-Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16, Life Span of the Thus Come One.At that time the World-Honored One, seeing that the bodhisattvas repeated their request three times and more, spoke to them, saying: "You must listen carefully and hear of the Thus Come One's secret and his transcendental powers. In all the worlds the heavenly and human beings and asuras all believe that the present Shakyamuni Buddha, after leaving the palace of the Shakyas, seated himself in the place of practice not far from the city of Gaya and there attained annuttara-samyak-sambodhi. But good men, it has been immeasurable, boundless hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of nayutas of kalpas since I in fact attained Buddhahood.
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"Good men, if there are living beings who come to me, I employ my Buddha eye to observe their faith and to see if their other faculties are keen or dull, and then depending upon how receptive they are to salvation, I appear in different places and preach to them under different names, and describe the length of time during which my teachings will be effective. Sometimes when I make my appearance I say that I am about to enter nirvana, and also employ different expedient means to preach the subtle and wonderful Law, thus causing living beings to awaken joyful minds.
"Good men, the Thus Come One observes how among living beings there are those who delight in a little Law, meager in virtue and heavy with defilement. For such persons I describe how in my youth I left my household and attained anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. But in truth the time since I attained Buddhahood is extremely long, as I have told you. It is simply that I use this expedient means to teach and convert living beings and cause them to enter the Buddha way. That is why I speak in this manner.
What do you believe His state of mind during the meditation was? Clearly, it was not unknown to Himself. He must have understood His mind fully, and that He worked everything out already but just was showing the meditation to others observing Him in His mind how to attain that level of Enlightenment. It must have even been there in His open mind, His own full Enlightenment, as He describes in the Lotus Sutra His meditation at Gaya He was already Enlightened. So what is that state of mind called that He had before it, in meditation? What do you presume were the secrets in the Buddha's mind were that He didn't reveal to others throughout His life even though He was fully Enlightened before Gaya?
At Gaya, what did He gain?
Let me know in Scriptural references or in your own knowledge about understanding the subject, with preferably Mahayana views.
Thank you!!!!!
Brahma.