In todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, we continue our theme on the Buddhaand#8217;s Enlightenment with and#8220;Maraand#8217;s Attack on the Buddhaand#8221;. This Dharambyte is from the quietly passionate talk, and#8220;What is Enlightenment?and#8221; by Jinapriya on the quicksilver nature of the Enlightenment experience and#8211; impossible to pin down, utterly transformative. Here we meet Mara, the demon or trickster who represents our deepest fears, our doubts, our lack of confidence. We are met with a thoughtful series of reflections, stories and images that all look to open up the gates of perception, and prepare the heart for the biggest change imaginable and possible for all.
Talk given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre, 2003
[music] Dharma Vites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you and happy listening. [music] And he thought, "Well, what can I do? I'm just, I've had it, you know, this is it. And I'm not going to move, basically, till something happens." And so he made a meditation seat and just said, "I'm not going to move. I'm just not going to move from here. I suppose I'm going to drop dead, or I'm going to gain enlightenment." And of course, he did gain enlightenment, otherwise we wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be telling the story. But he went through, I suppose, what we must call a resounding, mystical experience, and came out the other side, a transformed person. And there's aspects of that, there's one aspect of that at this stage, I just want to bring out. It's said that he remembered a time when he'd had a spontaneous calming sort of meditation experience when he was a child or when he was a young man, and he thought, "Well, maybe there's a way forward with that." And so he let himself calm down and he let himself go into a very concentrated state. And it's quite interesting, as he was getting there, it was as if like the final sort of recalcitrant sort of energies of his own mind, if you like, started to attack him. In the Buddhist tradition, this is sort of known as Mara. Mara often stands for all the sort of negative parts of our ego, if you like. Mara is more a kind of trickster figure than a demon figure. And so he was there, and first of all, Mara, so to speak, showed him all that was beautiful. Why do you want to gain enlightenment? I mean, look at this, look at that. Look how beautiful there was. You know, you've known sensual pleasure. What do you mean enlightenment for? Sensual pleasure. Wow, I mean, you know, that's good enough, surely. And the Buddha is just supposed to just stay there, stay there, didn't move, didn't let it touch him. It just, you know, okay, sensual pleasure is great, but it never lasts, you know. And then when Mara realised that wouldn't work, he thought he tried another tack, he put the frightens on him. So the Buddha came, I think, in contact with his deepest fears, you know. The deepest fears we all sort of carry. I didn't remember in 1984 that story, whereas there's Room 101, it's where everyone's their deepest fears are. And I suspect the Buddha encountered that, actually. And he didn't move even then. They're very beautiful Buddhist iconography, actually. It often shows the Buddha's sat and intense meditation. And there's a kind of aura around him. And all these sort of like audible little beasties, monsters that sort of thrown things at him. And as they sort of reach the aura of the Buddha, they sort of become petals and fall to the ground. As if his resolve, yeah, his confidence, his resolve was all this is going on, but it's not getting to him. It's not getting to him. I mean, I think we know, you know, we know this in our lesser way, don't we? We know. But when we want to change that there's all this sort of lack of confidence can come up and all this fear and why bother and all that stuff. But the final trick that Mara played, which I find it's really interesting and it's kind of really subtle. He couldn't get in by trying to frighten him. He couldn't get in by trying to seduce him. So he finally sort of said, oh, yeah, well, OK. But what right have you got? You know, what right have you got to be sitting on the throne of enlightenment? What makes you think you could get enlightened? You know, who do you think you are then? You know, it's this kind of, and we do carry this around, don't we? We do carry this around in our own, in our limited way, in our lesser way ourselves. What makes you think you can do this? And it's amazing because the Buddha is supposed to touch the grains to make witnesses. He says, I'm here because I've done what I need to do. I've put in the effort. I've put in the effort. I've been struggling for six years in this life and I've been struggling countless lifetimes to bring myself here. It's appropriate that I'm here. He wasn't shaken. You know, that final little sort of, that little worm of lack of confidence. He said, no, it's appropriate that I'm here. And according to the traditional story, then at that point, Mara did leave him. But as I say, we know, we know this from our own alliance, don't we? Our own fears and our own lack of confidence. And that is the sort of traditional, that is the very quick rendering of the traditional story of the Buddha, and the element of the enlightenment, the Buddha's enlightenment. And I must mean, I love the Buddha, the party canon, because although it's a bit churchy, some of the translations can be, what's even amazing is you still get a feel for a person. You still get a feel for a human being that really managed to transform themselves in such a way as they just totally revolutionize their consciousness. I mean, what really just comes through is the kindness and the patience. We hope you enjoyed the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. And thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] You [BLANK_AUDIO]
