STAGE I: RECOLLECTIONS (ANUSSATI)


 RECOLLECTION OF THE BUDDHA (BUDDHANUSSATI)
When reflecting on the BUDDHA, we should think of his attributes: dispassion (viraga), compassion (metta, karuna), happiness (mudita), and introspective tranquillity (upekkha), because he depicts these attributes in concrete form.


Dispassion

Born in a royal family destined to become a Righteous Global Emperor (cakkavatti raja), according to soothsayers, he gave up his beautiful wife, his newborn son, and even his loving father and entered the life of an ascetic, living in the forest, devoted to meditation. This was his great dispassionate renunciation.


What made him do this was the fact that he saw the realities of life: birth, old age, disease, and death, when he experienced the four pre-cognitions: an old person, a sick person, a corpse, and a renouncer. Then the Harmonious Perspective partially dawned on him, which means he obtained an intellectual understanding of the realities of life, even though his emotions were not fully in line with that thinking.


He saw that life consists of being born, growing old, falling sick and dying. He saw it as an ever changing process from birth to death. He did not see death as the opposite of life, but as a part of life. He saw that birth and death are only the two ends of the same stick of life. Life is not a personal existence, but a process of impersonal activity that has a beginning and end. Life is not a static entity, but a dynamic process of change, like a flame.


The Buddha also saw that all human beings are selfishly running after things that are dependent on conditions and therefore subject to aging, disease, and death. They also begin to become attached to these things and personalize them, and are reluctant to let go of them. This results in much crime, wars, terrorism and suffering to everyone.


He also realized that there are some people who renounce and move away from things that depend on conditions and subject to aging, disease, and death. For him, they seemed to be doing the right thing. Therefore he thought: “I will be a renouncer myself, living the right kind of life”.


This decision resulted in the “Great Renunciation” of the Buddha (Maha Abhinikkhamana), which began his further growth and development of dispassion, compassion, happiness, tranquillity, and in-sight, ending in his ultimate freedom from all suffering, through a paradigm shift, from existence (bhava) to experience (dhamma), thus Awakening (sambodhi) from the dream of existence (bhava nidra) and “entering the reality of experience” (Tathagata).


His in-sight, resulting in dispassion, which lead to compassion towards all beings, made him see how all beings were suffering, due to passion and attachment. Because all beings are subject to suffering, he felt a great sympathetic resonance or empathy for all beings. He wished that all beings be free from passion and suffering. This was his compassion wherein he felt in unison with all, as if everyone’s suffering was his own. He made an effort to free the whole world, not merely himself, from suffering, by finding the way, for all to be completely free from every suffering.


His great compassion (karuna) culminated in the loss of his self-consciousness. The loss of self consciousness resulted in freedom from all self-centred emotions, which lead to freedom from all suffering. This resulted in the happiness of selflessness (mudita). This selfless happiness was not an emotional excitement, but a calm, peaceful, and restful state of mind. This was why the mind of the Buddha always remained compassionate, happy, tranquil, and introspective despite the sufferings of the world. He also encouraged others to be compassionate, tranquil and introspective in the same way.


The Buddha was one who had reached perfection in the Harmonious Perspective, resulting in:

                  1. Dispassion

                  2. Compassion

                  3. Happiness

                  4. Tranquillity

                  5. In-sight – Introspection – experiencing experience
                      Awakening from the dream of existence


At this point a Paradigm shift occurs from existence to experience

                       EXISTENCE ➯ EXPERIENCE
This paradigm shift was what made him a Buddha (the Awake one). It was this awakening that culminated in NIBBANA. Once the paradigm shift had occurred, he did not take that to be the absolute truth and stay there. It was only a paradigm. It was possible for him to return to the former paradigm in order to communicate with others. In other words, he could toggle between the two experiences at will.