Enlightenment

Enlightenment is the usual English rendering of the Buddhist bodhi, “awakening”, from the same root as the title Buddha, “one who has awakened”. It names the understanding that ends ignorance, craving and the suffering they cause. The Buddha’s own awakening under the bodhi tree at Bodh Gayā is the model for every later account.

The traditions describe awakening differently. In the Theravāda, the goal is the awakening of the arahant, who has uprooted the defilements and will not be reborn; it is reached in stages, from stream-entry to arahantship. In the Mahāyāna, the goal is the full and perfect awakening of a buddha, sought by the bodhisattva for the sake of all beings over many lifetimes. In Zen, awakening is often spoken of as sudden: a direct seeing into one’s own nature (kenshō), which then has to be deepened and lived.

The English word comes from the European Enlightenment and its ideal of reason, and was adopted for bodhi in the nineteenth century. Some scholars prefer “awakening”, which keeps the image of the original word and avoids suggesting that the goal is intellectual.