BUDDHA STATUES
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The
methods of Siddhartha practice were rigorous. He spurred himself
on with the thought that "no ascetic in the past, none in
the present, and none in the future, ever has practiced or
ever will practice more earnestly than I do." Still the Prince
could not realize his goal. After six years in the forest
he gave up the practice of asceticism. He went bathing in
the river and accepted a bowl of milk from the hand of Sujata,
a maiden, who lived in the neighboring village. The five companions
who had lived with the Prince during the six years of his
ascetic practice were shocked that he should receive milk
from the hand of a maiden; they thought him degraded and left
him. Thus the Prince was left alone. He was weak, but at the
risk of losing his life he attempted yet another period of
meditation, saying to himself, "Blood may become exhausted,
flesh may decay, bones may fall apart, but I will never leave
this place until I find the way to enlightenment."
It was
an intense and incomparable struggle. He was desperate and
filled with confusing thoughts, dark shadows overhung his
spirit, and he was beleaguered by all the lures of the evils.
Carefully and patiently he examined them one by one and rejected
them all. It was a hard struggle indeed, making his blood
run thin, his flesh fall away, and his bones crack. But when
the morning star finally appeared in the eastern sky, the
struggle was over and the Prince's mind was as clear and bright
as the breaking day. He had, at last, found the path to Enlightenment.
It was December eighth, when Prince Siddhartha became a Buddha
at thirty-five years of age.
From this
time on, Prince Siddhartha was known by different names: some
spoke of him as Buddha, the Perfectly Enlightened One, Tathagata;
some spoke of him as Shakyamuni, the Sage of the Shakya clan;
others called him the World-honored One.
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