FInding Your Way to Enlightenment
Close to 2,500 years in the past, Prince Siddharta Gautama was born in what is currently called Lumbini in Nepal. He was born a prince and his birth had been heralded with many distinctive signs that indicated a destiny of greatness. The prince’s father asked a wiseman that lived in the kingdom for guidance regarding his son. The sage man believed that the prince, Siddharta Gautama, might either follow in his father’s footsteps and become a great king or he might become a spiritual leader.
Praying that his son should grow to be his successor, the king did his best to separate the prince from those activities that may encourage him toward a spiritual existence. The prince was bombarded by extravagance and excess, all of the benefits that his royal status could provide. Siddharta Gautama turned out to be to be an intelligent scholar and outstanding sportsman. He married a lovely woman whom he treasured and they bore a child.
At the age of 29, the prince learned that the world surrounding him was far more problematic than what he experienced in the walls of his palace. Out among the people of the kingdom, he observed actuality: sickness, old-age and death. The surprise of this finding left the youthful prince shaken. He decided then to dedicate himself to ending the suffering. Leaving behind his wife and child, the prince forsaked his worldly property and set out on a spiritual journey.
Guatama started a course of study with numerous instructors to understand their practices. With the aid of Alara Kalama, he began to comprehend meditation and discovered an exalted form called absorption. This allowed him to attain a state of nothingness where there is no moral or cognitive dimensions. Although this was valuable it was clear to the former prince that it wouldn’t eliminate the suffering he had seen. Guatama continued his search for other people who might possibly aid him on his spiritual voyage. Udraka Ramputra, helped Gautama to comprehend a state of neither perception or non-perception, but this to wasn’t what he was searching for. The next step in the journey led Gautama to Uruvilva in North India. It was there that he selected an ascetic path, experiencing a life of deprival for nearly 6 years. This only resulted in the destruction of his entire body, weakness and self-destruction. Although it cost him his five followers, Gautama rejected this ascetic lifestyle.
The end of this spiritual quest looked as far away as ever, so the Buddha sat down under a Bodhi tree and announced that “flesh may wither, blood may dry up, but I shall not rise from the spot until Enlightenment has been one.” After 40 days of thought and meditation, the Buddha at last realized Enlightenment.
It’s the Buddhist understanding that at that moment he accomplished a state of being that surpasses anything else in the world. Our normal experiences are based on preconceptions and circumstances: how we were raised, our ordeals, imperfections and mistakes. Enlightenment is a state in which the complex inner workings of life become clear and the reason for man’s suffering discovered.
For the next 45 years, the Buddha traveled through much of what’s now northern India. He taught the way of Enlightenment to all or any that desired to comprehend. This particular instruction had become referred to as the dharma or “the teaching of the enlightened one. The Buddha adopted many disciples who in turn attained their own Enlightenment and they trained others.
Buddhists believe Buddha accomplished a state of being that goes out beyond everthing else in the world. If regular knowledge is founded on conditions – childhood, psychology, views, perceptions, and so forth – Enlightenment is Unconditioned. It was a state when the Buddha obtained insight into the deepest workings of living and therefore, into the cause of human suffering, the challenge that had set Him on His spiritual quest originally.
The Buddha statue we often see doesn not represent a god and did not look at himself as a divine person. He was simply a man who endeavored to transform himself through self reflection and meditation. Buddhists see him as an ideal and his journey as a guideline that can direct them on the path to enlightenment. Most homes that practice Buddhism will display a statue of Buddha, but this is intended to remind them of their own spiritual journey.
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