Knowra Buddhahood Buddhahood Buddhahood is complete awakening and liberation, marked by perfect wisdom and compassion. Buddhist traditions differ in how they describe its attainment and the capacities of a buddha.
Four Noble Truths : The Buddha’s framework of suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path to cessation. Buddhahood realizes the cessation of suffering that these truths describe.
Prajna : Wisdom that sees reality clearly, especially impermanence, suffering, and non-self. Perfect wisdom is a defining quality of buddhahood.
Arhat : A person who has attained liberation from rebirth in early Buddhist traditions. Mahayana sources distinguish an arhat’s liberation from the complete buddhahood they seek.
Gautama Buddha : The teacher whose awakening and teachings gave rise to Buddhism. His awakening is the paradigmatic human attainment of buddhahood.
Karuna : Compassion that responds to the suffering of others in Buddhist thought and practice. Perfect compassion is paired with wisdom in descriptions of a buddha.
Noble Eightfold Path : The Buddhist path of right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. Its practices form a central route toward awakening in early Buddhist traditions.
Samadhi : Meditative concentration that steadies and unifies the mind. Concentration supports the insight cultivated on Buddhist paths to awakening.
Pratyekabuddha : A solitary buddha who awakens without a teacher but does not establish a teaching community. This form of awakening is distinguished from a fully teaching buddha.
Maitreya : The future buddha expected to appear in the world after Gautama Buddha’s teaching has disappeared. His anticipated awakening shows that buddhahood is not limited to the past.
Bodhicitta : The aspiration to attain buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. It gives the bodhisattva path its universal aim.
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