Shakyamuni Buddha's Enlightenment

by Chogye Trichen Rinpoche

Now Siddhartha Gautama's mother had passed away seven days after giving birth to Him, and she was reborn in the land of the gods known as the 'realm of the thirty-three.'

As a deva of this realm, she possessed some limited clairvoyance, and was able to see that her son from her previous life, Gautama, was undergoing great hardships. As this goddess, the former Mayadevi, wept for Siddhartha, her tears fell miraculously from the celestial world, forming a small pool in front of the meditating Buddha.

In response to this, the great meditator Gautama broke His silence, just one week before He was to attain enlightenment. He spoke out reassuringly to his mother, saying, 'Although I have gone through these ascetic practices of unimaginable difficulty, yet I still have not reached my goal. I have only one week before I gain enlightenment. Then I will repay your kindness, and will come to teach you in the near future.'

In this way, His mother was the first person for whom Gautama broke His vow of silence, just prior to attaining enlightenment. Completing His six years of meditation, Siddhartha arose from that place, setting out on foot for what would come to be known as Bodhgaya, the Diamond Seat. Thus He came to arrive before the great Bodhi tree there. He knew that this was indeed the very place where all the past Buddhas, such as Krakuchandra, Kanakamuni, and Kasyapa, had attained enlightenment, on the very seat He himself now approached.

In deepest reverence, Gautama bowed before the vajra seat and then took His place upon it, leaning His back against the Bodhi tree. Upon that very throne of enlightenment of the Buddhas of the past, Siddhartha repeated the greatest act of all of history, achieving complete enlightenment under the Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya. Gautama had spent six years meditating on the banks of the Niranjana, and had come to the Diamond Seat of Bodhgaya to finish His meditation training.

He entered again into seated meditation at dusk of the full moon night. Terrifying hosts of mara-devils and evil beings swarmed about Him in a jealous frenzy. They threatened Him with fearsome apparitions, brandishing terrible weapons and hurling them at Him in rage and envy. These demons had great power and were able to destroy whatever they set themselves upon. Yet due to the invincible power of meditation, compassion, and loving kindness emanating from Siddhartha, they could not defeat Him. Now only hours from gaining enlightenment, in a meditation of unassailable stability, He transformed all that was flung at Him into celestial flowers. He suffered not the slightest harm. Thus conquering and subduing all the mara-devils during the period of dusk on that night, then continuing on through the middle watch of the night He remained in the deep samadhi of meditation. Finally, at the early dawn which followed that full moon night, He gained complete perfect enlightenment, samyak sambuddha. Having attained enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama, now the Buddha, entered into the most sublime and indescribable state of bliss and emptiness which is the enlightened state.

In this profound condition He gave rise to a great wish, thinking, 'How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings could share in this realisation which is now my own.'