How the Buddha Became Enlightened.

[Tibetan_Ice]

Hi,

I'm so excited! I found a passage where the Buddha tells the story of how he became enlightened.

 

What I find exciting about it is that Buddha worked on obtaining his enlightenment. He worked with the Light and the Visions. Through trial and error, he gradually learned how to make the Light and the Visions remain. He learned how to penetrate the Light. The Light!!! (now I'm once again mad at AYP for parroting so many times that the Light is just scenery and should be ignored). Oh well..

 

I also ask myself, if Buddha got enlightened by working hard, analysing and finally determining the factors that caused the Light and the Visions to remain, then why isn't everyone using this method? I think the clincher might be that in order to see the Light and Visions, one must have the "divine eye" developed sufficiently. Right now, I equate the 'divine eye' with the third eye. I get the visions and I see the Light. I just didn't realize that they are the key to enlightenment and that one has to learn, by themselves, exactly how to make them remain.

 

Perhaps I am lucky that I see the Light and the Visions, but then I have spent many years developing the third eye and if you'd ask me how it is done, I would simply say, location location location.. When you withdraw your consciousness starting from the area between the brow and then go back into the center of the head (after the body has fallen away), at a certain layer or frequency of consciousness, the visions appear. The area is about 1 1/2 inches behind the brow. Then, if you pull your attention back closer to the watcher, but not all the way to the watcher, that is where the intense bright light breaks through.

 

I am very grateful to now know that Buddha actually worked on establishing and then penetrating the Light in order to become enlightened. He just didn't sit there, doing nothing. He experimented and put together a method, a road map. And he did it without a teacher. He did it all by himself.

 

Anyway, here is the passage that I am grateful for:

 

 

From:

http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/5.18-Anuruddha-Upakkilesa-S-m128-piya.pdf

 

The part of the text that I am enthralled by starts on page 189, with Light and vision of forms

 

Be sure to read the footnotes..

 

TI

 

 

I just have to quote some of it:

 

 

16.1 But, Anuruddhā, you should penetrate that sign.64

Anuruddhā, before I awakened to the supreme awakening, when I was still a bodhisattva, I too perceived both light and vision of forms. But [158] not long afterwards both the light and the vision of forms disappeared.

 

16.2 (1) Then, Anuruddhā, it occurred to me:

What now is the cause, what is the reason, that the light and the vision of forms disappeared?

Then it occurred to me:

Doubt arose in me, and because of the doubt my concentration fell away.

When my concentration fell away, the light and the vision of forms disappeared.

Now let me act so that doubt would not arise in me again.

 

17 Anuruddhā, as I was dwelling diligent, ardent and resolute, I perceived light and vision of forms.

But again not long afterwards both the light and the vision of forms disappeared.

(2) Then, Anuruddhā, it occurred to me:

What now is the cause, what is the reason, that the light and the vision of forms disappeared?

Then it occurred to me:

Inattention arose in me, and because of inattention my concentration fell away.

When my concentration fell away, the light and the vision of forms disappeared.

Now let me act so that doubt and inattention would not arise in me again.

 

18 Anuruddhā, as I was dwelling diligent, ardent and resolute, I perceived light and vision of forms.

But again not long afterwards both the light and the vision of forms disappeared.

(3) Then, Anuruddhā, it occurred to me:

What now is the cause, what is the reason, that the light and the vision of forms disappeared?

Then it occurred to me:

Sloth-and-torpor arose in me, and because of sloth-and-torpor my concentration fell away.

 

When my concentration fell away, the light and the vision of forms disappeared.

Now let me act so that doubt, inattention and sloth-and-torpor would not arise in me again.

 

19.1 Anuruddhā, as I was dwelling diligent, ardent and resolute, I perceived light and vision of forms.

But again not long afterwards both the light and the vision of forms disappeared.

(4) Then, Anuruddhā, it occurred to me:

What now is the cause, what is the reason, that the light and the vision of forms disappeared?

Then it occurred to me:

Fear arose in me, and because of fear my concentration fell away.

