Today is celebrated by many buddhists as the day that Siddhartha reached enlightenment and became the Buddha.
In the beginning, Siddhartha was born a prince. Some maintain that he was the incarnation of this, that, or the other, but don’t buy into it. Siddhartha was human, just like any of us. His destiny and our own are no different.
As Siddhartha grew older, he became highly skilled in the affairs of royalty. He was a brilliant scholar, a talented warrior, and a man of honest justice. He even had a wife and son.
But one day as Siddhartha ventured beyond the palace, he came into contact with three things for the first time: old age, sickness, and death. These things impacted Siddhartha strongly, as it would any honest man of intelligence. Sure his life was wonderful, but what significance could such a life have if it always ended in weakness and oblivion?
On his way back to the palace, he beheld a sadhu. Sadhus were a kind of wandering monk in India. The sadhu was old but had an otherworldly dignity to himself. Something about it glowed with recognition in Siddhartha’s heart.
The next day he left his wife, child, and kingdom behind. He walked off wearing rags and wandering down the road with the other sadhus.
While Siddhartha was firm in his desire for the ultimate, he didn’t know the way to get there. He met gurus and teachers, journeyed and meditated. He learned how to become the birds and listen to the earth. But enlightenment was never to be found where he looked.
Finally one day Siddhartha sat below a tree in frustration. He vowed not to move from the spot until he had discovered the end of suffering and the face of existence. And as he sat there, the Devil came. The Devil brought violent demons and sexy angels, horrific sights and worldly temptations. Siddhartha watched and yet remained unmoved. He let the angels tempt him, he allowed the demons to cut him down.
Until one moment Siddhartha disappeared and became stillness itself. If we could call Siddhartha a wavy lake, we might call the Buddha a peacefully still ocean. When the waves of Siddhartha smoothed, Buddha emerged.
The Devil himself questioned the Buddha’s enlightenment and demanded, “Who will attest to your enlightenment?”
Buddha touched the earth with his right hand and all of existence sang its reply.
This is a beautiful story we relive every time we sit for meditation. Wherever we sit, we are Siddhartha beneath the Bodhi tree. We vow never to arise from the meditation until the truth has revealed itself or our prescribed time has run out. The Devil in this story is our mind. Our mind brings to us our desires and fears, hopes and aversions, and so much other junk. But Siddhartha did nothing to conquer them. He didn’t fight nor did he take a higher road. He sat.
So on today of all days, try some meditation. Have your own rebellious adventure into enlightenment, even if it’s only for a few minutes. On Bodhi Day we can acknowledge the Buddha within and the Siddhartha without. While the journey is one we ultimately take alone, in some way we are all on it together.
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