Shakyamuni the Buddha
Attaining the Way

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Once recovered from the exhaustion of his ascetic practice, Shakyamuni retreated to a grove of sal trees near Gaya and sat beneath a pipal tree, where he remained in profound meditation for forty-nine days. During this meditation, he battled and ultimately defeated armies of mental and physical demons, after which, at dawn on the eighth day of December, he finally attained perfect enlightenment and became a Buddha. Shakyamuni was now thirty years old.

Shakyamuni’s attainment of Buddhahood is also known as his attainment of the Way, or the Path. In commemoration of his attainment of Buddhahood, the name of the place where he sat in meditation was changed from Gaya to Buddhagaya, and the name of the pipal tree was likewise changed to bodhi tree. Turning the Wheel of the Law

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