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Previous The Birth of the Buddha
The Birth of the Buddha
6. Enlightenment
But despite his grueling penance he again felt he had not found what he was
searching for. Then he recalled an experience from his youth. One day seated
quietly beneath the shade of a rose-apple tree his mind had settled into a state
of deep calm and peace. Buddhist tradition calls this state the first meditation
or "dhyana." As he reflected, it came to the Bodhisattva that it was by letting
the mind settle in to this state of peace that he might discover what he was
looking for. This required that he nourish his body and regain his strength. His
five companions thought he had turned away from the quest and left him to his
own devices. At this moment a young woman named Sujata offers milk-rice to the
Bodhisattva. Now nourished, he seated himself beneath a pipal tree, henceforth
to be known as "the tree of awakening" or Bodhi Tree. It was once more the night
of the full moon and he made a final resolve: "Let only skin, sinew and bone
remain, let the flesh and blood dry in my body, but I will not give up this seat
without attaining complete awakening."
The oldest accounts describe the Awakening in sober technical terms, most often
by reference to the successive practice of the four dhyanas culminating in the
knowledge of suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the way leading to its
cessation-what come to be known as the "Four Noble Truths." However, perhaps
because they do not exactly make for a good story, the later legend of the
Buddha recounts the Awakening through the description of the Bodhisattva's
encounter with demon Mara. This is a story rather more vivid and immediately
accessible than the abstract concepts of Buddhist meditation theory.
Mara is a being who in certain respects is like the Satan of Christianity. His
name means "bringer of death" and his most common epithet is "the Bad One." Mara
is not so much a personification of evil as of the power of all kinds of
experience to seduce and ensnare the unwary mind. So as the Bodhisattva sat
beneath the tree firm in his resolve, Mara approached, mounted on his great
elephant and accompanied by his dreadful armies. His one purpose was to assault
the Bodhisattva and frustrate his efforts of finding the way to immortality.
As Figure 9
colorfully shows, Mara's armies were incredibly horrible, being composed of most
repulsive monsters with hanging tongues, bared fangs, eyes of burning coals,
deformed bodies, some devils with the heads of ferocious beasts, heavily armed
soldiers shooting arrows, and a fierce demon flaming out at the Bodhisattva. The
king of death tried to spur his troops on, but even the arrows of his monsters
lost their sharp points and spontaneously were covered with flowers. Enclosed by
a zone of complete protection around him, the Bodhisattva laughed at his
aggressors while not a single hair on his body was disturbed. Mara then sent his
beautiful daughters before the Bodhisattva to test his commitment to his purpose
by offering themselves to him. (See ftp://ftp.buddhanet.net/artbud/enlight.gif
for another image of this scene.) When this too failed Mara approached to claim
the Bodhisattva's seat directly. He asked him by what right he sat there beneath
the tree. The Bodhisattva replied that it was by right of having practiced the
Perfections over countless aeons. Mara replied that he had done likewise and,
what was more, he had witnesses to prove it: all his armies would vouch for him,
but who would vouch for the Bodhisattva? The Bodhisattva then lifted his right
hand and touched the ground calling on the very earth as his witness. This is
the "earth-touching gesture" depicted in so many statues of the Buddha through
the ages. It signals the defeat of Mara and the Buddha's complete awakening. As
the Buddha touched the earth Mara tumbled from his elephant and his armies fled
in disarray.
Burmese image of "earth-touching gesture" from Bob Hudson's web site.
12th Century Nepalese example at Patan Museum.
The Buddha had achieved his purpose. In Buddhist terms, he had a direct
experience of "the unconditioned," "the transcendent," "the deathless," Nirvana.
It is said that at that point his mind inclined not to teach:
This Dharma that I have found is profound, hard to see, hard to understand; it
is peaceful, sublime, beyond the sphere of mere reasoning, subtle, to be
experienced by the wise. But this generation takes delight in attachment, is
delighted by attachment, rejoices in attachment and as such it is hard for them
to see this truth, namely.nirvana.
According to the oldest tradition it is
this moment when the great god, the Brahma called Sahampati, or "mighty lord,"
came and requested him to teach, saying: "There are beings here with but little
dust in their eyes. Pray teach Dharma out of compassion for them."
In a deer park outside Benares the Buddha thus approached the five who had been
his companions when he practiced austerities and gave them instruction in the
path to the cessation of suffering that he had discovered. In this way he set in
motion the Wheel of Dharma, and soon, we are told, there were six awakened ones
in the world. For the Buddha this was the beginning of a life of teaching that
lasted some forty-five years. Many stories and legends are recounted of the
Buddha's teaching career, but we must pass over many of them and choose just a
few which come with iconographic depictions.
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