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| What is "enlightenment" (bodhi)? (ceflrdhn.blob.core.windows.net) |
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| Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva |
Buddhism teaches that it is possible for all of us to “awaken” and reach “enlightenment.” This is the realization of wisdom that puts an end to the cycle of samsara or the endless round of rebirths -- and with it all suffering and ignorance.
Full enlightenment is the highest state of spiritual awakening and liberation from the cycle of pain and suffering inherent in rebirth. Above all, enlightenment is the summit of the Buddhist path to freedom. Enlightenment is bodhi in Pali and Sanskrit, which may also be rendered awakening. It is penetrating the depth of the four ennobling (enlightening) truths the Buddha laid out as fundamental: problem, cause, solution, antidote.
If the problem is PAIN of all kinds, the cause is ignorance (which is linked to craving and fear/aversion), and the prognosis is good that there is a cure, which is this Enlightening (Noble) Eightfold Path. The Four Noble Truths are not articles of faith but truths to penetrate, for until we see just what "suffering" is and how widespread, we will not even think to find a cause or seek an escape.
Seeing suffering and its cause(s) and seeing that there is a solution, the Buddha points the way to our own awakening. No one can awaken for another.
"No one saves us but ourselves,
No one can and no one may;
We ourselves must walk the path;
Buddhas only point the way."
- Video: Buddha's Wisdom; Text: Wisdom Quarterly rewritten definition of ceflrdhn.blob.core.windows.net
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