The Buddha Book: Buddhas, blessings, prayers, and rituals to grant you love, wisdom, and healing. Lillian Too

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       His mind now takes on an intense clarity, lighting up vast beacons of memory from deep within – he remembers all his past lives and notes the cyclical patterns of birth, death, rebirth, and death, moving relentlessly in a never-ending rhythm. He sees all the beings of the world going through the same cycle. He contemplates how those who have been generous, kind, and loving experience rebirth in happy circumstances, while those who act with hatred, jealousy, anger, and greed inevitably fall into the suffering realms. It is all very clear. Birth and death seem wrapped around the sensations of craving, attachment, and the desire for living. It seems as if the cycle goes on forever.

       It is the night of the full moon when Siddhartha begins, and as he sits in contemplative meditation he is continually “attacked” by maras – disturbing forces of delusion that try every way to break his concentration. First come temptations that are placed in his path – wealth and pleasure; then come threats that use fear as an agent of distraction; when this fails, the final weapon is the planting of seeds of doubt in his mind.

       But the prince sits unmoved and undisturbed. Then, without breaking his concentration, he extends his right hand and touches the earth with his middle finger. Instantly the earth goddess appears to testify that the meditating prince has in past lives practiced the Six Perfections of generosity, morality, patience, enthusiastic perseverance, concentration, and wisdom. In touching the earth, the Mara forces are defeated and Siddhartha attains a total cessation of all suffering of body and mind, all ignorance and self-centeredness. Time and space vanish, and all ties melt away. In their place there is only total clarity, compassion, and wisdom consciousness, a state that is formless, with no beginning and no end – the state of all knowing; the state of no sorrow; the state of never-ending happiness and bliss!

       The human personality of Siddhartha dissolves, and in its place emerges Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, the supreme emanation, the enlightened One, the fully awakened One, the foe-destroyer. Buddha continues to sit, allowing the impact of the new wisdom to permeate his whole being. He is thirty-five years old when he attains enlightenment, and for seven weeks thereafter he remains in meditative repose, enjoying the state of matchless bliss.

      Those who are not upset with suffering and not attached to happiness are free of obstacles to Dharma practice are liberated from suffering and happiness and will go to the city of the sorrowless state – a blissful state of peace.

      

      LAMA KYABJE ZOPA RINPOCHE

      BUDDHA’S TWELVE DEEDS

      The life story of Buddha is usually summarized as the twelve deeds of the Buddha, which are the twelve significant events of his life.

      1 Buddha descends from Tushita heaven to this world

      2 Buddha enters into his mother’s womb

      3 Buddha’s birth in Lumbini Garden, Nepal, to King Shuddhodana and Queen Maya

      4 Buddha becoming skilled in the arts and playing sports of youth

      5 Buddha’s marriage to Princess Yasodhara, and his taking charge of the kingdom

      6 Buddha’s renunciation at the age of twenty-nine

      7 Buddha’s practicing austerities for six years

      8 Buddha sitting under the bodhi tree

      9 Buddha defeating the maras

      10 Buddha attaining enlightenment

      11 Buddha turning the wheel of Dharma

      12 Buddha attaining final parinirvana (complete nirvana, or liberation).

      Buddhist art depicts each of these deeds in various ways, but it is the eleventh deed, the turning of the Dharma wheel (or the Buddhist teachings), that is most significant.

       The life story of Buddha as shown in twelve separate scenes, reflecting the Twelve Deeds of Buddha.

      Shakyamuni’s teachings

      Shakyamuni’s first teaching comes when he expounds the Four Noble Truths (see here) to his five ascetic companions in the Deer Park in Sarnath. Buddha explains these truths with immense clarity, but his five stubborn friends debate the profound implications of his words. Buddha is determined that they, too, should experience the matchless bliss of enlightenment, so his sermon goes on for a very long time.

       Monks performing holy puja at Kopan Monastery, Nepal.

      One day, one of the ascetics suddenly realizes the same vision of truth that Buddha himself realized under the bodhi tree. Seeing this, Buddha is boundless with joy. It is an important breakthrough: if his disciple can achieve enlightenment, so all beings can obtain the realization that can set them free. Buddha’s teachings will spread far and wide so that all beings blessed by them can attain the liberation that comes with enlightenment. This is the most profound impact of the story of Shakyamuni Buddha. He is the ultimate guru, who emanates in the earthly realm to pass on his teachings, without which ignorance will continue to prevail.

      In all, Buddha leaves behind 84,000 teachings and these revered texts eventually СКАЧАТЬ