It is the most remarkable accomplishment in human history. It is the Buddha’s awakening.
There are several accounts of the night of the Buddha’s awakening. The most direct is the Bhayabherava Sutta, “Fear and Dread” —[MN 4]. (I know the English title sounds a little daunting. But read the sutta, and all will be well.)
The Bhayabherava Sutta is a conversation between the Buddha and a brahmin called “Jāṇussoṇi.” Jāṇussoṇi, we are told, was an honorific term for a court high priest. It is a cordial conversation.
The Buddha begins his account of the night of his awakening with this:
“I considered thus: ‘There are the especially auspicious nights of the fourteenth, the fifteenth, and the eighth of the fortnight.” —[MN 4.20]
In Buddhism, there are traditional holy days called Uposatha days. Because they used a lunar calendar in India, these fall on the full, new, and quarter-moon days. They are considered auspicious for practice. To this day lay people will go to a monastery or temple and spend the day there. They take the Eight Precepts during that time. These are the same Precepts taken by novice monastics.
The Buddha then says that he entered the first, second, third, and fourth jhānas. These are synonymous with “samadhi,” the eight factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. They are states of deep concentration.
What follows is his account of awakening. In the “first watch”—the first third—of the night, he sees into his countless past lives:
“When my concentrated mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, I directed it to knowledge of the recollection of past lives. I recollected my manifold past lives, that is, one birth, two births, three births, four births, five births, ten births, twenty births, thirty births, forty births, fifty births, a hundred births, a thousand births, a hundred thousand births, many aeons of world-contraction, many aeons of world-expansion, many aeons of world-contraction and expansion: ‘There I was so named, of such a clan, with such an appearance, such was my nutriment (food), such my experience of pleasure and pain, such my life-term; and passing away from there (death), I reappeared elsewhere; and there too I was so named, of such a clan, with such an appearance, such was my nutriment, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such my life-term; and passing away from there, I reappeared here.’ Thus with their aspects and particulars I recollected my manifold past lives.” —[MN 4.27]
It is fascinating what the Buddha remembered from his past lives. Look at the list. One of them is the food he ate. How curious.
Now think about your life. Think about everything that is important to you. Think about your education, your career, and your family. Think about all your most precious relationships. Think about places you have visited and the experiences you have had. Then consider that all the Buddha remembered from his countless past lives were these few things.
In the second watch of the night, he had two realizations. The first is that not only he, but all beings are subject to rebirth. The second realization is that beings pass away and are reborn according to their actions, their karma:
“When my concentrated mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, I directed it to knowledge of the passing away and reappearance of beings. With the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, I saw beings passing away and reappearing, inferior and superior, fair and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate. I understood how beings pass on according to their actions thus: ‘These worthy beings who were ill conducted in body, speech, and mind, revilers of noble ones, wrong in their views, giving effect to wrong view in their actions, on the dissolution of the body, after death, have reappeared in a state of deprivation, in a bad destination, in perdition, even in hell; but these worthy beings who were well conducted in body, speech, and mind, not revilers of noble ones, right in their views, giving effect to right view in their actions, on the dissolution of the body, after death, have reappeared in a good destination, even in the heavenly world.’ Thus with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, I saw beings passing away and reappearing, inferior and superior, fair and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate, and I understood how beings pass on according to their actions.” —[MN 4.29]
This is an important point about karma. Some people believe in predestination. Some believe that everything that happens is random. Many people believe that what happens is the will of God. But the Buddha tells is that it is the quality of our actions that determines our present circumstances and our future. Our past actions have brought us to this moment, and it is our choices in the present that shape what is to come.
And finally, in the third watch of the night, he saw into the Four Noble Truths:
“When my concentrated mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, I directed it to knowledge of the destruction of the taints. I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is suffering’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the origin of suffering’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the cessation of suffering’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.’ I directly knew as it actually is: ‘These are the taints’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the origin of the taints’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the cessation of the taints’; I directly knew as it actually is: ‘This is the way leading to the cessation of the taints.” —[MN 4.31]
The Bodhisatta had awakened. He had seen how we create suffering for ourselves and others. He had seen the cessation of suffering. He had seen the way out, the path that leads to the end of suffering. He would no longer be subject to the relentless wandering in saṃsara. When his body died, he would enter nibbana. He would be free.
