Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
114Extract 1: Karen Armstrong, ‘Enlightenment’, (2002)
Taken from: Karen Armst rong, Lives: Buddha (Phoenix press, 2002), Chapt er 3,
Enlightenment, pp 60 -88
The legends indic ate that Gotama’s c hildhood had been spent in an unawakened
state, loc ked away from that knowledge of suffering whic h alone c an bring us to
spirit ual mat urit y, but in lat er years he recalled that there had been one moment
whic h had given him intimations of another mode of being. His father had t aken
him to watc h the c eremonial ploughing of the fields before the planting of the next
year’s c rop. All t he men of t he villages and townships took part in t his annual
event, so Suddhodana had left his s ma ll son in the c are of his nurses under the
shade of a rose-apple t ree while he went to work. But the nurses decided to go and
watch the ploughing, and, finding himself alone, Go t a ma sat up. In one version of
t his st ory, we are t old that when he looked at the field that was being ploughed, he
not ic ed that the young grass had been t orn up and that insec t s and the eggs they
had laid in these new shoots had been destroyed. The lit t le boy gazed at the
carnage and felt a st range sorrow, as though it were his own relat ives that had
been killed. But it was a beautiful day, and a feeling of pure joy rose up unbidden in
his heart. We have all experienced suc h mo me n t s , whic h c o me upon us
unexpectedly and without any st riving on our part. Indeed, as soon as we st art to
reflect upon our happiness, ask why we are so jo yful and b e c o me self-c onsc ious,
the experience fades. When we bring self int o it , t his unpremeditated joy c annot
last : it is essent ially a mo me n t of ecstasy, a rapt ure whic h t akes us out side the
body and beyond the prism of our own e g o t is m. Suc h exstasis, a word that lit erally
me a n s “to stand out side the self,” has nothing to do wit h the c raving and greed
that c harac t erize so mu c h of our waking lives. As Go t a ma reflected lat er, it ‘existed
apart from objec ts that awaken tanhā’ The c hild had been t aken out of himself by a
mo me n t of spontaneous compassion, when he had allowed the pain of c reat ures
that had nothing to do wit h him personally to pierc e him to the heart. T his surge of
selfless e mp a t h y had brought him a mo me n t of spirit ual release.
Inst inc t ively, the boy composed himself and sat in the āsana posit ion, wit h
st raight back and crossed legs. A natural yogin, he entered int o the first jhāna, a
t ranc e in whic h the meditator feels a c alm happiness but is st ill able to think and
reflect. Nobody had taught him the tec hniques of yoga, but for a few mo me n t s , the
c hild had a taste of what it mig h t be like to leave himself behind. The c o mme n t a ry
t ells us that the natural world recognized the spirit ual potential of the young
Gotama. As the day wore on, the shadows of the other trees mo v e d , but not the
shade of the rose-apple tree, whic h c ontinued to shield the boy from the blazing
sun. When the nurses c a me bac k, they were stunned by the mirac le and fetched
Suddhodana, who paid h o ma g e to the lit t le boy. These last elements are c ert ainly
fic t ional, but th e st ory of the t ranc e, hist oric al or not, is imp o rt a n t in the Pāli legend
and is said to have played a crucial role in Gotama’s enlightenment.
Y ears lat er, just after he had c ried, wit h mingled opt imism and despair, “Surely
t here mu s t be another way to enlightenment!”, Go t a ma rec alled t his c hildhood
experience. At that mo me n t – again, unpremeditated and unsought – the me mo ry
of that c hildhood ecstasy rose to the surfac e of his min d. Emaciated, exhausted and
dangerously ill, Go t a ma remembered the ‘cool shade of the rose-apple tree,’ whic h,
inevit ably, brought to min d the ‘coolness’ of Nibbāna. Most yogins c ould only