Mara s encounters with Buddha

Transcription

1 Mara s encounters with Buddha 3/22/2015 From various sources As the biography of the Buddha came to be presented systematically, temptations by Mara began to figure as a major element in relation to several decisive steps taken by the Buddha. The introduction to the Jataka commentary, which contains perhaps the oldest continuous life story of the Buddha, mentions six such occasions: 1. At the time of the renunciation, when Mara is represented as trying to persuade the future Buddha to return home on the ground that he would, in seven days, become a universal monarch (cakkavatti mahaaraaja). 2. During the period of austerity, when the future Buddha was in a very weak condition and Mara approached urging him to give up the struggle. 3. On the eve of the attainment of Buddhahood, when Mara is said to have come with his hosts and challenged the future Buddha's right to his seat. This is the occasion of the great victory over Mara symbolizing the Enlightenment. 4. During the fourth week after the Enlightenment, when Mara is presented discouraging the Buddha from preaching: "If you have realized the safe path to immortality, go your way alone by yourself. Why do you want to admonish others?" It is when Mara failed in this effort that his three daughters, Tanhaa, Arati, and Raga stepped in. 5. Just after the first sixty disciples were sent out on missions, when Mara is shown trying to convince the Buddha that he had really not attained liberation. 6. Just before the Buddha met the thirty Bhaddavaggiya young men, when Mara is presented again as challenging the Buddha's Enlightenment. Before enlightenment: From the Padhana Sutta in the Sutta-nipata (vv. 425 ff.) of the Khuddaka Nikaya. Here, Mara is presented as Namuci and described as a person who approached the striving Bodhisattva (before his enlightenment) speaking kind words: "O you are thin and you are pale,

2 2 And you are in death's presence too; A thousand parts are pledged to death, But life still holds one part of you. Live, Sir! Life is the better way; You can gain merit if you live, Come, live the Holy Life and pour Libations on the holy fires, And thus a world of merit gain. What can you do by struggling now? The path of struggling too is rough And difficult and hard to bear."[12] The reply which the Buddha gave Mara has the makings of the entire concept of the allegorization or personification of temptation and psychological conflict. We find here all the ingredients which, in course of time, fired the imagination of countless writers, poets, painters, and sculptors all over Asia for over two millennia. The Buddha recognizes the speaker of these "kind" words and is conscious of Mara's hidden agenda. So he rebukes him as Pamattabandhu (the Friend of Heedlessness), Papima (the Evil One), and Kanha (the Black One). The hosts of Mara are also identified: "Your first squadron is Sense-Desires, Your second is called Boredom, then Hunger and Thirst compose the third, And Craving is the fourth in rank, The fifth is Sloth and Torpor While Cowardice lines up as sixth, Uncertainty is seventh, the eighth

3 3 Is Malice paired with Obstinacy; Gain, Honor, and Renown, besides, And ill-won Notoriety, Self-praise and Denigrating Others: These are your squadrons, Namuci." Although the numbering of the "hosts" stops at eight, two more sets are identifiable. Thus the concept of ten "hosts" has also been established. The Buddha himself announces his readiness to give battle: "None but the brave will conquer them To gain bliss by the victory... Better I die in battle now Than choose to live on in defeat... I sally forth to fight, that I May not be driven forth from my post."[15] The Buddha's squadrons, however, are not named; but earlier, in listing the psychological defenses he possessed against Mara's "kind" persuasive words, the Buddha had said: "For I have faith (saddhaa) and energy (viriya) And I have wisdom (paññaa) too." Further to underline the psychological dimension of the battle, as conceived in this context, the Buddha proceeds to tell Mara: "Your serried squadrons, which the world With all its gods cannot defeat, I shall now break with wisdom As with a stone a clay pot."

