Enlightenment and the Vision of the New Way : Chapter III

The Discovery of a New Dhamma

• Gautama when he sat in meditation for getting new light was greatly in the grip of the Sankhya Philosophy.
• That suffering and unhappiness in the world he thought was an incontrovertible fact.
• Gautama was, however, interested in knowing how to do away with suffering. This problem the Sankhya Philosophy did not deal with.
• It is, therefore, on this problem how to remove suffering and unhappiness that he concentrated his mind.

• Naturally, the first question he asked himself was

" What are the causes of suffering and unhappiness which an individual undergoes?"

• His second question was

" How to remove unhappiness ? "

• To both these questions he got a right answer which is called 'Samma Bodhi'(Right Enlightenment).
• It is because of this that the Banyan Tree has come to be known as the Bodhi Tree.