What was the Sacred Enlightened
Download from The Buddha?

Before we dive into HOW Buddha actually became Enlightened, it's important to understand what the word "Buddha" actually means. Siddhartha Gautama was Buddha's real name from birth. He was a very wealthy prince who had everything a man could imagine in life. Yet, he was not happy, so he left his wife, child and gave up his entire kingdom to discover how to be free from suffering. Siddhartha wanted to know what was beyond death, and how to find the greatest truth of life and living.

The world Buddha was a name given to Siddhartha by his disciples which means  "awakened being". One who is no longer sleeping through life, aware of who they are, living each moment in the moment, conscious of where they are directing their mind in every new moment, staying constantly open and receptive to life, and deeply present to the entire Universe.

This divine awakened state of consciousness is not supernatural. It is your pure and all natural state. You were born as a conscious being who is already awake, aware and present to this moment.  All children are born Buddhas. They simply forget their enlightened nature as parents, siblings, and society's unawakened beings imprint their conditioning on each child 

Siddhartha's enlightenment was not completely rare. There have been many thousand beings in history books who were able to peel back the veil of illusion and suffering and become free from samsara.

Siddhartha reached his enlightenment through a constant state of self-inquiry and deep meditation. He renounced his attachment to the world, to his possessions and all of his blood based relationships.  He wandered the forest and hung out with a group of Sadhus who were also seeking the same enlightened state.

It happened one night, deep in his aloneness he found something inside him (like a spark of infinite light) which made him realize he was not this body, mind, emotions or thoughts. In one instant everything changed for him. He dropped his ego/identity in this world and experienced enlightenment. Siddhartha experienced the truth of his spiritual essence. The light of pure awareness, that is deeply aware of all that is, and the truth of what we all are.

In his self-realized enlightened state he was aware of what was awake inside him, and that this awakened state has nothing to do with the passing thoughts/desires of the mind. By integrating this understanding he became a Buddha!

The enlightenment of Buddha is a piercing through the mind. Through many many hours of sitting with the mind in silence, his mind finally dropped. The mind came to a complete stop and he become completely aware of his senses, feelings, thoughts, and every subtle experience that was moving through him. This was what happened in Buddha's Enlightenment.

How to Remove the Mind and Experience Buddha's Enlightenment

  I (Jafree) can only write this information here with some authority and confidence because I was blessed to have a glimpse of Samadhi Consciousness when I was 25 years old that changed my entire life.  Although it only lasted a few months, the glimpse was enough to realize that anything is possible, and nothing in this Universe is the way we believe it is.

If the Siddhartha was alive in the 21st century, I believe this is how he would explain his enlightenment. He would first explain to you that when the mind is silent there is only peace inside. There is also more awareness of life, more aliveness, and the feeling of a deep loving awareness in all that we do. Accepting this truth, you can come to understand that you are not your mind, and you already are a living breathing Buddha.

As long as your are following your mind around you will remain asleep. The mind will try and trick you into believing all sorts of crazy things. The mind will cover you with labels, limiting your divine expression and everyone around you. It will say you are smart, stupid, great, pathetic, happy, sad, grounded and then make you go crazy. It will make up all kinds of fascinating wonderful and horrific stories about yourself.  This keeps you spiritually asleep (addicted to the mind).

You may have been asleep for sooooo many lifetimes that you are strongly conditioned to believe that you are not a Buddha. You may believe you cannot become spiritually awake because of some horrific past, or some challenging story you have about you. The veil of societal conditioning is thick in the mind.

There have been many layers of ideas and beliefs cast over you throughout your life. These ideas are blocking your pure awareness from being known. It's kind of like how you can block out the magnificent full moon by holding one little finger in front of it.

Imagine that your mind is like your thumb that is raised up to the night sky, and is blocking out the entire glorious full moon. The moon is there, yet you cannot see it anymore, just a halo of it.

The mind works in this way. It's blocking you from seeing, realizing and feeling the infinite Source of light that is blazing within your innermost being. To remove the mind is to come back to the present moment, and naturally we realize our Buddha nature. Every human being is potentially an awakened "Buddha", yet their mind is still seeking enlightenment in something "out there" instead of realizing the light of Buddha Consciousness is already on inside you!

On your journey towards enlightenment, you must be infinitely patient with yourself and with this process of quieting the mind. There must truly be a feeling like you have an infinite amount of time to find, discover and explore this enlightenment within you. You must know that through infinite patience it can and will be done. You must learn to step back from time, from achieving anything, and just watch the mind.

The mind is very stubborn, cunning, clever and tricky. There are 1,000,001 distractions that will pull you into your mind and away from this brilliant light of awareness inside. You might catch a small short glimpse of your inner light in meditation, then the mind will take over again and again. This swinging pendulum from awareness to unawareness will occur many many times on the journey to full awakening.

The secret to success is keeping your childlike curiosity alive and resilient. You must also keep your body strong, healthy, clean and exercised. Lastly, there must be an awareness of WHO or WHAT is this master behind the vehicle. Who is driving the body to do what it does, and the mind to think what it thinks. 

My best advice is to get super curious about these things and relax as much as possible into the stillness beneath the mind. There you will find the great Buddha's enlightenment, which is the exact same quality and recognition that your enlightenment will have as well.

"You are a Buddha. There is nobody higher than you, and nobody lower than you. You don't have to worship anybody and you don't have to accept anybody's worship. This whole existence is equally divine." ~ Osho
 

The following words were taken from one of the original sources of the Buddha's teachings (The Tipitaka) which was written around 80 B.C.  Enjoy!