Enlightenment (Buddhism)
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In Buddhism, enlightenment is when a Buddhist discovers the truth about life.
[change] Method
Buddhists find this during meditation (or deep thought) deep concentration, clear their minds.
[change] Experiences
Siddhartha Gautama left the palace on the day his son was born and went to seek the Shramana teachers. On his way, he saw a poor man, an old man, a corpse and finally a sadu (holy man). This made the Buddha believe that material goods mean little since we all die eventually and although this sadu had almost nothing he was still content.
The Buddha reached his goal of enlightenment after meditating for forty days under his bodi tree. This idea came to him after the ascetic ways of the Shramana teachers had failed to work for him and he remembered sitting under a tree as a child. During this time he learned of his past lives and saw the past lives of other people. Siddhartha Gautama became enlightened at the age of 35 and was called the Buddha (the enlightened one).
During his enlightenment he pointed towards the earth as a witness of his enlightenment, he was offered to be free from nirvana but his decision was to stay on earth and teach others the ways of the buddha. After his teachings, he died at the age of 80.