When my concentration fell away, the light and the vision of forms disappeared.

 

19.2 PARABLE OF THE MURDEROUS JOURNEY. Suppose, Anuruddhā, a person were to set out on a journey and murderers were to leap out from both sides of himfear [alarm] would then arise in him on that account.67

So too fear arose in me, and because of fear, my concentration fell away.

When my concentration fell away, the light and the vision of forms disappeared.

Now let me [159] act so that doubt, inattention, sloth-and-torpor and fear would not arise in me

again.

 

20.1 Anuruddhā, as I was dwelling diligent, ardent and resolute, I perceived light and vision of forms.

But again not long afterwards both the light and the vision of forms disappeared.

(5) Then, Anuruddhā, it occurred to me:

What now is the cause, what is the reason, that the light and the vision of forms disappeared?

Then it occurred to me:

Excitement arose in me, and because of excitement my concentration fell away.

When my concentration fell away, the light and the vision of forms disappeared.

 

20.2 PARABLE OF THE HIDDEN TREASURE. Suppose, Anuruddhā, a person seeking the access to hidden treasure, were to find the five accesses all at once:69 excitement would arise in him on that account.

So too excitement arose in me, and because of excitement, my concentration fell away.

When my concentration fell away, the light and the vision of forms disappeared.

Now let me act so that doubt, inattention, sloth-and-torpor, fear and excitement would not arise in

me again.

 

21 Anuruddhā, as I was dwelling diligent, ardent and resolute, I perceived light and vision of forms.

But again not long afterwards both the light and the vision of forms disappeared.

(6) Then, Anuruddhā, it occurred to me:

What now is the cause, what is the reason, that the light and the vision of forms disappeared?

Then it occurred to me: Inertia [inaction]70 arose in me, and because of inertia my concentration fell away.

 

...

 

 

30.2 Anuruddhā, with this, it occurred to me:

I have abandoned these impurities of the mind. Let me now cultivate concentration in three

ways.80

31 81Then, Anuruddhā,

I cultivated concentration with initial application and sustained application.

I cultivated concentration without initial application but with sustained application only.

I cultivated concentration without initial application and without sustained application.

I cultivated concentration with zest.

I cultivated concentration without zest.

I cultivated concentration accompanied with pleasure.82

I cultivated concentration accompanied by equanimity.83

32 When, Anuruddhā,

I had cultivated concentration with initial application and sustained application;

I had cultivated concentration without initial application but with sustained application only;

I had cultivated concentration without initial application and without sustained application;

I had cultivated concentration with zest.

I had cultivated concentration without zest.

I had cultivated concentration accompanied with pleasure.

I had cultivated concentration accompanied by equanimity

the knowledge and vision arose in me:

Unshakable is my liberation! This is my last birth! There is no more rebirth here (for me).84

33 The Blessed One said this. The venerable Anuruddha joyfully approved85 of the Blessed Ones

word.

 

 

So that is how he did it..

 

One last thing I thought I'd mention.

 

Have you ever stared blankly at a scene, as if in a daze, not really thinking of anything? Have you ever noticed that when you do that that objects in your optical sphere start to disappear? Well I was listening to a podcast from Ajahn Brahm and he mentioned the same phenomenon, that when you hold the mind still, things just disappear. If you do that to thoughts, that is, you hold your inward facing attention very still without grasping or conceptualization, they disappear. If you do that to a larger space in the head, more and more of the contents of the mind disappear. That is when the light and the vision of forms appear. That is a secret you should practice...

 

Edited April 23, 2014 by Tibetan_Ice

[Andrei]

Exactly the same technique is the immortal embrio birth described in the taoist texts and also in Wang Li Ping's book. WLP works a lot with "opening the third eye" technique.

[Cheshire Cat]

Thank you Tibetan_ice.

This is an excellent thread.

 

I've read many times about seeing a bright light in meditation and visions spontaneously arising from the light.

From time to time, I get some brief vision if I reach the hypnagogic state, but in that place my mind is very scattered.

