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Bodhi Leaf (Enlightened under Bodhi Tree)

Khyaiktyo Pagoda (miracle defying gravity), Myanmar

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Honour to the Blessed One, the Exalted One, the fully and perfectly Enlightened One

Fundamendals of the laws of existence.

Anicca Impermanence or Change Dukkha Unsatisfactoriness (ill) Anatta Not-self or Insubstantiality

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Enlightenment of Buddha

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The nine supreme attributes of the Lord Buddha and eighteen special qualities of the Buddha.


DEVELOPMENT OF THE THREE-FOLD KNOWLEDGE AND ENLIGHTENMENT BY BUDDHA 
GOTAMA 
In seeking the truth and to find a way to end all pain and suffering in the world, the Bodhisatta
or Buddha-to-be sat under a Bodhi tree and made a strong determination to find a way to end all 
sorrow. When the Buddha-to-be went into deep meditation, He was able to see things as they  
truly were and found the cause of all sorrows :

During the First Watch of the Night (Pubbe Nivasanussati Nana)
During the first watch of the night, He developed the mind of that supernormal knowledge which enabled Him to remember His past lives.

In the Middle Watch of the Night (Cutupapata Nana)
In the middle watch of the night, He gained clairvoyance, the knowledge to understand the death and rebirth of living beings.

In the Last Watch of the Night (Asavakkhaya Nana)
In the last watch of the night, He developed the supernormal knowledge with regard to destruction of all mental defilements and comprehending 
everything as they truly are, attained Perfect Enlightenment – Samma Sambodhi.

As the morning star appeared in the eastern sky, the Buddha-to-be became a Buddha, a Fully-Enlightened One and was named Buddha Gotama.

1. ARAHAM means the Buddha had eradicated all the defilements.

2. SAMMA-SAMBUDDHO means the Lord Buddha is the Perfectly Enlightened One because He has known
all things (Nyeyadhamma) rightly by Himself.

3. VIJJA -CARANA-SAMPANO means knowledge and conduct, or theory and practice; the Buddha is
endowed with both. He says as He acts and He does what He says.

4. SUGATO means a great speaker, who is adept in the art of choosing the right words, saying
them at the right time, and in such a way as will benefit the listener. The Buddha was a master of that.

5. LOKAVIDU means the person who knows about the world.

6. ANUTTARO PURISA DHAMMA-SARATHI means He is a peerless charioteer to tame men

7. SATTA DEVA-MANUSSANAM means the teacher of devas (Gods) and men

8. BUDDHO means the Lord has discovered the Four Noble Truths by Himself and awakened others
too, thus He is enlightened

9. BHAGAVA means the Lord Buddha is called The Glorious because he is associated with glory.

The Eighteen Unshared Features of a Buddha

The Six Unshared Features Grouped under a Buddha’s Behavior.

1. A Buddha’s physical composure can never be ruffled. Wherever he goes and whatever he meets, he is never fooled by appearances.
He is always calm and clear.

2. A Buddha’s enlightening speech never cries out or makes meaningless sounds. No matter what happens, he is never shocked or
surprised, and never exclaims anything in anger, pain, or pleasure. Furthermore, a Buddha does not have any melodies, songs,
or meaningless phrases compulsively going through his head, and he never mindlessly hums or mutters to himself.

3. An omniscient Buddha’s enlightening mind never forgets anything or anyone.

4. There is never a time when his mind is not totally absorbed on voidness.

5. He never has even the slightest recognition or feeling of anything existing in a way other than the way in which it actually
exists. Having rid himself of his cognitive obscurations concerning all knowables, he never experiences his mind giving rise to
discordant, deceptive appearances of true existence.

6. A Buddha is never so indifferent as not to check on others. He always cares about everyone equally and keeps a constant watch
to see who is ready to make spiritual progress so as to help him or her accordingly. When someone is ripe, he never forgets to
show him or her the way.

