Virtual Bathing of the Buddha

In a former life, Sakyamuni Buddha’s eventual awakening was predicted by Dipankara Buddha, who said that he would become a bodhisattva and then later become the next Buddha of the Saha world. Before his final rebirth in which he would attain awakening, he dwelt in the inner court of Tusita Heaven for four thousand years as he observed the conditions needed for bringing liberation to the Saha world.

After he had dwelt in Tusita Heaven for four thousand years, the Buddha descended to the Saha world riding a white elephant and entered the womb of his noble mother, Queen Maya, from the right side of her body.

On the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, as flowers bloomed in the warmth of spring while a brilliant sun shined in the sky, the Buddha was born in the Lumbini Garden. After his birth, the Buddha took seven steps, pointed one hand towards the sky and his other hand towards the ground, and said, “In the heavens above and the earth below, I alone am the honored one.”

At the age of twenty-nine, the Buddha was moved by the impermanence of the world, how the weak are at the mercy of the strong, and the injustice of the world. There upon, courageously and with determination, the Buddha rode his horse out of the city gate, leaving his home and renouncing his former life.

As he meditated beneath the bodhi tree, the Buddha was plagued by the demon Mara. Mara came internally as the afflictions of greed and anger, and came externally as opportunities for carnal pleasure and wealth. Subduing Mara and remaining untouched by the seductions placed before him required great determination, heroism, wisdom, and fearlessness.

After Mara was subdued, the Buddha attained awakening on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, as he sat beneath the bodhi tree gazing into the starry night.

After he attained awakening, the Buddha taught the Dharma for forty-nine years and gave teachings at more than three hundred Dharma assemblies. He spread the truth to all of humankind and ensured that the Dharma Wheel would always be turning in this world.

On the fifteenth day of the second lunar month in the Buddha’s eightieth year, his teaching career was complete. In the city of Kusinagara, along the banks of the Ajitavati River, between two sala trees, the Buddha entered final nirvana.