 

:-)

[xabir2005]

I've experienced bright lights as well. It's related to what Daniel Ingram describes in http://integrateddaniel.info/the-arising-and-passing-away/

Edited April 23, 2014 by xabir2005

[xabir2005]

Thank you Tibetan_ice.

This is an excellent thread.

 

I've read many times about seeing a bright light in meditation and visions spontaneously arising from the light.

From time to time, I get some brief vision if I reach the hypnagogic state, but in that place my mind is very scattered.

 

:-)

In my experience of what is called hypnogogic states, thoughts do not remain verbal or vague but projects into hyper-real sights and sounds that are as real or even more vivid than waking reality, the sights and sounds are crystal clear and if you think about a place you'll be there and sometimes if you think about a song you'll just hear the whole song with its lyrics sung so clearly and you wonder why do you remember the lyrics better in sleep than in waking.

 

It is probably in such states that the practice of visualization in many spiritual traditions succeeds.

Edited April 23, 2014 by xabir2005

[Anderson]

I've experienced bright lights as well. It's related to what Daniel Ingram describes in http://integrateddaniel.info/the-arising-and-passing-away/

 

What he describes there is life in general...

[ChiForce]

Heheeh....is a mental state induced in a Samadhi, Jhana. No secrets there....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhy%C4%81na_in_Buddhism

 

Why people don't talk about it? Well, Master Nan talked about it ALL THE TIME. Some believes that you don't need to experience Samadhi to attain any degree of enlightenment because THEY THEMSELVES CAN'T!!!!! Ridiculous!!!

Edited April 24, 2014 by ChiForce

[GrandmasterP]

Samadhi is not the ending point of our practice, but is more like a light that is turned on and illuminates our lives in new ways.

Things no longer appear the same as before when viewed from a state of Samadhi, and so we can see all that our lives contain quite differently from this alternate perspective.

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

Edited April 24, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[doc benway]

 

 

 

 

So that is how he did it..

 

 

 

 

One minor word of caution.

The Buddha did many, many things in his life.

To pick out one activity and convince yourself that this is what led to enlightenment may be a bit misleading.

If that is what worked for the Buddha, it worked in the context of his entire life.

 

Nice passage though. As luck would have it, just before reading your post, I was hanging out with a good friend who commented on the possibility that when the Buddha was practicing in a cave, he may have been practicing thogal...

 

[GrandmasterP]

One minor word of caution.

The Buddha did many, many things in his life.

To pick out one activity and convince yourself that this is what led to enlightenment may be a bit misleading.

If that is what worked for the Buddha, it worked in the context of his entire life.

 

Nice passage though. As luck would have it, just before reading your post, I was hanging out with a good friend who commented on the possibility that when the Buddha was practicing in a cave, he may have been practicing thogal...

 

 

Nah...

Bagua and QiGong for sure.

 

:-)

[rex]

I cultivated concentration with initial application and sustained application.

I cultivated concentration without initial application but with sustained application only.

I cultivated concentration without initial application and without sustained application.

I cultivated concentration with zest.

I cultivated concentration without zest.

I cultivated concentration accompanied with pleasure.

I cultivated concentration accompanied by equanimity.

 

Just an idle observation but this series of statements seems significant. I wonder what methods are associated with each line? [later edit: the Jhanas?] Unlike initial application, sustained application and zest, it's interesting to see that pleasure and equanimity once applied, continue to be applied.

Edited April 25, 2014 by rex

[Tibetan_Ice]

Ok. Here is the thing.

 

Buddha was supposed to be the 12'th Dzogchen Buddha.

 

The implication is that if Buddha became enlightened by mastering the jhanas, and Buddha was a Dzochen master, then mastering the jhanas must have led Buddha to Dzogchen.

 

Perhaps the "Lights and Visions of forms" that are part of mastering the jhanas are the same as the thogal visions. They both lead to the same place.

 

I have the Olds' book of paintings of the thogal visions and they look the same as some of the visions that I am seeing.