The other two accounts we have of the Buddha’s awakening are both in conversations with brahmins who want to debate the Buddha. Like Greece at that time, India was a place where members of different sects would come together and debate their philosophies. To be sure, the Buddha discouraged debate. He did not feel that because you could win an argument that had any merit.
The first of these discourses is also in the Majjhima Nikāya. It is the Mahāsaccaka Sutta, “The Greater Discourse to Saccaka” —[MN 36]. The Mahāsaccaka Sutta is a conversation between the Buddha and “Saccaka the Nigaṇṭha’s son.” Nigaṇṭha was a member of a rival sect, the Jains. The Jains still exist in India today.
Bhikkhu Bodhi’s footnote states:
“Saccaka approached with the intention of refuting the Buddha’s doctrine, which he failed to do in his earlier encounter with the Buddha (in MN 35). But this time he came alone, thinking that if he were to suffer defeat no one would know about it. He intended to refute the Buddha with his question about sleeping during the day, which he does not ask until close to the end of the sutta.”
— [Bhikkhu Nanamoli, & Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, Footnote 380]
This sutta gives a longer and more detailed account of the Buddha’s quest. It includes a description of his ascetic practices during which he almost died.
The other description we have of the Buddha’s awakening is from the Aṇguttara Nikāya, “The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha.” It is sutta 11 in the Book of Eights and is simply called Verañjā. Verañjā was a city in India.
One of the things that I love about the Pāli Canon is that the suttas start by giving a context, where something happened, who was there and so on. And this sutta starts by telling us that it occurred “at Verañjā at the foot of Naḷeru’s neem tree.” A neem tree is also called the Indian lilac. Further, we are told that Naḷeru was a yakkha (!). (This is “yaksha” in Sanskrit.) India has a long history of believing that spirits live in trees.
Sadly, that is all we hear of Neḷeru.
This sutta describes a debate between a brahmin and the Buddha. The brahmin makes a series of complaints against the Buddha, each of which the Buddha refutes. This is a sutta that is a good example of the Buddha’s mastery of word crafting. He takes the brahmin’s criticisms and turns them into examples of sense desire and defilements. So while it gives a description of the Buddha’s awakening, its purpose is more to show this debate.
The suttas I reference here are from the Sutta Piṭaka. There is also an account of the time the Buddha spent after his awakening. It is in the Vinaya Piṭaka, the monastic code. It is in the First Khandaka in the Mahavagga.
Finally, I will plug my own book, The Life of the Buddha. The eBook versions are available for free, and if you want a print copy, let me know and I will get you one. This book is meant to give an overall view of the Buddha’s life without your having to trudge thorugh a thousand-page, academic tome.
I hope that you will explore some of these resources. The Buddha’s life was extraordinary. It was humbling and inspirational.
There are two Buddhist practices that can be helpful, especially if your practice becomes routine and dull. They are both particularly apropos on Vesak. The first is the recollection of the Buddha. Remember all these events. Remember what he did to awaken and the amount of energy and sacrifice he went through so that we can have these teachings today. He was born rich, famous, and powerful. He gave that up to nearly starve to death. He lived as a beggar—a mendicant—so that we can be free from suffering. And unlike us, we who know there is a path out of suffering, he didn’t know. He simply had faith that there was a way. He had to discover the path through an arduous life that as far as he knew, simply led nowhere. It is an incomprehensible and heroic story.
The other practice is to sit down, meditate, and imagine that you are the Buddha. Take on the mind and character of the Buddha. Be the Buddha. Even if that only happens for a second or two, it gives the promise of possibility. The Buddha, for all his extraordinary accomplishments, was a human being. Later schools of Buddhism tried to rewrite this fact, but it is clear from the Buddha’s own accounts and his struggles that he was a human being. You are a human being, too. You have the same heart and mind. You have the breath. And you, too, can accomplish what the Buddha did. He gave us the map. We just have to follow it.
Wishing you well on your journey.
“This was the third true knowledge attained by me in the last watch of the night. Ignorance was banished and true knowledge arose, darkness was banished and light arose, as happens in one who abides diligent, ardent, and resolute.” —[MN 4.33]