Scriptural sources of the Buddha's Awakening

[Myozan Kodo]

Hi all,
With Rohatsu coming up I’ve been looking into the Pali canon to see if there was an account of the Buddha’s enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. I know the story well, but wondered what the scriptural sources for the story are. I can’t seem to find any. Is the story dispersed in various references or is it just largely an oral tradition?
Any ‘enlightenment’ much appreciated!

Gassho
Myozan

[Myozan Kodo]

Hi,
I have found this:

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/buddha.html#awakening

Looks like the sources for the story are quite dispersed in the various baskets.

Gassho
Myozan

[Taikyo]

Isn't it recorded in the 'Lalitavistara Sutra'
Gassho
Taikyo

[Kokuu]

Hi Myozan

I found the same. Since the Pali canon is said to be a record of the Buddha's words, I am guessing that he was pretty quiet on the subject of his actual awakening aside from the insights that came to him during that night.

Chapter Two of The Life of the Buddha by Bhikkhu Nanamoli has collected together the relevant suttas but states:

"The account of the Renunciation given in the Pitakas is striking in its bare simplicity. The elaborate details of later versions are absent in it, as they are n the oldest version of the birth and early years."

As you suggest, it seems that oral tradition has taken those bare bones and put flesh on them.

Gassho
Andy

[Hans]

Hello,

the following might be of interest too.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.036.than.html

Something in me stirs when the Buddha mentions his remembering sitting under a rose-apple tree as a child. There is something beautifully uncontrived about this.

Gassho,

Hans Chudo Mongen