18 .CHAPTER ONEsporadically in later centuries. Implicit in such reports is the affirmation that
the particular experiences of a historical person are of outstanding value. The
dignity, economy, and sobriety of the account not only highlight the magni-
tude of Gautama's claims but also strongly suggest a remarkable man behind
the style: composed and aware, assertive but not bombastic. If disciples put
such words into the mouth of their master, then who put into their minds
such an image of him?
The sequence of nocturnal watches matched with the three cognitions
and the coincidence of daybreak and Awakening are mythic in style, but not
necessarily ficti~ious. The movement from darkness to light, common to many
religious traditions, is more than metaphorical. Darkness is an objective aid to
sensory withdrawal without which the inner light cannot burst into radiance.
The initiate into the Eleusinian and Orphic mystery cults sat in darkness until
engulfed by a great light. The Eskimo aspirant to shamanhood passes long
hours in solitary meditation and, in a climactic moment, feels aglow with a
brain-centered light that facilitates psychic vision. The light in question-
with shamans as with Buddhist monks and nuns-is a physical experience of
overwhelming radiance, often described in meditation manuals in connection
with states of greatly heightened sensitivity.
The full moon may be a ritualistic and symbolic element in the story. The
nights of the new, full, and half moons were considered ominous in ancient
India and were marked with fasts and rites. The ritual high point of the month,
the night of the full moon would have seemed most appropriate for the Awak-
ening, and the event may in fact have taken place then. One can imagine the
effect of the cool, moonlit, tropical night after a hot summer day on Gau-
tama's psyche. Symbolically, too, the night of the full moon has meaning
extending back into ancient Sanskrit literature. On this one night, the ever-
being-reborn moon imitates the fullness of the sun, mirroring the change-
lessness to be found in the midst of change.
The early texts frequently quote the Buddha to the effect that nirval).a is
indescribable,. beyond all measure or words, beyond all phenomenal flux or
rest, a unique experience expressible only in metaphor. But nowhere does the
Pali Canon say that the knowledge precipitating the realization of nirval).a is
inexpressible. I However splendid the insights and however exalted the state of
freedom they engendered in the mind, the Awakening began with the discov-
ery of communicable ideas: the realization through meditative absorption of
th€ specific destinies of all living beings and of the general principles govern-
ing these destinies. The first cognition, memory of one's own former lives, is
a shamanic power, documented among archaic cultures· throughout the world.
The second cognition, perception ofliving beings dying and being reborn
everywhere, is also a type of shamanic power-unobstructed cosmic vision
that sometimes reveals a cycle of rebirths-widely attributed to prophets and
other adepts in archaic cultures. The specifically Buddhist feature is the ethical
correlation of good karma-intentional deeds-with happy births and bad
karma with miserable ones, together with the realization that the processes of
the world as a whole stem from the factors at play in the mind's direct process-