The Bodhi tree is an ancestor that has absorbed the element of enlightenment, no longer seeing birth and death. While some may project sadness onto the tree regarding the day of Parinirvana, it remains joyful, having attained enlightenment with the Buddha. Sitting under its shade, the present moment is realized as the best moment through breathing and smiling. It was here that the Buddha discovered the truth of dependent co-arising. Prior to this, attempts to liberate a “self” independent of conditions through austerity, self-mortification, or concentrating on limitless space, boundless consciousness, and the sphere of nothingness had failed.

Abandoning the fear of happiness and the suppression of the body, Siddhartha accepted the pleasant feeling of a cool breeze and the nourishment of food. Enlightenment is not attained by running away from the five skandhas, but by looking deeply into the nature of form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. Through this deep observation, the truth of non-self is revealed; a Bodhi leaf cannot exist alone but is made of sunshine, clouds, and earth. Reality is defined by the principle: “This is because that is. This is not because that is not. This is born because that is born. This is destroyed because that is destroyed.”

This insight unfolds into the teachings of emptiness, meaning things rely on others to exist; impermanence, which is the transformation of things; non-self; and non-duality, where the flower and the garbage are seen as relying on one another. Finally, the teaching of non-attainment reveals that there is nothing to obtain, as everything is already present. Buddha nature is the capacity to wake up to these truths within oneself. The appointment with peace and enlightenment is found only by accepting things as they are in the here and now.