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Exactly how long Siddhartha meditated beneath the Bodhi
Tree will never be known. It might have been many days. How-
ever long he remained at a level of concentration deeper than any
human had ever experienced, he eventually managed to return
to waking consciousness. According to tradition, he opened his
eyes on May 25, 528 BCE. Behind those eyes now resided a
newly awakened intellect of astonishing breadth and depth. The
former Prince Siddhartha had finally realized the reasons for hu-
man suffering and thereby had been transformed into the Bud-
dha, the Enlightened One (or Awakened One).
Beyond All Life and Death
The Buddha now realized that human suffering is very often the
result of arrogance, greed, and self-indulgence. People with those
traits usually think primarily of their own comforts and tend to col-
lect material goods to maintain those comforts, he concluded.
In the meantime, they give less and less thought to treating oth-
ers justly and to eradicating poverty and human misery. He also
realized that conceit and greed and the ills they bring about are
not inevitable. Well-meaning people
can
overcome them, he said,
and he conceived of a means of doing just that. It is a code, or
system, of righteous conduct and rules that he called the Eight-
fold Path, or Middle Way.
A few weeks after envisioning these profound concepts, the
Buddha decided to share them with others. First he sought out
five monks whom he had briefly encountered in his travels. As he
approached them, they immediately noticed that he had changed.
They detected something noble about his demeanor and a look
of high intelligence in his eyes. Sitting down with them, he told
them, “I have the way to [ultimate wisdom]. Let me tell you, let me
teach you. And if you listen and learn and practice as I tell you,
very soon you will know for yourselves, not in some future life but
here and now in this present lifetime, that what I say is true. You
will realize for yourself the state [of goodness] that is beyond all
life and death.”
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The five monks eagerly accepted the Buddha’s teachings and
thereby became his first five followers. He gathered many more
devotees in the months and years that followed as the news of
his enlightenment spread through northern India. In village after