 

It could be idiotic to dismiss nimittas and jhanas because they may be the method that Buddha used to learn how to arrive and remain in the Primordial Wisdom.

 

Think about it.

 

[GrandmasterP]

Interview with Mr and Mrs Olds here plus some of their art...

http://www.acircleisdrawn.org/index.php/heart-essence/

 

I could live with some of those pictures for sure..

It's nice work.

Edited April 24, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[ChiForce]

Ok. Here is the thing.

 

Buddha was supposed to be the 12'th Dzogchen Buddha.

 

The implication is that if Buddha became enlightened by mastering the jhanas, and Buddha was a Dzochen master, then mastering the jhanas must have led Buddha to Dzogchen.

 

Perhaps the "Lights and Visions of forms" that are part of mastering the jhanas are the same as the thogal visions. They both lead to the same place.

 

I have the Olds' book of paintings of the thogal visions and they look the same as some of the visions that I am seeing.

 

It could be idiotic to dismiss nimittas and jhanas because they may be the method that Buddha used to learn how to arrive and remain in the Primordial Wisdom.

 

Think about it.

 

Just wait until you can enter in a samadhi in your sleep, dream. And seeing the nimitta growing like a fireball in your third eye, in your dream. At times, you may see this nimitta before or after your vision too.

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

One minor word of caution.

The Buddha did many, many things in his life.

To pick out one activity and convince yourself that this is what led to enlightenment may be a bit misleading.

If that is what worked for the Buddha, it worked in the context of his entire life.

 

You could never live my life.

 

Only I did that.

 

xxx

...

[Tibetan_Ice]

Interview with Mr and Mrs Olds here plus some of their art...

http://www.acircleisdrawn.org/index.php/heart-essence/

 

I could live with some of those pictures for sure..

It's nice work.

 

It is pretty funny too, how the Bon "white A" that you gaze at as a preliminary practice resembles the spheres that the Olds drew:

 

 

 

[ChiForce]

One minor word of caution.

The Buddha did many, many things in his life.

To pick out one activity and convince yourself that this is what led to enlightenment may be a bit misleading.

If that is what worked for the Buddha, it worked in the context of his entire life.

 

Nice passage though. As luck would have it, just before reading your post, I was hanging out with a good friend who commented on the possibility that when the Buddha was practicing in a cave, he may have been practicing thogal...

 

Are you saying this to yourself or to the OP? The OP said that he experienced the nimitta and various jhana states as the Buddha has....I too, and as well as many enlightened immortals have experienced. Therefore, that's the path Buddha and many others (the OP and myself) have been following. The Buddha isn't an exception. The problem is that exceptions are made to those who don't follow the same path!!!!

[gendao]

Hmm...

In such near-death reports, a common initial experience is usually described as a meeting with an all-pervading, glowing luminosity. Often those who have been resuscitated from near-death states, at the time of entering into this radiant expanse of light, also describe experiencing an extraordinary sense of completeness and contentment and a sense of being enveloped by a loving presence. In the Buddhist view, the moment of death is the moment when the mind returns to its own natural state. All conceptual states are dissolved.

Just as in deep meditation, we experience the actual nature of our own pure awareness, an all-pervading sense of contentment, and the deeply peaceful warmth of boundless compassion.

As soon as your respiration ceases, the luminosity known as "the inner radiance of the first intermediate state," which your spiritual teacher formerly introduced to you, will arise.

At the same time, a naked awareness will arise, not extraneous to yourself, but radiant, empty and without horizon or center.

This phase in the process of death is called "the inner radiance of reality during the first intermediate state." It is the unique and incontrovertible enlightened intention of the Buddha-body of Reality, which arises in the minds of all living beings.

O Child of Buddha Nature, this radiant essence that is now your conscious awareness is a brilliant emptiness.

This intrinsic awareness, manifest in a great mass of light, in which radiance and emptiness are indivisible, is the buddha nature of unchanging light, beyond birth or death.

Edited April 24, 2014 by vortex

[ChiForce]

Hmm...

