'Perfect Enlightenment', Universal Buddha-hood, is the state attained by a Universal Buddha (sammā-sambuddha), i.e. one by whom the liberating law (dhamma) which had become lost to the world, has again been discovered, realized and clearly proclaimed to the world.

"Now, someone, in things never heard before, understands by himself the truth, and he therein attains omniscience, and gains mastery in the powers. Such a one is called a Universal Buddha, or Enlightened One" (Pug. 29).

The doctrine characteristic of all the Buddhas, and each time rediscovered by them and fully explained to the world, consists in the 4 Truths (sacca) of suffering, its origin, its extinction and the way to its extinction (s. magga). See bodhi.


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