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LIFE OF BUDDHA. sickness and death, and having thus lost the buoyancy of youth and the enjoyment of life. Other early records tell that “the ascetic Gautama has gone from home into homelessness, while still young, young in years, in the bloom of youthful strength, in the first freshness of life. The ascetic Gautama, although his parents did not wish it, although they shed tears and wept, has had his hair and beard shaved, has put on yellow garments, and has gone from his home into homelessness." Elsewhere we read, “distressing is life at home, a state of impurity; freedom is in leaving home; while he reflected tħus, he left his home." (0.)
Thus seeking spiritual enlightenment, freedom, deliverance, Gautama travelled during a period of seven years, His long re- placing himself in succession under two notable
tirement. teachers. Leaving them without being satisfied, he travelled through the kingdom of Magadha, and arrived at the town of Uruvela. There, in a beautiful forest land, he spent many years in self-discipline, repressing and curbing his desires and aspirations, and waiting for supreme enlightenment. Fasting, suppression of the breath, and other forms of self-mortification were tried with the greatest persistence, but in vain. Five other ascetics, who had been his companions for a time, abandoned him. Finally came the great crisis, when, sitting His enlight. under a tree (the Bo-tree, or Tree of Know
enment. ledge), he passed through successive stages of abstraction until he became enlightened about the transmigrations of souls, and the Four Sacred Truths, (1) that suffering is universal in the world ; (2) that its cause is desire or attachment; (3) that it can be ended by Nirvana; (4) the way to attain Nirvana. “When I apprehended this," say the early records, “and when I beheld this, my soul was released from the evil of desire, released from the evil of earthly existence, released from the evil of error, released from the evil of ignorance. In the released awoke the knowledge of release; extinct is rebirth, finished the sacred course, duty done, no more shall I return to this world ; this I knew." (0.) He had become the Buddha, the awakened, the enlightened.
