21. Vairocana Buddha on a lotus throne,

date unknown, Hangzhou, China.

 

 

Buddha speaks on Mara, the personification of evil (Pali Canon):

To me –

resolute in exertion

near the river Nerañjara,

making a great effort,

doing jhana

to attain security from bondage –

Namuci (Mara) came,

speaking words of compassion:

“You are ashen, thin.

Death is in

your presence.

Death

has 1,000 parts of you.

Only one part

is your life.

Live, good sir!

Life is better.

Alive,

you can do

acts of merit.

Your living the holy life,

performing the fire sacrifice,

will heap up much merit.

What use is exertion to you?

Hard to follow

– the path of exertion –

hard to do, hard

to sustain.”

Saying these verses,

Mara stood in the Awakened One’s presence.

And to that Mara, speaking thus,

the Blessed One said this:

“Kinsman of the heedless,

Evil One,

come here for whatever purpose:

I haven’t, for merit,

even the least bit of need.

Those who have need of merit:

those are the ones

Mara’s fit to address.

In me are conviction,

austerity,

persistence,

discernment.

Why, when I’m so resolute

do you petition me

to live?

This wind could burn up

even river currents.

Why, when I’m resolute

shouldn’t my blood dry away?

As my blood dries up

gall and phlegm dry up.

As muscles waste away,

the mind grows clearer;

mindfulness, discernment,

concentration stand

more firm.

Staying in this way,

attaining the ultimate feeling,

the mind has no interest

in sensual passions.

See:

a being’s

purity!

Sensual passions are your first army.

Your second is called Discontent.

Your third is Hunger and Thirst.

Your fourth is called Craving.

Fifth is Sloth and Torpor.

Sixth is called Terror.

Your seventh is Uncertainty.

Hypocrisy and Stubbornness, your eighth.

Gains, Offerings, Fame, and Status

wrongly gained,

and whoever would praise self

and disparage others.

That, Namuci, is your army,

the Dark One’s commando force.

A coward can’t defeat it,

but one having defeated it

gains bliss.

Do I carry munja grass?

I spit on my life.

Death in battle would be better for me

than that I, defeated,

survive.

Sinking here, they don’t appear,

some priests and contemplatives.

They don’t know the path

by which those with good practises

go.

Seeing the bannered force

on all sides –

the troops, Mara

along with his mount –

I go into battle.

May they not budge me

from

my spot.

That army of yours,

that the world with its devas

can’t overcome,

I will smash with discernment –

as an unfired pot with a stone.

Making my resolve mastered,

mindfulness well-established,

I will go about, from kingdom to kingdom,

training many disciples.

They – heedful, resolute

doing my bidding –

despite your wishes, will go

where, having gone,

there’s no grief.”

… As [Mara] was overcome with sorrow,

his lute fell from under his arm.

Then he, the despondent spirit,

right there

disappeared.

[Snp III.2]

 

Rajagriha, the capital of Magadha, was the seat of Bimbisara, who was then one of the most powerful princes in the eastern valley of the Ganges. The city was situated in a pleasant valley, closely surrounded by five hills, in the most northerly offshoot of the Vindhya Mountains. In the caves on these hillsides, several hermits had found it convenient to settle. There they were free from the dangers of more disturbed districts and near enough to the town where they procured their simple supplies, while remaining surrounded by the solitude of nature. Gautama first attached himself to one of these Brahman teachers, named Alara; however, he became dissatisfied with Alara’s system and turned to another teacher named Udraka, learning under them all that Hindu philosophy had then to teach about this world or the next.