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How did Buddha reach the enlightened stage to find the 4 truths of Buddhism?
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The Buddha practiced a number of yogic forms for several years until he realized that fasting and body practices were insufficient to awaken.
Then he sat down under a tree and meditated without stop for six days. On the morning of the seventh day he saw the planet Venus arise in the eastern sky and his mind opened up - enlightenment.
In his first teaching (to his former companions) several weeks after his enlightenment, the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths, the Middle Way, and the Eightfold Path.
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What I write is what I imagine to be Buddhism, there may be untrue stuff in it; or most of it, or all of it may be basically true:
The Buddha is not the only Buddha we have.
Before our historical Buddha (named Shakyamuni Buddha) there were other Buddhas. As well, there will be another Buddha in the future, and maybe more after him. The next future Buddha's name is Metteya. He might not come into the human world until "aeons" from now when the world is different? (The world changes in cycles?)
As for my saying there were Buddhas before Shakyamuni Buddha, one of those Buddhas gave the prediction to the to-be-in-the-future-Shakyamuni-Buddha that he would become a Buddha in the future.
So becoming a Buddha is not something common. You have to have the right quality or qualities, get a prediction by a Buddha, and practice the six paramitas (in english: six perfections). Do a search of this search term, with a space between the two words of the search term: paramitas theravada
(Instead of trying to become a Buddha, most people can try to become an arhat, which is a being who has attained the salvation of Nibbana, by hearing and practicing the teachings of the Buddha that lead to the state of Nibbana.)
In Shakyamuni-Buddha-to-be's last life, which is the life he had in India about 2500 years ago, he was born as a prince, or someone into a powerful ruling family or something.
He left his royal or rich life at the age of 29. After six years of spiritual practices he saw he still not had attained the goal, though he had maybe attained the highest spiritual states just under it. He was weakened by the difficult practice. He remembered when he was a boy or a youth, and going to a plowing festival with his father, or something like that, that under a tree he attained happiness in meditation. He saw there was no sensual "evil" in that meditative happiness -- that meditative happiness was not connected with worldly, "evil", sense pleasures, so he thought he would try it again now. Returning to eating sufficiently to regain his health, he returned to meditation. He attained knowledge (and/or maybe seeing with a supernatural eye?) of his past lives, knowledge (and/or seeing with a supernatural eye?) of the death and rebirth of beings, and knowledge of salvation. He finally attained Buddhahood, after "aeons" (includes all of his past lives) of effort.
That's all I will write.
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After trying extreme indulgence and that didn't work he tried extreme asceticism, and that didn't work. So after all his thoughts and experiments, he sat down under a bodhi tree and meditated. The story goes that he sat there and meditated for seven days, at which point the truth was revealed; he was able to clear his mind of thought, preconception, perception with the physical senses, and became aware, awakened, enlightened. It was at this time all the pieces fell into place and he saw the problem of and the solution to suffering.
