..续本文上一页essary to seek and rediscover the technique. Had Vipassana been available at the time, there would have been no need to rediscover it.

　　However, an Enlightened One arises only at a time when the technique of Vipassana is lost and only various jhānas (absorption or concentration techniques, encompassing mundane jhānas up to the eighth jhāna) remain. These jhānas are also to be found within ourselves and can be misleading and delusionary. People take the bliss of any one of these jhānas to be the ultimate happiness, and do not practise to go beyond it. The technique of Vipassana that takes one to the state beyond the mundane field of all senses, including the mind, gets lost. A Bodhisatta rediscovers it through his own efforts.

　　It is also worth noting that after witnessing the three miserable states of life, Prince Siddhattha saw a samaṇa (an ascetic, especially one who believes in his own efforts for liberation). It is possible that the Prince—tormented by his comprehension of the misery inherent in the three states—spoke to this samaṇa who appeared so serene. The Prince might have learned from the ascetic that the ultimate truth is to be sought within oneself. However, one has to practise methodically, by following a systematic meditation technique. It cannot be done merely by staying at home. To practise it, one needed to leave the household life and go to various teachers of the Samaṇa tradition.

　　The influence of the Samaṇa tradition was very evident in Kapilavatthu at the time of the Buddha. It had pagodas commemorating two of the three Buddhas before Gotama Buddha in this eon (Kakusandha and Koṇāgamana). Although Vipassana meditation of the Samaṇa tradition had been forgotten by that time, various concentration techniques (jhānas) had continued. Āḷāra Kālāma of the Kālāma republic, which lay to the east of Sākyan kingdom, was a famous teacher of jhānas. While the main centre of his teaching was in Magadha, there was a branch in Kapilavatthu also. Prince Siddhattha might have learned from the samaṇa he encountered that Āḷāra Kālāma was staying in Magadha at that time.

　　To learn the technique of introspection, it was necessary for Prince Siddhattha to leave home. So he went to Magadha to learn absorption concentrations up to the seventh jhāna. Through this practice, he experienced the bliss of deep absorption but not of ultimate liberation. Therefore, he went to another teacher of the Samaṇa tradition, Uddaka Ramputta, and studied the eighth jhāna. Even this, the highest practice known at the time, did not result in his liberation from all suffering.

　　After this, he tried extreme, self-tormenting penances for six years. These also proved futile. Then, through his own efforts, he discovered the Noble Eightfold Path of morality, concentration and experiential wisdom. Through this Path he attained perfect enlightenment and became a sammāsambuddha. Perfect enlightenment is not achieved by reading scriptures or indulging in the intellectual acrobatics of philosophical beliefs. The Buddha could not receive it from any teacher because at that time the path of liberation had been lost to the world.

　　When one attains enlightenment, his heart and mind become full of infinite loving kindness and infinite compassion. He wants to distribute the benevolent practice to more and more people. This compassionate volition brought him to the Deer Park of Sarnath near Varanasi where he gave the Teaching for the first time to the five ascetics who had come from Kapilavastu. They became arahats (literally, those who have destroyed all their defilements) and tasted true lasting happiness. He stayed there for three months and showed the path of liberation to fifty-five more see…

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