in delusion,it is difficult for a human being to understand the reality of Enlightenment.
Our knowledge is based on the thoughts of the past, and therefore conceptual. We cannot comprehend Enlightenment from our knowledge. It is only through wisdom, developed in meditation, that it could be discerned.
Prince Siddharta, after becoming an ascetic at 29 years of age , sought instruction from different masters on their respective philosopies, and not satisfied, he left them and went to Uruwela, a place near the river Neranjara at Gaya, with a following of five ascetics,Kondanna,Bhaddiya,Vappa, Mahanama and Assaji, and struggled to liberate his mind from the attachment to the body, believing that such a struggle will give him the understanding of the truth, he was seeking.
Failing in that effort, he gave up the life of austerity. Seeing this change, his companions left him for what they thought was his lack of perseverance. He struggled alone, until, on a full moon day in a month of May, about 2623 years ago, six years after leaving his princely life, he sat under a tree by the river Neranjara, with the determination that he would not leave the place without having realised the cause of suffering and its cessation.
He meditated concentrating his mind on the in and out breath ( ana-pana sati). He purified his mind attaining various stages of concentration (samadhi and jhana)
That evening, (between 6 p.m and 10p.m), he attained the first knowledge of recollecting past births, concentrating further he attained (between 10 pm and 2 am) the second knowledge of the appearance and disappearance of all being in different states according to their past deeds (karma) . He understood the reality of suffering , the arising of suffering , the cessation of suffering, and the path leading to their cessation, and attained the knowledge of the destruction of taints, effluents, desires that infect the mind.
This realisation liberated his mind from the taints of sense pleasures (kamasava), of being (bhavasava) and of ignorance (avijjasava). Finally the great realisation came to him that he is “liberated” and he understood, that for him there was no more becoming. Thus he attained Perfect Enlightenment - samma sambodhi.
He was 35 years of age
NIBBANA
Nibbana , is a state similar to Enlightenment, which can be attained by every one of us, without traversing the difficult path taken by the Lord Buddha. He with his great compassion towards all beings, has shown the path (magga) to reach the goal of nibbana. It is now open for us to travers…. Once the Buddha showing the leaves in a forest, to his companions, took a handful, and said that his knowledge is like the leaves in the forest, but what he has taught is as much as that in his hand, only that which is essential for those who seek the path to NIBBANA.
