Notes on the life of Shakyamuni Buddha
written by Vova, a layman and yogi.
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The Bodhisattva was resting in unperturbed peace in the shade of a tree when his purified consciousness presented him with the image of Mara the Demon, whose name signifies "the one who brings the bitterness of death." There he was - the source of all damnation, sovereign over the armies of the Destroyer-Kings, the overlord of the lands of temptation and delusion. How did damnation gain power? Why did living beings get caught in the seductive net woven by the world of reincarnation?
"I will find Truth!" The Bodhisattva decided. "Knowledge of truth is more precious to me than my youth or my throne. I will break Mara’s spell of delusion. His black magic is indivisible from my own weaknesses. Therefore I will treat them both with my healing attention."
In great renunciation the Bodhisattva perceived all sentient beings being lead from one incarnation to the next by their faith in "self" and were therefore dependent on it.
Faith in a manufactured self, shrouded by the guise of will, results in both positive and negative karma. This ignorance, which is indistinguishable from Mara’s magic, forms the fifth body.
It was as if the smallest candlewick of realization had caught fire in the middle of Mara's body and his image, illuminated from within, turned into the radiant body of Brahma, the Creator of the Universe, whose name means "The One Who Expands Himself."
Seeing Brahma face to face, the Bodhisattva perceived in him the subtlest and highest manifestation of his own mind. "Here is the Blessed and Divine Brahma who is the pinnacle of existence. He elevated himself due to his incomparable feat - he has attained the infinite state of ecstasy, peace, love and compassion. But even He depends on the law of cause and effect. Like all sentient beings, he is the product of his thoughts and actions. He does not possess a perfect self, rather his wisdom and virtue create his joy.
"Belief in the permanence of self keeps the ignorant being captive and the virtuous being in danger of delusion. Those who claim that the self does not exist walk from one kind of darkness into another. They develop a steadfast belief in the non-existence of self."
"Thus, beings distract themselves from the observation of impermanence, manifestation and disappearance, inherent in all phenomena and thought. This is how they sustain the unskilled habits of consciousness and as a result sink into delusion."
"The mind enchained by its unskilled activities develops a host of delusions that form the triple craving: a desire for existence, a desire for sense pleasures, and a desire for nonexistence.
"I have exhausted my involvement with ignorance and my dependence on mental judgment. I have completed this path. Now, the newly acquired, well-assimilated virtue, ever-increasing through wisdom, is my new lot in life. When testifying about my experience, I do not fear words nor do I avoid them. While committing high-minded and noble acts and eschewing base and ignoble deeds, I create neither attachment nor repulsion. Thus, my tendency to create new ideas about myself is akin to roasted grain that can never sprout. "
"I have exhausted past karma in this body. I will ward off rebirth. This is how I will enter sublime, untainted nirvana – which extinguishes all suffering." Realizing more and more the extent of his own achievement, the Buddha, the Awakened One, rested in Truth.