Bodhi

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Bodhi (Skt., Pāli, ‘awakened’). In Hinduism, perfect knowledge, personified as Bodha, a son of Buddhi (intellect).

In Buddhism, it is the experience of enlightenment, which, unlike nirvāna, can be given an approximate description: it is the attainment of perfect clarity of mind in which things are seen as they really are—as in the experience of Gautāma under the tree (hence called Bodhi or Bo tree) through which he became the Buddha. Cf. BODAI.

In later Buddhism, the bodhis are the four stages of the ārya-mārga.

In Mahāyāna, bodhi is wisdom based on insight into the undifferentiated sameness of all appearance.

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