Buddha's Awakening
In the suttapitaka, the Buddhist canon as preserved in the Theravada-tradition, a number of texts can be found in which the Buddha tells about his own awakening.
In the Vanapattha Sutta (Majjhima, chapter 17) the Buddha describes life in the jungle, and the attainment of awakening. After destroying the disturbances of the mind, and the concentration of the mind, he attained three knowledges (vidhya):
- Insight into his past lives
- Insight into the workings of Karma and Reincarnation
- Insight into the Four Noble Truths
Insight into the Four Noble Truths is here called awakening. The monk (bhikkhu) has
...attained the unattained supreme security from bondage"Awakening is also described as synonymous with Nirvana, the extinction of the passions whereby suffering is ended and no more rebirths take place. The insight arises that this liberation is certain:
Knowledge arose in me, and insight: my freedom is certain, this is my last birth, now there is no rebirth".So awakening is insight into karma and rebirth, insight into the Four Noble Truths, the extinction of the passions whereby Nirvana is reached, ànd the certainty thàt liberation has been reached.
Read more about this topic: Bodhi
Famous quotes containing the words buddha and/or awakening:
“Brute force crushes many plants. Yet the plants rise again. The Pyramids will not last a moment compared with the daisy. And before Buddha or Jesus spoke the nightingale sang, and long after the words of Jesus and Buddha are gone into oblivion the nightingale still will sing. Because it is neither preaching nor commanding nor urging. It is just singing. And in the beginning was not a Word, but a chirrup.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“The awakening is
to transformation,
word after word.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)