The Buddha found enlightenment under a tree. His journey took him miles, distances people take lifetimes to traverse, yet his body remained in one place; under the tree.
Perhaps the bodhi tree itself had something to tell him, so much about the world and beyond. Maybe the shade taught him of the inner battles between good and evil; maybe the cool soil under his body taught him the blessings of reprieve; maybe the dancing leaves lamented to him the fickleness of man; maybe the solid trunk told him that steadfastness was the only way to survive in a world of such bitterness and cruelty.
Maybe the thing the Buddha did was listen. He closed his eyes and listened to the tree as it sung its song of agony and heartache, of joy and of hope. He listened to it as it spoke, of everything. He listened to the tree. Then he opened his eyes and saw it. And in a few short days he had travelled a million miles; to the moon and back. He got up empowered with knowledge, for he did what the majority of men never had. He became one with nature, and so, like few before him, and precious few after him; he understood the world.
His enlightenment brought him to what he called, “The Four Noble Truths” and the “Noble Eightfold Path.”
My aim isn’t to talk about the truths Buddha concluded, and the actuality of real truth and how far Buddha managed to attain it, but just to explain that the Buddha found his enlightenment through taking time out to seriously search for truth; with the aid of nature.
