He sat upon the straw, facing east, resolved to discover the true principle and achieve the Great Awakening.
Drawing by Lauren Gretz, John Muir College (UCSD), by permission
In time, Xīdá-duō regained his former strength and beauty and looked once again as impressive as he had when he had lived in the palace. Each day a maiden named Sūyé-dánǚ 苏耶妲女 brought him a tasty gruel made with milk as an act of merit (gòngyàng 供养).
One day, after Xīdá-duō had bathed in the Níliánchán 尼连禅 River, he went to sit beneath a Suōluó 娑罗 tree on the riverbank to meditate. He sat peacefully all day, but did not attain the Great Awakening (zhèngjué). That evening he moved to the great fig (pútí 菩提) tree in the Forest of Mortification that had bloomed there on the day of his birth and that destiny had already declared to be the place of his success.
There he met a man carrying straw whose name was Sūdìyé 苏谛耶 who gave him a sheaf of straw to sit upon as an act of merit. So he sat upon the straw, facing east, resolved to discover the true principle and achieve the Great Awakening.
As he meditated, visions of pleasures of the past appeared before him: the palace, the dancing girls, fine foods, and other luxuries. But he continued to sit, ignoring them.
He achieved consciousness of fate (sùmìng zhì 宿命智), and knew of his past lives and the cycle of birth and death.
He achieved consciousness of universal insight (tiānyǎn zhì 天眼智), and knew of past and present lives of all living things and of the laws of cause and effect governing all things.
He achieved consciousness of detachment (lòujìn zhì 漏尽智) that the answer to suffering was detachment from all desire.
And thus did Xīdá-duō of the family of Qiáo-dámó of the tribe of the Sìjiā attain the Great Awakening seated beneath a fig tree under a full moon on the shores of the Níliánchán river and become a buddha, at the age of 35 and six months and 15 days.