Is also called the Bardo meditation....guiding the deceased how to recognize the light during the intermediate state between death and rebirth....

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

 

Bull Z EYE!

 

...

Edited April 24, 2014 by Captain Mar-Vell

[doc benway]

Are you saying this to yourself or to the OP?

 

You be the judge, if you care to.

[Tibetan_Ice]

I found some comments about this topic.

I am inclined to believe that this writer misses the point that Buddha realized that not everyone had their divine eye open therefore he tailored his teachings relative to the capacities of his audience. However, this writer, although trying to cast doubt upon the "divine eye" methodology, never disproves it.

 

http://measurelessmind.ca/nimitta.html

 

The Nimitta of Jhāna

 

Depending upon the context in which the term is used, nimitta can refer to either (i) a cause, or (ii) a mental representation. MN 44 tells us that one of the four applications of mindfulness is the nimitta which serves as the cause for the eventual elimination of the five hindrances and, beyond that, the arising of the five concomitant mental factors of the first jhāna. And according to AN 9.35, the nimitta as the mental representation of the first jhāna is the presence of these same five concomitant jhāna factors. AN 9.35 states that this nimitta is to be developed, pursued, and established. And when properly engaged, these five factors work in consort to refine and maintain what DN 9 calls an actual refined recognition of joy and pleasure born of seclusion (vivekajapītisukhasukhumasaccasaññā).

 

Therefore, according to the earliest strata of the Pāḷi dhamma there is no need to establish a jhāna nimitta (or samathanimitta or cittanimitta) apart from the jhāna factors. The various practices categorized under the four applications of mindfulness are the samādhinimittas which serve as the cause of jhāna. The concomitant jhāna factors themselves are the nimitta which is the cognitive sign of having attained the first jhāna. This doesnt mean that one abandons the object-support (ārammaṇa), such as the representation of the breath, when the jhāna factors arise. It just means that the most reliable and accurate sign of jhāna is the presence of the jhāna factors, and not any other phenomena.

 

That said, some contemporary teachers and commentators have suggested that the representation of light (obhāsanimitta) and the representation of form (rūpanimitta) mentioned in MN 128 Upakkilesa Sutta are canonical references to what later came to be designated as the counterpart representation (paṭibhāganimitta) in the commentaries, and thus establishes that these nimittas were considered an essential aspect of the development of jhāna even in the early tradition.

There are a couple of points worth mentioning in this regard. Firstly, MN 128 is the only discourse where the term nimitta is used in this context. None of the other canonical occurrences of nimitta as either samādhinimitta, samatha nimitta, or cittanimitta refer to any of these nimittas being an obhāsanimitta or rūpanimitta as explained in the Upakkilesa Sutta.

 

Secondly, nowhere in the Upakkilesa Sutta does it state that either the obhāsanimitta or the rūpanimitta are essential prerequisites for attaining the first jhāna. Nor does this sutta maintain that the complete elimination of any experience of the five sensory spheres is essential for the arising of either of these two mental representations. Therefore, while these representations of light and visions of form can occur during the course of meditational development, there is no explicit statement here, or elsewhere in the suttas, that such representations must arise for one to enter jhāna. Indeed, even the commentarial tradition doesnt maintain that either of these types of nimittas are essential for the first jhāna.

 

For example, the Vimuttimagga takes the instructions offered in the Upakkilesa Sutta to refer to the development of the divine eye. This is understandable, as Anuruddhā, the main interlocutor in this discourse with the Buddha, was later designated as the foremost disciple endowed with the divine eye.

 

And not even the Visuddhimagga limits counterpart representations to those of light or visionary forms. According to the Visuddhimagga analysis, of the thirty meditations which lead to jhāna, twenty-two have counterpart representations as object. And of these, only nineteen require any sort of counterpart representation which is apprehended based solely on sight, and can therefore give rise to a mental image resulting from that nimitta (the ten stages of corpse decomposition and nine kasiṇas, excluding the air kasiṇa which can be apprehended by way of either sight or tactual sensation).

