Buddha's enlightment

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shazan
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Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2014 7:50 am

Buddha's enlightment

Post by shazan »

Hi,

Buddha learnt Jhana practice from his teachers, but wasent satisfied with them. Then he went through a phase of self-mortification practices. And then suddenly he remembered his childhood experiences of blissful states and got enlightenment after sitting in meditation for 49 days. So my question, what exactly was the meditation technique that brought Buddha to enlightment in 49 days? What do the texts say about this.
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Buddha's Enlightenment

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

The Bodhisatta attain Enlightenment in a single night, by practising insight meditation. Thereafter, he spent 49 days at different spots in the same vicinity before going to Saranath to start teaching.
  1. In the first watch of the night he recollected his previous lives
  2. In the second watch he recollected the births and deaths or the wandering in samsāra of other beings according to their kamma
  3. In the third watch he turned his attention to the analysis of the five aggregates, and thereby gained full comprehension and enlightenment, which is the destruction of the mental corruptions
This quote explains that he did not use mindfulness of breathing for this latter stage — only for gaining the absorptions, which led to the mystic powers or recollecting previous lives, etc.

Questions and Answers
Now, Paṇḍitārāma Sayādaw has become perhaps the foremost and most successful among many Myanmar Sayādaws teaching vipassanā who have won world-wide renown. When Sayādaw came to the Kuala Lumpur monastery where I was, I took the opportunity to put Mary Shimoda’s questions to Sayādaw. Firstly, “Did the Buddha not attain Buddhahood through ānāpānassati?”

“Ko Hla Myint,” the Sayādaw replied, “You have not studied the scriptures with the necessary attention to detail. It is true that the Buddha-to-be attained Knowledge of Former States of Being (dibbacakkhu abhiññā) and the Divine Eye of Omniscient Vision (dibbacakkhu abhiññā) in the first and second watches of the night through ānāpānassati. However, in the third and last watch of the night, the Buddha-to-be was no longer absorbed in ānāpānassati, but had turned his great intellect to the doctrine of Dependent Origination (paṭiccasamuppāda). ‘Through ignorance are conditioned rebirth producing volitions or kamma-formations (saṅkhārā), and so on.’ Then, just before the break of day, while meditating on the five aggregates, the physical and mental phenomena of existence, the Buddha-to-be attained the path and fruition of Arahantship, and the Omniscience of a Supremely Enlightened Buddha. Thus, Buddhahood was won not through ānāpānassati, but through mindfulness on the physical and mental phenomena of the five aggregates.”
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shazan
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2014 7:50 am

Re: Buddha's enlightment

Post by shazan »

Thanks for your reply. Another related question. Its said buddha learnt 8 jhana practice from his teachers and wasent satisfied. Later on he remembered his blissful experience as a child and realized it as the way to enlightenment. How was this blissful jhana experience that he used as a vehicle for enlightenment different from the jhana teachings of his teachers.
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Buddha's enlightment

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

shazan wrote:Thanks for your reply. Another related question. Its said buddha learnt 8 jhana practice from his teachers and wasent satisfied. Later on he remembered his blissful experience as a child and realized it as the way to enlightenment. How was this blissful jhana experience that he used as a vehicle for enlightenment different from the jhana teachings of his teachers.
I suspect that the difference is only in the reason why concentration is practised. Compare, for example, the Mettasahagatena Sutta

See also, Ledi Sayādaw's Manual of Respiration on how to proceed to insight from various degrees of concentration.
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