According to this report transmitted by the compilers of the Nikayas, which is also confirmed by the other literature we have of the Buddha’s Enlightenment, what flashed through his mind must have been an experience most unusual and not taking place in our everyday consciousness, even in the consciousness of a wise, learned, and thoughtful man. Thus, he naturally wished to pass away into Nirvana without attempting to propagate the Dharma, but this idea was abandoned when Great Brahma spoke to the Buddha in verse thus: “As on a crag, on crest of mountain standing, A man might watch the people far below, E’en so do thou, O Widsom fair, ascending, O Seer of all, the terraced heights of Truth, Look down, from grief released, upon the nations Sunken in grief, oppressed with birth and age. Arise, thou Hero! Conqueror in the battle! Thou freed from debt! Lord of the pilgrim band! Walk the world o’er, and sublime and blessed Teacher! Teach us the Truth; there are who’ll understand.” There is no doubt that it was this spiritual experience that converted the Bodhisattva into the Buddha, the Perfectly Wise, the Bhagavat, the Arhat, the King of the Dharma, the Tathagata, the All-knowing One, and the Conqueror. In this, all the records we have, Hinayana and Mahayana, agree. Here then arises the most significant question in the history of Buddhism. What was it in this experience that made the Buddha conquer Ignorance (_avijjā_, _avidyā_) and freed him from the Defilements (_āsava_, _āśrava_)? What was the insight or vision he had into things, which had never before been presented to his mind? Was it his doctrine of universal suffering due to Thirst (_taṇhā_, _tṛishṇā_) and Grasping (_upādāna_)? Was it his causation theory by which he traced the source of pain and suffering to Ignorance?