"NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO

Honor to the Exalted One, Freed from all bondage's, and fully Enlightened.

From the period know in Buddhist history as Nanda Asankheyya, more than twenty aeons ago today, our Lord Gotama The Buddha had practiced (manopranidhana) the act of wishing by thought, to become a Buddha in the presence of about the 125,000 Fully Enlightenment Buddhas whom He met in the course of (Samsara) the cycle of birth and death.

Also from the period of Sarva Bhadra Asankheyya up to the period Sarva Saila Asankheyya, our Lord the Gotama practiced (vaci-pranidhana) the act of wishing by expression to become a Buddha in the presence of the 387,000 Buddhas he met.

Thus it was in the aeon known as "Saramanda Kalpa", He met Dipankara Buddha and made "Kayapranidhana" and practices it.

Although Enlightenment is not a thing that could be attained so easily, it should be everyone's aim to become enlightened.

To become a Bodhisatta or Buddha-elect, one must have the following Pre-requisites :- 

1. He must be born as a human being because Deities or other beings are not admissible as a Bodhisatta.
2. He must be of the male sex. Persons of the female or effeminate sex are debarred from being of a Budhisatta. 
3. He must acquire the qualification of Arahatship and be prepared to renounce them in order to become a Budhisatta.
4. He must aspire in the presence of the Supreme Buddha. It would be useless to aspire before a Pacceka Buddha or an Arahat.
5. He must renounce everything of worldly possessions. Unless he becomes a hermit or recluse, he cannot become a Bodhisatta.
6. He must attain ecstasy, such as divine eyesight, divine hearing, etc.
7. He must be so selfless as to be ready to offer even his life to the Buddha. Even after attaining divine ecstasy, if he did not offer even his life, he cannot register as a Bodhisatta.
8. He must also have eagerness and energy.

Sumedha the hermit (who later became Bodhisatta) who possessed all these eight qualifications to tread the path of a Buddha-elect, did receive the verbal announcement from Dipankara Buddha that in the distant future, Sumedha will definitely become a Buddha.

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