The Six Unshared Features Grouped under a Buddha’s Realizations

7. His intention to help everyone never declines. This is due to the force of his great compassion, as he cares for everyone as
a mother would for her only child.

8. His joyful perseverance to help everyone never declines. He is never reluctant to go anywhere or do anything, even for the
sake of one wandering being.

9. His mindfulness of everyone’s situation never declines. It requires no effort for an omniscient one to be aware of all beings.
His awareness is like an enormous clear mirror reflecting the total extent of what exists.

10. His absorbed concentration never declines. He is always totally focused on voidness, no matter what he does. In the list of
these unshared features given in The Furthest Everlasting Continuum, this feature is omitted and replaced by the fact that the
sight of his deep awareness, which is utterly freed from all mental obscuration, never declines.

11. His discriminating awareness of voidness never declines.

12. His state of being utterly freed from the two types of mental obscuration never declines.

The Three Unshared Features Grouped under a Buddha’s Enlightening Influence

All the actions of a Buddha’s enlightening (13) physical, (14) verbal, and (15) mental faculties are preceded upon and carried
through with deep awareness.

The Three Unshared Features Grouped under a Buddha’s Deep Awareness

A Buddha’s deep awareness permeates everything, in seeing (16) the time already-passed, (17) the time not-yet-come, and
(18) the time presently-happening, all without any attachment or impediment.

SIX KINDS OF INCOMPARABLE KNOWLEDGE OF THE BUDDHA (ASADHARANA NANA)

1. Indriya Paro Pariyatti Nana
The Buddha’s senses are purified (freed from all defilements) and are always  directed towards through the five virtues 
of confidence (saddha), mindfulness (sati), calmness (samadhi) energy (viriya) and wisdom  (panna). His realisation of 
all these qualities enabled Him to see the purity and impurity of others’ minds and to preach the Dhamma for their 
benefit.

2. Asayanusaya Nana
Before He preached, the Buddha had the supernormal power to understand and to analyse the mental attitude of the 
people – their understanding capacity, their mental background, hindrances and development , their capability or 
otherwise of realisng the Dhamma and their characters and habits carried over from previous births in samsara.

3. Yamaka Patihariya Nana
The Buddha had the supernormal power to perform the twin miracle of radiating red and white rays from His body 
simultaneously (often interpreted as fire and water). On rare occasions He performed this miracle through His jhanic 
power to confound those who were devious, conceited and skeptical. The Buddha did not generally resort to miracles to 
convert others and actively discouraged His disciples from performing them to prove the superiority of His Teachings.

4. Maha Karuna Samapatti Nana
The Buddha has great compassion to liberate others’ suffering. His compassion is boundless (permeating the entire 
universe) and beyond comparison with any other teacher.

5. Sabbannuta Nana
The Buddha is all knowing and there is nothing in the universe He cannot understand, whether in the past, the present or 
the future.

6. Anavarana Nana
The Buddha’s enlightened mind is luminous, unobstructed and profound to realise the real nature of everything in the 
universe.

TEN KINDS OF SUPERNORMAL POWERS OF THE BUDDHA’S ENLIGHTENMENT ((DASA BALA))

By way of analogy, the supernormal powers gained by the Buddha upon His Enlightenment when compared with other 
spiritual leaders are like that of the sunlight placed against moonlight; the light of stars and the light of 
an oil lamp. The brilliance of sunlight which leaves no object unseen, Is all pervasive and illuminating:

1. The insight or ability to know what is possible and what is impossible; the knowledge of how things come into 
    existence, their causes and how they disappear.

2. The insight to see the inner workings of the web of kammic effects and their fruition; how a kammic effect inevitably 
     ripens, is averted, is counteracted or minimised according to the interaction and intensity of the three evil roots of 
     greed (lobha), hatred (dosa) and delusion (moha) along with their opposing virtues or antidotes of liberality (alobha), 
     loving-kindness (adosa) and right view (amoha) and to understand certain worldly conditions which hinder or favour 
     the operation of kammic effect, good and bad.

