Notes on the life of Shakyamuni Buddha
written by Vova, a layman and yogi.
-20-
One day the Buddha and Ananda were resting in a lovely groove presented to the Sangha by a local king. Covered with their yellow cloaks, they reclined in a hut built near a flowing brook.
The Buddha was suffering from an ailment that caused him pain and wore out his body. The old man Gautama decided to direct the energy of his concentrated consciousness towards balancing and healing his bodily winds. This was a method he and his disciples often used during times of illness and physical weakness.
Relaxing his body, the Awakened one's mind began to expose itself in its entirety. As his mental energy calmed he became able to observe various spheres of concentration manifesting in his mind. The King of Teachings mixed lucid emptiness with the excited tension within his nerve channels and thus entered a state of conscious clairvoyance.
The Buddha saw his mother, Maya, residing in the Pure Land of worldly deities. She looked at her son and tears of thankfulness filled her eyes. Many gods expressed their reverence and awe to her, but the queen, even more majestic in her heavenly reincarnation, seemed indifferent to the luxuries and wondrous sensations of heaven. Shakyamuni embraced his mother's heart with his own and understood that she was saddened to see her aged son ill.
Looking in her eyes, the Awakened One transformed her sadness into white radiant consciousness. This radiance transferred Maya's mind into the realm of No- thing. Her body then acquired a rainbow glow, which is called the light of non-return. The queen smiled joyfully and in the presence of deities she uttered: "When the teachings of my virtuous son overflow his own community, I will support the spread of Dharma among lay people. With the help of artful methods I will turn conditioned existence into the field of liberation!"
At this point Maya's discriminating intelligence perceived the realm of neither perception nor non- perception. Her body reached complete transformation and she manifested the form of the Goddess of green light of life. In a rainbow effulgence appeared seated among deities who themselves expressed compassion through action and instruction. They assumed peaceful, ecstatic and strength-infusing forms. Green Tara (Morning Star) plunged into deep samadhi, resting her mind in noble determination- inseparable from liberation.
The Buddha returned to wakefulness and found his body more strong. It had overcome its ailment and now he felt like a traveler entering a wide and comfortable road after a lengthy journey on a narrow and meandering path.