The Enlightenment of Siddhattha Gotama : หน้า 77/115

was himself freed. He lastly surveyed the process how birth inevitably leads to aging, sickness and death, which is a prelude to yet another birth – and one that will merely turn the Wheel of Life through another repetitious revolution unless the process is stopped. He sees that a person is caught up in the notion of separate, individual being or person — self — with a name, history, social role, memories, relationships and so on. At depth, in its true nature, the reality was very different. He was not simply siddhartha Gotama at all, but something far more marvelous than that. His true self was in fact vast, open, unconditioned and was beyond the dualities of pain and pleasure, space and time, life and death. This was Nirvana. When, toward dawn, Siddhattha looked up, he saw the morning star rise with new eyes — not the eyes of Siddhattha Gotama but those of the Buddha: the ‘One Who is Awake’, the ‘One Who Knows’... he was enlightened! Siddhattha became a Buddha at the age of 35. *The Great Teacher* For the next forty-five years until his death, the Buddha wandered between the towns, villages and cities of the middle Ganges plain giving wise and compassionate teachings. Though many of his followers were lay people, there were also those who wished give up the world and family life in order to devote their time and energy entirely to the Dhamma. So emerged the *Sangha*, the community of Buddhist monks. At first the Sangha lived lives of extreme simplicity as homeless mendicants, dressing in rags, living only on alms-food and seeking shelter in caves and beneath the roots of trees. Later, wealthy lay benefactors which included kings, aristocrats and rich merchants provided permanent residences during the Monsoon season. These were the beginning of *vihara*, Buddhist monasteries. The Buddha died in the year 486 B.C. in Kushinagara, not far from his birthplace at Lumbini. Surrounded by his disciples, both monastics and laity, his last words to them summarized the heart of his teaching: “*Impermanent are all created things. Strive on with awareness.*”