Happy Wesak Day

Tomorrow is the Wesak Day, let's we reminder again about the Enlightenment, what the meaning of that, and how we can get that. I get this story from Bhikkhu Samahita (Sri Lanka).

At this Fullmoon Da y do all Buddhas Awaken:
2009 Ma y 8 Wesak Da y celebrates the birth, Enlightenment and passing away of the Buddha Gotama. Keep Clean, Calm, Clever, Kind, Generous, and Gentle.

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Remember:
At this Ma y full moon in y ear 534 BC the Blessed Buddha awakened by completely perfect and utterly unsurpassable self-Enlightenment.
At that time a girl named Sujata Senani lived in Uruvela. When adult, she pray at before a certain Banyan tree, that she might get a good husband equal to herself in caste & that her firstborn ma y be a son. Her prayer was successful, since so indeed did it happen. At the full
moon da y of the Wesak month, she rose at earl y dawn & milked the cows. As soon as new buckets were placed under the cows, the milk poured in streams spontaneously all by it self. Seeing this miracle, she knew something special was going on. Now at that very night the Future Buddha had 5 dr eams that made him conclude: Surely, truly, without any doubt, today is the very day , I will reach Enlightenment.
His 5 colored radiance illuminated the whole tree. Then Sujata came and offered the cooked milk rice in the hands of the Great Being.


After that a grass-cutter came going with a bundle of grass just harvested from nearby . He offered the Great Being 8 handfuls of Kusa grass, when he saw that this Sage was a Holy Man. The Future Buddha accepted the grass & proceeded to the foot of the Bo-tree.
Reaching the imperturbable Eastern side, where all the Buddhas take their seat, he sat down sa y ing to himself. This is verily the immovable spot, where all the prior supreme Buddhas have planted themselves,
This is the very place for destroying this net of desire. Then the Future Buddha turned his back to the trunk and thus faced east.
Right there, he then resolutely settled on this mighty decision:

Let just blood & flesh of this body dry up & let skin and sinews fall from the bones. I will not leave this seat before having attained the absolute supreme Enlightenment!


So determined did he seat himself in this unconquerable seat, which not a 100 strikes of lightning could make him waver from. At this very moment the rebel deity Mara -the Evil One- raised exclaiming: Prince Siddhattha will pass beyond my power, but I will never allow it, and sounding the Mara's war shout, he raised his army & went out for battle. Then Mara said to his evil militia: This Sakyamuni, son of Suddhodana, is far greater than any other man, so we will never succeed to fight him up front. We will thus have to attack him from behind. Frustrated, being unable even to touch the Wielder of power with 9 mighty hurricanes of wind, rain,
rocks, weapons, red coals, hot ashes, sand, mud, and darkness Mara somewhat in panic commanded his army : Why do you all stand still?


Seize, kill & drive away this prince. Mara yelled: Siddhattha, leave this seat. It is not yours, but mine. Hearing this the Well-gone One replied: Mara, neither have you fulfilled the 10 perfections to the third degree nor have you given the 5 great donations. Neither have you striven for insight, nor for the welfare of all the world, nor for enlightenment. Therefore does this seat not belong to you, but truly indeed onl y to me. Suddenl y overpowered by fear Mara's followers fled helter-skelter in all directions. Not two went the same way , but leaving their weapons in a chaos all behind, the y all fled terrified by metaphysical panic. Seeing them flee, the great assembly of deities triumphantly shouted: Mara is defeated. Prince Siddhattha has Won.
Let us celebrate this trul y sublime, wonderful and unique Victory. It was before the sun had set that the Tathagata thus conquered Mara & defeated his army . That same night, after having bathed, while the Bo tree rained red sprigs on his robe, the Consummate One
gained knowledge of his prior lives in the first watch of the night: With the mind thus concentrated, purified, bright, fixed, unified, focused, tractable, compliant, steady & imperturbable, I directed it to remembrance of my past lives. I recollected many past lives, i.e.,
one birth, two...five, ten...fift y , a hundred, a thousand, 100 thousand, many eons of cosmic contraction, & many eons of cosmic expansion:
There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan & species, had such a body .
Such was my food, such my life of pleasure & pain, such was the end of m y life.
Passing away from that state, I re-arose there.
There I had such name, belonged to such a sort & famil y , had such a form.
Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such was the end of m y life.
Passing awa y from that state, I re-arose here.
Thus I remembered my various past lives in all their various modes & manifold details.
This was the first knowledge I attained in the first watch of the night. Ignorance was destro y ed; the knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed; light arose as happens in one who is alert, aware, & determined. But the pleasant feeling that arose in this way did not invade my mind or remain. With the mind thus concentrated, purified, bright, intact, pliant, malleable, steady and imperturbable, I directed it to the knowledge of the passing away & reappearance of beings. I saw by means of the divine e ye, purified & surpassing the human eye & I saw beings passing away & re-appearing, and I realized how and why they are high and low, beautiful or ugly , fortunate and unfortunate all in exact accordance with the intentions of their prior actions: These beings who were endowed with bad behaviour of body, speech, & mind, who reviled the Noble Ones, held wrong views & acted under the influence of wrong views, with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the plane of misery , the bad painful destination, the lower realms, even in hell. But these beings who were gifted with good behaviour of body,speech & mind, who did not revile the Noble Ones, who held right views and acted under the influence
of right views after the break-up of the body , after the death, have re-appeared in happy destinations, even in a divine world.
Thus by means of the divine eye, purified & surpassing the human I saw beings passing away & re-appearing, all in accordance with their particular mixture of good & bad kamma. But the satisfaction that arose in this wa y did not invade m y mind nor remain. With the mind
thus concentrated, absorbed, I directed it towards understanding the ending of the mental fermentations. I realized how it actually comes to be, that:

Such is Suffering...
Such is the Cause of Suffering...
Such is the End of Suffering...
Such is the Way to End Suffering...

Such was the mental fermentations...
Such is the Cause of mental fermentation...
Such is the End of mental fermentation...
Such is the Wa y leading to the end of fermentation.

When my mind saw that, it was instantly freed of the fermentation of sense-desire, it was released from the fermentation of becoming, and it became fully unobstructed by the fermentation of ignorance.
Full y & perfectl y Enlightened - The Buddha - perceiving this immense glory, spoke these 2 solemn verses, which never has been omitted by any of countless thousands of prior Buddhas:

Through this round of countless existences have I searched, but yet failed to find "the Creator", who framed this construction: What a Suffering is indeed such Endless Birth, Ageing, Deca y & Death!
Now I see that "the Constructor" of this structure is Craving...!!!
Never shall this construction be build again, as all the rafters are shattered and the main beam is busted & broken...
At this calming of all Craving, the mind was finally , irreversibly & ultimately stilled…
Then, friends, this revelation of certaint y arose in me: This release is immutable, this is the very last birth, this endless re-appearance has finally ceased...