BUDDHA’S ENLIGHTENMENT
By Rev.Myosho Obata

Today, I will tell you about what enlightenment is. Enlightenment or Satori in Japanese is a translation of the Indian word bodhi, which is transliterated as bodai in Japanese, hence enlightenment and bodai are synonymous. This is the absolute understanding of the composition and the truths of the universe and human beings. The Buddha thought that human beings are originally beings which bear suffering. Every human eventually has to grow old, experience illness, and die. That is suffering. One has to part from who one loves and may be unable to obtain what one wants. This too, is suffering. Why is it that we must suffer in this way? It is because human beings have desires and attachments. Human beings suffer because they grow attached to life despite the fact that they have to die and because their desires expand from one to another and they are unable to attain satisfaction.

How are we to be released from such suffering? The Buddha thought that since attachment and desire were the causes of suffering, if we could cast attachment and desire aside or at least control them, suffering would also disappear. He also conceived a mean of practice whereby one could control attachment and desire. The Buddha seated himself beneath the bodhi tree and entered meditation. He comprehended the makeup of the human mind and the nature of the universe and awakened to the truth. This experience is called enlightenment and is referred to as bodai. So, what was it that the Buddha awakened to? It is impossible to answer this in a few words. This is because the vast number of scriptures which contain the teachings of the Buddha and which are said to number 84,000 can all be said to be the contents of that enlightenment. I will try to select the most representative among them.

1. The Four Noble Truths (shitai)

The character (tai) of the word means “to make clear”, that is “to make the truth clear”. And (shitai) means that the four truths concerning suffering, its causes, the extinguishing of it and the means of extinguishing that suffering.

2. The Eight Fold Noble Path (hashodo)

There are eight varieties of actual practice which are indicated as means by which one can carry out the truth of the path, (dotai), which is included among the Four Noble Truths. By actually practicing these day by day, one becomes able to control the attachments and desires which cause suffering.

3. The Law of the Twelve Causes (juni innen)

The Buddha clarified the causes of suffering in the Four Noble Thruths. It is said that on the same occasion he explicated a separate logic concerning the causes of the sufferings of aging and death. No one is able to escape from aging and death itself, but the Buddha probed the causes of the distress and sadness that afflict human beings as a result of them. Following the order of causes leading to death from old age, and ultimately leading to ignorance, (mumyo) not being aware of the truth, these twelve steps are referred to as the Twelve Causes, (juni innen) or Twelve Causations, (juni engi).

4. The Middle Path (chudo)

means that one cannot attain enlightenment through the extremes of austerities or pleasures, but by walking in the Middle Path.