Supreme Enlightenment of the Buddha | Vesak Dhammagiri | Ajahn Dhammasiha

Dhammagiri Buddhist Podcasts

On occasion of Visākhā Pūjā, Ajahn Dhammasiha relates the events leading up to the Buddha's Supreme Awakening under the Bodhi Tree.

Initially, the Bodhisatta practised extreme austerities in the believe that only through pain one can eradicate desire and attain perfect release. He fasted and tortured his own body until he almost died.

When he collapsed, the Bodhisatta fortunately remembered how he had attained Samādhi (the first Jhāna) as a little child, sitting in the shade of a Roseapple tree. The insight occurred to him that the happiness of Jhāna is not be be feared of avoided, as it is utterly seperated from sensuality or unwholesome states. He realized that the wholesom, spiritual rapture and bliss of Samādhi is not an obstruction to awakening, but actually an essential part of the path.

Eating and regaining his strength, he found a suitable location for developing samādhi, and after attaining the various jhānas, he sat down under the Bodhi Tree with the famous resolution:

"Even if my blood and flesh completely dry out until only skin, sinews and bones remain; I will not break this posture unless I have attained complete freedom from suffering!"

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