Ever since millions of years ago, when being in human life was a hermit in the name of Sumedha, our present Gotama Buddha had been known the way to attain the end of suffering sate- Nibbana, but seeing the living beings suffered in darkness as a result of ignorance, he decided to sacrifice his lives, and he renounced his own enlightenment in favor of making the strenuous effort to become a Buddha-Enlightened one, without taking the great chance that he got. His great compassion would give him the power to lead too many being to liberation, not just himself, not has ego in his heart.
Furthermore, when becoming an enlightened one, “he also made up his mind to show the path to all being leading to the Nibbana I am going to take the beings out from Samsara (the cycle of suffering) as much as I can.” Because he saw they could not take out themselves alone without help. Since then, his heart had changed when he saw with the eyes of great compassion how being suffered on account of misguided activities. He therefore decided to try hard to attain intuitive wisdom or supreme enlightenment (Sambbanyuta Nyanna) necessary to guide them to free themselves from the wheel of suffering.
In his final life in the name of Prince Siddhattha from his childhood the prince was given to serious contemplation. When the prince grew up father’s fervent wish was that his son should marry, bring up a family and be his worthy successor; but he feared the prince would one day give up home for the homeless life of an ascetic.
According to the custom of the time, at the early age of sixteen the prince was married to his cousin Yasodhara, the only daughter of king Suppabuddha and Queen Pamita of Koliyas. The princess was the same age as the prince. Lacking nothing of the wordly joys of life he lived knowing naught of sorrow and dukkha.yet all the efforts of the father to hold his son a prisoner to the senses and make him worldly-minded were of no evil. King Sudhodana attempts to life’s miseries from his son’s inquiring eyes only heightened prince Siddhana’s curiosity and his resolute search for Truth & Enlightenment.
One day, the fourth vision of the woeful sings deeply moved him and made a lasting impression. He saw a recluse, calm and serene, aloof and independent, and learnt that he was one who had given up his home to live of purity, seek truth and solve the riddle of life. Thoughts of renunciation flashed though the prince’s mind and in deep contemplation the turned homeward. Positively there should be an escape from this suffering, from old age and death.
Therefore the great intoxication of youth, of death, and of life left him. Having seen the vanity and the danger of the three intoxications, he was defeated by a powerful urge to seek and win the deathless, to try for deliverance from ageing, sickness, misery and death to seek it for him and for all being that suffer. It was his deep compassion that led him to the quest ending in enlightenment, in Buddha-hood. It was compassion that how moved him his heart toward the great renunciation and opened for him the doors of the golden that made his determination unshakable even by the last parting glance at his beloved wife asleep with their babe in her arms.
The prince with a superhuman effort of will renounced child, wife, father and a crown that held the promise of power and glory and in the guise of an indigent ascetic retreated into forest solitude to seek the eternal verities of life. This was the great renunciation with great compassion to all beings who had been feeling May kinds of suffering as a result of ignorance.
In his wanderings he finally reached Uruvela forest where he began a determined struggle to subdue his body, in the hope that his mind, set free from the shackles of the body, might be able to soar to the heights of liberation. He lived on leaves and roots, on a steadily reduced pittance of food, he wore rags from dust-heaps; he slept among corpses or no beds of thorns after he left home.
Thus, struggling for six long years, he came to death’s very door, but he found himself no nearer to his goal.
Making the final forceful effort with the inflexible resolution: “In spite of the fact that only my skin, sinews and bones remain, and my blood and flesh dry up and wither away, yet I will never stir from this seat until I have attained full enlightenment.” Too indefatigable in effort, so unflagging in his devotion was he, and so resolute to realize truth.
Did hence the Bodhisatta Gotama on another full moon-day of May, at the age of thirty-five, attained Supreme enlightenment by realizing in all their fullness the four Noble truths, and become the great Buddha to cure the ills of beings and to take all beings out from Samsara with his great Wisdom & Compassion.
Just think of the depth of compassion, the depth of wisdom the Buddha possessed. There are too many stories of his perfections how long and how devotedly sacrificed his lives and worked toward his goal for us.
Due to his great compassion for us, for suffering beings, the Bodhisatta was able to go through his wanderings so many lifetimes in the cycle of Samsara and had spent so many lifetimes cultivating his Parami( Perfection) with great patience: and then, in his final life he tried too hard for more than six years to attain enlightenment, he set forth and tirelessly shared the Dhamma with all those beings who were ready for it, until the day of his passing away ( Parinibana). So the Buddha insights into the human mind are helping people as much today as did in ancient times.
Before the Lord Buddha attains enlightenment under the Mahabodhi tree here at Bodh-Gaya, beings were engulfed in clouds delusion and ignorance. The path to liberation had not yet been discovered. Beings groped in the dark. Now becauseee of the Buddha showing we know as he understood as really is: this is suffering ( Dukkha), this is the arising of suffering, this is the cessation of suffering, this is the path leading to the cessation of suffering, this is evil deeds( Akusala), this is good deeds( Kusala), and so on.
Now we all human beings just need to follow his great teachings without working too hard like him. If only we follow and practice his teachings, we could perfect ourselves too and can be free from all sufferings.
So how great his compassion was!
May all beings be liberated by practicing the teachings of the Buddha!
Dhamma- gift excels all other gifts.
Written By
Ashin Sandima (Dhammalayeik)