4 4 Here Buddha has laid out the challenges and obstacles we all face on the spiritual path; they show up in various guises, sometimes overtly and sometimes subtly. He also demonstrates the courage and conviction, the utter determination and steadfastness to conquer them. After enlightenment: After the Buddha had turned away from harsh ascetic practices, taken a little food, and, sitting under the Bodhi tree, had attained enlightenment, he thought: I am freed from that penance; I am quite freed from that useless penance. Absolutely sure and mindful, I have attained enlightenment. Then Mara the Evil One became aware in his mind of the thought in the Blessed One s mind, and he went to him and spoke these stanzas: You have forsaken the ascetic path By means of which men purify themselves; You are not pure, you fancy you are pure. The path of purity is far from you. Then the Blessed One recognized Mara the Evil One and he answered him in stanzas. I know these penances to gain the deathless whatever kind they are to be as vain as a ship s oars and rudder on dry land. But it is owing to development of virtue, concentration, understanding, that I have reached enlightenment; and you

5 5 Exterminator, have been vanquished now. Then Mara the Evil One knew: The Blessed One knows me, the Sublime One knows me. Sad and disappointed, he vanished at once. (Life of the Buddha 36) Seven years later: The Buddha was living in the forest on the banks of the River Neranjara. By that time Mara the Evil One had been following the Blessed One for seven years, looking for an opportunity but finding none. Then he went to the Blessed One and addressed him in stanzas: Do you now dream in woods immersed in sorrow? Have you lost wealth, or are you pining for it? Is there some crime done by you in the town? Why do you make no friends among the people? And is there none that you can call a friend? The root of sorrow is dug out of me. Unsorrowing, I meditate in innocence and free of taints, O Cousin of the Careless, As one rid of all hankering for being. The things of which men say It is mine and men who utter the word mine If you have thoughts allied to these, You cannot then escape me, monk. Things they call mine I call not so; I am not one of those so saying.

6 6 Hear this, then, Evil One, the path I know you cannot even see. If you have truly found a path that leads in safety to the Deathless, Depart. But go by it alone. What need to let another know? People who seek to cross beyond Ask me where death cannot prevail; Thus asked, I tell the End of All, Where there is no substance for rebirth. Suppose, Lord, not far from a town or a village there were a pond with a crab in it; and then a party of boys or girls went out from the town or village to the pond; and they went into the pond and pulled the crab out of the water and set it on dry land; and whenever the crab extended a leg they cut it off, broke it and smashed it with sticks and stones so that the crab with all its legs cut off, broken and smashed would be unable to get back to the pond as before so too all Mara s distorting, parodying and travestying have been cut off, broken and smashed by the Blessed One; and now I cannot get near the Blessed One any more when I seek an opportunity. Then Mara uttered these stanzas of disappointment in the Blessed One s presence: Step by step for seven years I have followed the Blessed One. The Fully Enlightened One, possessed of mindfulness, gave me no chance. A crow there was who walked around

7 7 a stone that seemed a lump of fat: Shall I find something soft in this? And is there something tasty here? He, finding nothing tasty there, Made off: and we from Gotama Depart in disappointment, too, Like to the crow that tried the stone. Full of sorrow he let his lute slip from under his arm; and then the unhappy demon vanished. (Life of the Buddha 60) Mara s Daughters Now when Mara the Evil One had spoken these stanzas of disappointment in the Blessed One s presence, he left that place and sat down cross-legged on the ground not far from the Blessed One, silent, dismayed, with shoulders drooping and head down, glum and with nothing to say, scraping the ground with a stick. Then Tanha, Arati, and Raga (Craving, Boredom, and Lechery), Mara s three daughters, went to him and spoke to him in stanzas: O Father, why are you disconsolate? Whom are you brooding over? We can catch him, Setting a snare of lust, we ll tie him up Just as they catch a forest elephant, And bring him back again into your power. An arahant sublime is in the world; And when a man escapes from Mara s sphere There are not wiles to lure him back again

