r a second great
spiritual struggle and a renewal of the temptation, he at last
reached that which he had long been seeking. Seated under a _ficus
religiosa_, the tree afterwards called the tree of knowledge, or the
Bo-tree, he rose in contemplation above all his temptations and
doubts till he beheld at length the true nature of things. From this
moment he was Buddha, Enlightened; he had the key of truth, and for
himself he was assured that sorrow and evil had lost all hold on him.
His doctrine had dawned in his mind. He had discovered the cause of
the sorrow which is so closely intertwined in man's life, and had
divined the way in which sorrow might be overcome. The method had
been found by which one could escape from the unending succession of
new lives, all painful, to which, according to the general belief of
the time, men were condemned. The words placed in the mouth of the
founder when he attained to Buddhahood tell their own tale. "Looking
for the Maker of this tabernacle, I have to run through a course of
many births so long as I do not find him; and painful is birth again
and again. But now, Maker of the tabernacle, thou hast been seen;
thou shalt not make up this tabernacle again. All thy rafters are
broken; thy ridge-pole is sundered; the mind, approaching the
eternal, has attained to the extinction of all desires."[3]

[Footnote 3: Dhammapada, _S. B. E._ x. 42.]

The great discovery being made, and duly pondered and realised, the
question arose, What was to be done with it? The Buddha shrinks from
the work of preaching it to others. Brahma himself is brought into
the story to encourage him to make his secret known to others, and to
assure him that many will receive it with great joy. The Blessed One
consents, and thus replies: "Wide open is the gate of the Immortal to
all who have ears to hear; let them send forth faith to meet it. The
teaching is sweet and good; because I despaired of the task, I spake
not to men before."[4] He turns his steps, guided by his own
supernatural knowledge, to the city of Benares, to seek the five
monks who had formerly abandoned him. On his way thither he meets a
naked ascetic who asks the reason of his cheerful mien; he answers
that he has overcome all foes, has reached emancipation by the
destruction of desire, and has obtained Nirvana. "To found the
kingdom of Truth I go to the city of the Kasis (Benares); I will beat
the drum of the Immortal in the darkness of this world.