Thread: The Enlightenment Of Buddha And Others

In my Humanities class we have been talking about many different religions, such as Hinduism, Christianity, Islamic, and Buddhism. Yesterday we were reading about Siddartha Gautama, the original Buddha (someone who has been enlightened) and founded the religion. It has been said, that Siddartha had failed to become enlightened during his journey, and sat pondering under a tree until he had. It was said, after some time, he did, and had the 4 Noble Truths, and the 8 Fold Path.

My question is, what do you think of the possibility that Siddartha had had a lucid dream while sitting under that tree, and through it became enlightened, possibly by meeting a dream character of his subconscious?

Because all of this was "said by someone" I would place the same amount of reliance on it as on all those holy bibles also "written by someone".

posably ... though maby the story has changed somewhat.

for example, originaly he fell asleep and th truth came to him, but it later changed.

i think that the theory is a remarkably interesting one =)
I'd have to say it does to seem quite probable that this was his "englightenemnt"
=D
Imran

According to tradition, he went into a very deep meditation. During this meditation he learend some aspects of the working of the mind and the body ( by experiencing them ) that enabled him to puify his mind compeletly.
The tradition sais that his meditation was so deep that he could remember all his past lives, and he remembered conversations he had during some of these lives with other buddha's, and he remembered that these buddha's gave him some hints on attaining enlightenment, and he used this information to help him.
These buddha's could have been acual people he have met in past lives, or they could be his subconsiousness revealing to him information that he had gained during the meditation, and if you belive this second theory, then I guess you can say they were simmilar to dream characters in a lucid dream.
But regardless to the nature of these characters, he attained enlightenment by his own action and volition, his own direct experience of reality.

My God you are Right!

Mara and all his temptation on the Buddha was his Subconscious!

Mara = Lord of Samsara - Samsara could be Dreams

And Mara Guarded the keys to Enlightenment, or perhaps Buddha passing the doors Mara presented and tempted Buddha but Buddha passed through his obstacles and became Awakened.

Do not seek knowledge through others and their experiences, seek it through your own journey's and perspectives.