The Buddha's Path to AwakeningThe Buddha as man, animal, and god on the path to enlightenment. According to ancient traditions, it takes countless lifetimes to become a Buddha. The Buddha's own path to complete awakening was chronicled in five hundred and forty seven stories known as the jtakas, which underwent numerous adaptations in the centuries after the Buddha's lifetime. In the fifth or sixth century CE, in the region known as present day Sri Lanka, an anonymous author wrote