Enlightenment - The Life Of Tathagata as an Enlightened Being

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Enlightenment - The Life Of Tathagata as an Enlightened Being

Appearance of the Enlightened Being.

In order for an Enlightened Being to appear to the world there has to be endless love. The reason why Tathagata came to the world is to reveal truth which was in ourselves and he made his life endlessly in vain by doing this.

He was born on 04.06.1942 in a place called Anu Cave, Yang Bo Myeun, Hadong Gun, Kyeong Song Do very deep in the mountains in South Korea, where apart from his family, no other people lived around for miles. There were seven members of His family and they all had to sleep in the same small room. Having a new member of the family was not a good thing at the time as his family were very poor and they did not even have any land to farm. As they were so poor baby Tathagata was fed on soup made from the roots of plants and the bark of trees from the very first day he was born. His father was ill and bedridden and his young brothers and sisters had to wander around the mountains to look for food. Under the circumstances he was a burden for his family because he cried unusually loud from the day he was born. Because he cried so loud many times from the day he was born his father threw him against the ground many times and sometimes he was left in the mountains alone where wild animals roamed.

When he was only one year old his father died along with both his brothers in the same year. Since this happened young Tathagata was made to stay alone all day and when his exhausted family returned home from the long trek to and from work Tathagata was ignored and not shown any affection. This soon ended because when Tathagata was nine years old his mother also died. Since then nobody wanted to take responsibility for him or look after him so he had to leave the mountains and catch a bus to the city where he had never been before to search for relatives. But his relatives did not have enough money to look after him, so soon after young Tathagata had to take responsibility of his own life and had to do hard labour work continuously. As he was a child, this gave him searing body ache all night. When he couldn't find such work he had to go out into the streets searching for any work. Malnourished and overworked and with a weak body Tathagata had to endure these terrible conditions until his late teens.

Finally he could be free from these terrible conditions when he was seventeen years old the government allowed him to join the army as a teenage soldier, so for a short time he was free from his ordeal. Through his life in the army he became a confident young man and everyone around him felt a good feeling by seeing his confidence. Tathagata's life in the army was like a dream in comparison with his previous hard life, but he could not let himself stay in the army continuously so when he was twenty three years old he came back to civilian life. Since then he started to have a dream in his heart to become a messenger of the public. By the age of twenty five he had entered into politics, he stated his political views magnificently and he also started to point out and criticize what was wrong with the social situation at that time. By doing this he could attract people's attention and as a result of this he became under surveillance from those in power.

When he was thirty three years old he met his wife and got married and after his son and daughter were born he started a business from nothing to look after his family who were dependent on him. Within three years he had proved his ability as the best in his business. But his destiny which he was holding meant that there was no place where he could settle down. When he saw people around him he had to be cautious and tactful to authority because the situation at that time meant nobody could stand up to authority or speak their minds. Because of this it was then that he had to give up his dream that he had.

From that moment on and for the next six years he spent his time drinking alcohol and worrying about the future of the nation.

In 1983 he wrote his autobiography, and one year later on the 10th November 1984 he left his home and stayed on a small island off the south called Yeon Hwado, which translated into English means Lotus Island. One day he questioned himself and at that time something came up in his brain. At that moment he realized that to know his secret he had to go back to the world before he was born. Since that happened he saw himself as someone who had attained the Enlightenment that nobody could attain for a long time. The Enlightenment what he has at the moment exists in himself and this Enlightenment was completed by himself several thousand years ago.

The Way of the Enlightened Being

When Tathagata opened his eyes to his Enlightenment he introduced himself through this poem.

I am a traveller

A traveller who has a burden

Gloriously shining

A traveller who has a treasure burden

I am a traveller

A traveller who has a burden

Who is lonely and looking for a friend

A traveller who has a treasure burden

I am a traveller

A traveller who has a burden

Wondering in darkness

A traveller who has a treasure burden

I am a traveller

A traveller who has a burden

Who came to the world

A traveller looking for a lord

Soon after his Enlightenment he received a message from very far away, the message was like this :-

"When you know the truth you will be lonely and when you tell the truth you will be cursed." He doesn't know why at that moment he felt such a huge inspiration from his heart. The message was revealed in reality very soon and soon after he had to undergo an ordeal which nobody could experience.

Whenever he started to talk to people they would run away from him quickly, other people were hostile towards him and even laughed and mocked him because they thought he was crazy, people he knew ignored him and his friends did not want to see him anymore. The first thing he had to face since his Enlightenment was that he had to stand before never ending despair. If it was like the old days then he could just get drunk and try to forget everything, but since his Enlightenment he was not tempted to drink at all.

On some days he would go out to the bus stop, but when the bus actually came he realized that he didn't have anywhere to go so he had to go back home, even so this happened continuously.