 

And so taking all of the above into consideration, according to the early Pāḷi dhamma there is no need to establish a jhāna nimitta (or samathanimitta or cittanimitta) apart from the jhāna factors. And even according to the Vimuttimagga and Visuddhimagga where the presentation of the method using a counterpart representation is explicitly developed there is no suggestion that a counterpart representation necessarily must be a representation of light (obhāsanimitta) or a representation of form (rūpanimitta). Indeed, according to the Vimuttimagga, when employing mindfulness of breathing in order to attain jhāna, the counterpart representation should be concomitant with the pleasant feeling which arises as one attends to the breath at the nostril area or the area of the upper lip, which is likened to the pleasant feeling produced by a breeze. The text says that this counterpart representation doesnt depend on color or form, and any adventitious mental images which arise in the course of practice should not be attended to.

 

The writer claims that the proper method of breath meditation is to focus on the sensations that occur at the nostrils.

It is funny because Ajahn Brahm says that one should not focus at he nostrils because that just becomes "nose meditation".

Rather, Ajahn Brahm says that one should focus on the part of the mind that "knows" the breathing and cultivate the beautiful breath...

 

It is too bad that there are so many differing versions of anapanasati or Buddhas breath meditation.

One has to rely on what works for them based on trial and error.

 

Is the Vimuttimagga worth reading?

 

[GrandmasterP]

Less reading more sitting.

Trust me.

I'm a doctor.

 

:-)

Edited April 30, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[doc benway]

 

The writer claims that the proper method of breath meditation is to focus on the sensations that occur at the nostrils.

This is a very widely used method and is excellent for beginners.

 

It is funny because Ajahn Brahm says that one should not focus at he nostrils because that just becomes "nose meditation".

Rather, Ajahn Brahm says that one should focus on the part of the mind that "knows" the breathing and cultivate the beautiful breath...

Once the mental activity is a bit more tranquil, this method becomes more accessible.

This is simply another form of shamatha.

 

 

It is too bad that there are so many differing versions of anapanasati or Buddhas breath meditation.

I would say that it is wonderful that there are differing versions.

This supports the practice of people with different aptitudes.

 

One has to rely on what works for them based on trial and error.

Or a teacher….

 

There is nothing more valuable than having confidence in the method.

Otherwise, commitment and dedication wane over time.

Trial and error is not an efficient or expedient method for spiritual practice, IMO.

Human life is too rare and far too short.

[Tibetan_Ice]

Less reading more sitting.

Trust me.

I'm a doctor.

 

:-)

A doctor of what? Skepticism?

 

Just read your other post where you say

 

Belief is a slippery concept and religion has always been popular.

Buddha never started a religion.

That was the sutra n scriptures guys who came after the lad himself had passed over who began cashing in on Brand Buddhism.

The religious guys, who pulled the old switch and pitch game on those four noble truths; changed them from their original cultivation tips into four propositions of fact 'to be believed in'.

Each 'truth' simply requires being acted on ( cultivated)...

1: Understand anguish.

2: Let go of its origins.

3: Realise its cessation.

4: Cultivate the paths ( Those 8 'noble' jobs).

 

It's all about cultivation - 'doing'.

Buddha wasn't a mystic and his awakening wasn't some shattering insight into Transcendent Truth ( whetever that might be).

The lad himself never claimed to have had any experience that granted him privileged, esoteric 'knowledge' of how the universe ticks.

All that schtick and mystic woo BS was ( and still is) down to the religious lads who came after Buddha.

When the lad told the five ascetics what his awakening meant he just said that he'd discovered complete freedom of heart and mind from the COMPULSIONS of craving.

That was it.

Job jobbed.

Everything else is just marketing and 'dressing up box' nonsense.

Edited by GrandmasterP, Today, 05:30 PM.

 

 

It appears you don't trust much of anything and do not have sufficient experiences to bolster your trust.

Yet you have the audacity to tell me to trust you based on the idea that you are a doctor?

I hope you resolve your mental imprisonment, if not in this eon, perhaps in the next.

 

::