Bodhi Day on Dec. 8 is recognized as the day Buddha attained the enlightenment that led to the founding of the religion in India in the fifth century B.C.E.

“He saw a world filled with anxiety, lack of peace, contentment, satisfaction” and decided to meditate on the root cause of human suffering as long as it took to reach an understanding, according to the Rev. Richard Tennes, a minister of the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii.

The word “bodhi” means “awakening” in Sanskrit, because Prince Siddhartha Gautama “completely woke up beyond delusions,” Tennes said. He became a Buddha, which means “the Awakened One,” in the process of experiencing the total peace and insight of Nirvana. Thereafter the prince was often referred to as “Shakyamuni Buddha,” he said.

Fourteen Oahu-based Hongwanji ministers celebrated Bodhi Day Thursday with a Walk for Peace, a “symbolic pilgrimage to express our support for the Pacific Buddhist Academy’s mission of nurturing mindful and compassionate human beings.”

During his meditation under a bodhi tree, thought to be a variety of fig tree, the Buddha discovered “the oneness of all existence, that everything is interconnected. Nothing has an absolute existence. Our mind, body, our thoughts and feelings — they’re always changing,” he said.

Buddhism is about “accepting each moment of life just as it is, to be completely awake to things without judgment, anxiety and fear,” and “seeing everyone with great compassion,” Tennes said.

“We’re always learning from the way we are reacting to things. We human beings will never see reality as it really is — we see everything in a self-centered, distorted way. No follower of Buddhism would ever claim to be enlightened — that’s a Buddha. We may have moments of insight but cannot claim to be enlightened,” he said.