3. The insight to understand how one particular kammic action such as killing (panatipata) or liberality (dana) 
    performed, conditions rebirth dependent on each person’s intention (cetana) when the idea of doing that particular 
    action is implanted.

4. The insight to know how animate and inanimate objects and the world systems exist according to the combination 
     of the five aggregates and the four elements of solidity, fluidity, motion and heat.

5. The insight to know how people maintain differing characters, likes and dislikes as a flow-over (continuum) 
    of their habits and mental tendencies from their previous births in samsara.

6. The insight to preach efficaciously according to the understanding capacity of the listener, often resulting 
    in instantaneous enlightenment.

7. The insight to prescribe the right objects of meditation by knowing the different mental defilements or 
     hindrances prevailing in the mind of the meditator at that moment of time to gain ecstasy (jhana).

8. The supernormal power to recall His previous lives and those of others.

9. The insight to understand how the rebirth of individuals takes place according to their kamma.

10. The insight to know how He gained His mental development, purity and enlightenment by a process of eradicating
      all His mental impurities and developing only virtues.

Ref. “The Buddha – Great Teacher of Gods and Men” published by Mahindarama Dhamma Publication for free distribution 
         to the Buddhist community

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta:
Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth at Varanasi, in the Game Refuge at Isipatana, the Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by priest or contemplative, deva, Mara or anyone in the cosmos. Thus at that very moment, at that instant, the cry (that the Wheel of Truth is set in motion) spread as far as Brahma realm, the system of ten thousand worlds trembled and quaked and shook. A boundless sublime radiance surpassing the effulgence (power) of devas appeared in the world.
Thus have I heard,
Once when the Blessed One was staying in the pleasance of Isipatana, the deer sanctuary near Benares, he spoke to the group of five bhikkhus: “These two extremes, bhikkhus, should not be followed by one who has gone forth from worldly life: sensual indulgence, low, coarse, vulgar, ignoble, unprofitable, and self-torture, painful, ignoble, unprofitable. Bhikkhus, the middle way, understood by the Tathāgata, after he had avoided the extremes, produces vision, produces knowledge, and leads to calm, penetration, enlightenment, nibbāna.
What middle way, bhikkhus, understood by the Tathāgata, produces vision, produces knowledge and leads to calm. penetration, enlightenment, nibbāna ? Only this noble eightfold path, namely,
right understanding—Sammā Diṭṭhi
right thought—Sammā Saṅkappa
right speech—Samma Vācā
right action—Sammā Kammanta
right livelihood—Sammā Ājīva
right effort—Samma Vāyāma
right mindfulness—Samma Sati
right concentration—Samma Samādhi
Truly bhikkhus, this middle way understood by the Tathāgata produces vision, produces knowledge, and leads to calm, penetration, enlightenment, nibbāna. This, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of ill: birth is ill, decay is ill, disease is ill, death is ill, association with the unloved is ill, separation from the loved is ill, not to get what one wants is ill, in short the five aggregates of grasping are ill.
This, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the source of ill: the craving which causes rebirth is accompanied by passionate pleasure, and takes delight in this and that object, namely sensuous craving, craving for existence and craving for annihilation.
This, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the cessation of ill (nibbāna): the complete cessation, giving up, abandonment of that craving, complete release from that craving and complete detachment from it.
This, bhikkhus is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of ill (noble eightfold path); only this noble eightfold path namely, right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.
1. With the thought: “This is the noble truth of ill”, there arose in me, bhikkhus, vision, knowledge, insight, wisdom, light, concerning things unknown before.
2. With the thought, “This is the noble truth of ill, and this ill has been understood,” there arose in me, bhikkhus, vision, knowledge, insight, wisdom, fight, concerning things unknown before.