8 8 By lust, and that is why I grieve so much. Then, Tanha, Arati and Raga, Mara s daughters, went to the Blessed One, and they said to him: O Monk, we worship your feet. But the Blessed One took no notice since he was liberated by the utter ending of the essentials of existence. They withdrew to one side and consulted together: Men s tastes vary. Suppose we each create the forms of a hundred young girls? The did so, and they went to the Blessed One and said: O Monk, we worship your feet. Again, for the same reason, the Blessed One took no notice. Then they withdrew to one side and consulted together: Men s tastes vary. Suppose we each create the forms of a hundred virgin women...women that have borne once...women that have borne twice...mature women...old women? In each case they did so and they went to the Blessed One and said: O Monk, we worship your feet. And again, for the same reason, the Blessed One took no notice. Then they withdrew to one side and consulted together: It seems that our father was right; for if we had so tempted any monk or brahman who was not free from lust, his heart would have burst, or hot blood would have gushed from his mouth, or he would have gone mad or crazy, or he would have shriveled, dried up and withered like a cut green rush. They went to the Blessed One and stood at one side. Tanha spoke to him in stanzas: Do you now dream in woods, immersed in sorrow? Have you lost wealth or are you pining for it? Is there some crime committed by you in the town? Why do you make no friends among the people? And is there none that you can call a friend? I have defeated all the serried hosts Of pleasant luring forms. I have found bliss Pondering alone bliss of the goal attained,

9 9 The bliss that lies in the quiet of the heart. So I do not seek friends among the people; For there is none with whom I need make friends. Then Arati spoke to him in stanzas: What abiding does a bhikkhu practice here That, having crossed over five of the floods, The sixth he may cross too? What meditation Practiced forbids sense pleasures access to him? Tranquil in body, with liberated mind, Contriving nothing, mindful and detached, Knowing Dhamma, absorbed without thought-roving, Unangry and unanxious, unperplexed Such abiding does a bhikkhu practice here That, having crossed over five of the floods, The sixth he may cross too; such meditation Practiced forbids sense pleasures access to him. Then Raga uttered these stanzas in the Blessed One s presence: With craving severed he goes in company: Numbers of beings will follow him, alas! And there are multitudes the Unattached Will filch from the realm of Death and lead ashore. The Great Heroes, the Perfect Ones, Lead men away by the Good Dhamma.

10 10 What jealous spite of ours avails Against the Good Dhamma s guiding power? Then Tanha, Arati, and Raga, mara s daughters, went to Mara the Evil One. Seeing them coming, he uttered these stanzas: Fools! You have tried to split a rock By poking it with lily stems, To dig a hill out with your ails, To chew up iron with your teeth, To find footing on a cliff With a great stone upon your head, To push a tree down with your chest And so you come from Gotama frustrated. (Life of the Buddha 61) We don t talk much about Mara in the Zen tradition, perhaps because of the collapse of dualities such as good and evil, the emphasis on just sitting, and the avoidance of metaphysical debates. Still, it might be helpful to consider these as teachings the Buddha provided for his followers as they struggled with all of the seemingly demonic forces (both internal and external) that distracted and hindered them on the spiritual path. The great drama is not the struggle between good and evil, between God and Satan, but the struggle we all face to live a human life as a spiritual being. The Buddha s calm abiding presence in meeting all of these forces is inspiring to us and should give us the courage and determination to persist on our own path, no matter how many challenges we face along the way. You will notice that the Buddha does not battle Mara, does not fight and argue. He holds his steadfast seat, confident of the resources of wisdom, energy, faith, and virtue that he can rest in without strife or fear. The questions raised by Mara Are you sad and lonely, sitting here alone? Have you no friends? Have you committed some crime? are the questions we will each face at

11 11 some point on our path as well. As long as they shake us from our seat, we still have plenty of work to do, through patient meditation, to gain the ultimate liberation right in the midst of this very life the freedom to turn toward Mara and say, I see you, and you can gain no hold on me. And then you too will see Mara, sad and disappointed, disappear. Still, the Buddha encountered Mara throughout his life, and you will too.