3. With the thought, “This is the noble truth of ill, and this ill has been understood”, there arose in me, bhikkhus, vision, knowledge, insight, wisdom, light, concerning things unknown before.
4. With the thought, “This is the noble truth of the source of ill”, there arose in me, bhikkhus, vision, knowledge, insight, wisdom, light, concerning things unknown before.
5. With the thought, “This is the noble truth of the source of ill, and this source of ill has to be abandoned”, there arose in me, bhikkhus, vision, knowledge, insight, wisdom, light, concerning things unknown before.
6. With the thought, “This is the noble truth of the source of ill, and this source of ill has been abandoned”, there arose in me, bhikkhus, vision, knowledge, insight, wisdom, light, concerning things unknown before.
7. With the thought, “This is the noble truth of the cessation of ill”, there arose in me bhikkhus, vision, knowledge, insight, wisdom, light, concerning things unknown before.
8. With the thought, “This is the noble truth of the cessation of ill, and this cessation of ill has to be realised”, there arose in me, bhikkhus, vision, knowledge, insight, wisdom, light, concerning things unknown before.
9. With the thought, “This is the noble truth of ill, and this cessation of ill has been realised”, there arose in me, bhikkhus, vision, knowledge, insight, wisdom, light, concerning things unknown before.
10. With the thought, “This is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of ill”, there arose in me, bhikkhus, vision, knowledge, insight, wisdom, light, concerning things unknown before.
11. With the thought, “This is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of ill, and this way has to be developed”, there arose in me, bhikkhus, vision, knowledge, insight, wisdom light, concerning things unknown before.
12. With the thought, This is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of ill, and this way has been developed”, there arose in me bhikkhus, vision, knowledge, insight, wisdom, light, concerning things unknown before.
So long, bhikkhus, as my knowledge, and vision of reality regarding these four noble truths, in three phases and twelve ways, was not fully clear to me, I did not declare to the world with its devas and māras, to the mass of beings with its devas and humans, that I understood incomparable, perfect enlightenment.
But when, bhikkhus, as my knowledge, and vision of reality regarding these four noble truths, in three phases and twelve ways, was fully clear to me, I declared to the world with its devas and māras, to the mass of beings with its devas and humans that I understood incomparable, perfect enlightenment.
Knowledge and vision arose in me. Unshakable is the deliverance of my mind; this is the last birth, now there will be no birth. Thus spoke the Blessed One and the group of five bhikkhus glad at heart approved of the words of the Blessed One.
As this exposition was proceeding the passionfree stainless view of truth appeared to the Venerable Koṇḍañña, and he knew “Everything that has the nature of arising, has the nature of ceasing”.
When the Blessed One set in motion the Wheel of Dhamma, the Bhummattha devas proclaimed with one voice “The incomparable Wheel of Dhamma is turned by the Blessed One at Isipatana, the deer sanctuary near Benares, and no recluse, brahmin, deva, mara, brahma, or other being in the world can stop it”.
The Cātummahārājika devas having heard what the Bhummattha devas said, proclaimed with one voice, “The incomparable Wheel of Dhamma is turned by the Blessed One at Isipatana, the deer sanctuary near Benares, and no recluse, brahmin, deva, mara, brahma, or other being in the world can stop it”.
This utterance was echoed and re-echoed in the upper realms and from Cātummahārājika, it was proclaimed in Tāvatiṃsa, Yāma, thence to Tusita, Nimmānaratī and to Paranimmitavasavattī. The Brahmakāyika devas, having heard what the Paranimmitavasavattī devas said, proclaimed in one voice, “The incomparable Wheel of Dhamma is turned by the Blessed One at Isipatana, the deer sanctuary near Benares, and no recluse, brahmin, deva, māra, brahmā, or other being in the world can stop it.”
Thus in a moment, an instant, a flash, word of the Turning of the Wheel of Dhamma went forth up to the World of Brahmā and the system of ten thousand worlds trembled and quaked and shook.
A boundless, sublime radiance, surpassing the power of devas, appeared on earth. Then the Blessed One made the utterance, “Truly Koṇḍañña has understood, Koṇḍañña has understood.” Thus it was that the Venerable Koṇḍañña got the name Koṇḍañña the wise.