ของฝากจากศรีลังกาครับ
Happy Wesak 2006 Friends!
Friends:
Know that:
Helping Others helps Yourself!
Harmlessness is the prime Protection!
Meditation induces first Calm then Bliss!
Dhamma Study assures doubtless Certainty!
The Noble 8-fold Way makes Free & Deathless!
Remember:
At this Full Moon 2536 years ago the Blessed Buddha awakened
by completely perfect and unsurpassable self-Enlightenment!
At that time a girl named Sujata Senani lived in
Uruvela. When
adult,
she prayed before a certain Banyan tree, that she
might get a
husband
equal to herself in caste and that her firstborn may
be a son. Her
prayer
was successful, since so indeed did it happen. At the
full moon day
of the
Vesak month, she rose at early dawn & milked the
cows. As soon as
new
buckets were placed under the cows, their milk poured
forth in
streams
spontaneously all by itself. Seeing this miracle, she
knew something
special
was going on. Now at that very night the Future Buddha
had 5
specific
dreams that made him conclude: Certainly, without
doubt, today is
the very
day, I will reach Enlightenment! His 5 colored
radiance illuminated
the
whole tree. Then Sujata came & offered the cooked
milk rice in the
hands
of the Great Being. After that a grass-cutter came
going with a
bundle of
grass just harvested from nearby. He offered the Great
Being 8
handfuls
of Kusa grass, when he saw that this Sage was a Holy
Man. The Future
Buddha accepted the grass and proceeded to the foot of
the Bo-tree.
Reaching the imperturbable Eastern side, where all
Buddhas take
their seat,
he sat down saying to himself:
This is indeed the immovable spot where all the
Buddhas have planted
themselves! This is the very place for destroying the
net of desire!
Then the Future Buddha turned his back to the trunk
and faced east.
Right there he then made this mighty decision:
Let just blood & flesh of this body dry up &
let skin & sinews
fall from the bones. I will not leave this seat before
having
attained the absolute supreme Enlightenment!
So determined did he seat himself in this
unconquerable seat, which
not
a 100 strikes of lightning could make him waver
from.
At this very moment the rebel deity Mara -the Evil
One- raised
exclaiming:
Prince Siddhattha will pass beyond my power, but I
will never allow
it!
And sounding the Mara's war shout, he prepared his
army & went out
for
battle. Then Mara said to his militia: This Sakyamuni,
son of
Suddhodana,
is far greater than any other man, so we will never
succeed to fight
him
up front. We will therefore attack him from
behind.
Frustrated, being unable even to touch the Wielder of
power with 9
mighty
hurricanes of wind, rain, rocks, weapons, red coals,
hot ashes,
sand, mud,
& darkness Mara somewhat in panic commanded his
army: Why do you
stand
still? Seize, kill & drive away this prince. Mara
yelled:
Siddhattha, leave this
seat. It is not yours but mine! Hearing this the
Well-gone One
replied:
Mara, neither have you fulfilled the 10 perfections to
the third
degree
nor have you given the 5 great donations. Neither have
you striven
for insight,
nor for the welfare of the world, nor for
enlightenment! Therefore
does this
seat not belong to you, but indeed to me.
Suddenly overpowered by fear Mara's followers fled
helter-skelter
in all directions. Not two went the same way, but
leaving their
weapons
in a chaos all behind, they fled terrified by panic.
Seeing them
flee, the
great assembly of deities triumphantly shouted: Mara
is defeated.
Prince
Siddhattha has Won! Let us celebrate the Victory! The
deities then
sang:
The Victory has this illustrious Buddha Won.
The Evil One, The End-maker is defeated &
done.
Thus they jubilantly circled the wisdom throne,
the band of snakes singing their praises of the
Seer,
the flocks of birds singing their praises of the
Sage,
the assembly of Deities singing their praises of the
Conqueror,
the group of Brahmas singing their praises of the
Worthy One.
It was before the sun had set that the Tathagata thus
conquered Mara
&
defeated his army. Then at the same night, after
having bathed,
while the
Bo tree rained red sprigs on his robe, the Consummate
One acquired
knowledge of previous existences in the first watch of
the night:
With the mind thus concentrated, purified, bright,
fixed, unified,
focused,
tractable, compliant, steady & imperturbable, I
directed it to
remembrance
of my past lives. I recollected numerous past lives,
i.e., one
birth, two...five,
ten...fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred
thousand, many eons of
cosmic
contraction, many eons of cosmic expansion:
There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan &
species, had such
a body. Such was my food, such my experience of
pleasure & pain,
such the end of my life. Passing away from that state,
I re-arose
there.
There I had such name, belonged to such a sort &
family, had such a
form.
Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure &
pain, such the
end of my life. Passing away from that state, I
re-arose here. Thus
I
remembered my various past lives in all their various
modes &
details.
This was the first knowledge I attained in the first
watch of the
night.
Ignorance was destroyed; knowledge arose; darkness was
destroyed;
light arose as happens in one who is alert, aware,
& determined.
But the pleasant feeling that arose in this way did
not invade my
mind
nor remain. With the mind thus still concentrated,
purified, bright,
intact,
pliant, malleable, steady, & imperturbable, I
directed it to the
knowledge
of the passing away & reappearance of beings. I
saw by means of the
divine
eye, purified & surpassing the human eye I saw
beings passing away &
re-appearing, and I realized how & why they are
high & low,
beautiful &
ugly, fortunate & unfortunate all in accordance
with the intentions
of their
prior actions: 'These beings who were endowed
with bad behaviour of
body, speech, & mind, who reviled the Noble Ones,
held wrong views
and
acted under the influence of wrong views, with the
break-up of the
body,
after death, have re-appeared in the plane of misery,
the bad
destination,
the lower realms, even in hell.
But these beings who were gifted with good behaviour
of body, speech
&
mind, who did not revile the Noble Ones, who held
right views and
acted
under the influence of right views -- with the
break-up of the body,
after
death, have re-appeared in happy destinations, even in
a divine
world.'
Thus -- by means of the divine eye, purified &
surpassing the human
--
I saw beings passing away & re-appearing, all in
accordance with
their
particular mixture of good & bad kamma.
But the satisfaction that arose in this way did not
invade my mind
nor
remain. With the mind thus concentrated, fully
absorbed, I directed
it
towards understanding the ending of the mental
fermentations. I
realized
how it actually comes to be, that:
Such is Misery...
Such is the cause of Misery...
Such is the end of Misery...
Such is the way to end Misery...
Such was the mental fermentations...
Such is the cause of fermentation...
Such is the end of fermentation...
Such is the way leading to the end of
fermentation.'
When my mind saw that, realized that, it was freed of
the
fermentation of
sense-desire, released from the fermentation of
becoming,
unobstructed by
the fermentation of ignorance. Fully &
perfectly Enlightened - The
Buddha -
perceiving this immense glory, spoke these 2
solemn verses, which
never has
been omitted by any of countless thousands of prior
Buddhas:
Through this round of countless existences have I
searched
yet failed to find 'the Creator', who framed this
formation:
What Misery! is such Endless Birth, Ageing, Decay
& Death!!
Now I see that 'the Constructor' of this structure
is Craving...!!!
Never shall this construction be build again, as all
the rafters
are shattered and the main beam is busted &
broken...
At this stilling of all Craving, mind has finally
calmed…
Then, friends, this vision of certainty arose in me:
This release
is irreversible, this is the last birth, this endless
reappearance
is
finally ended...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PS: Please include the word Samahita in any comment, since
then
will my automatic mail filters pick it up and I will see it &
respond!!
Bhikkhu Samahita, Sri Lanka.
Friendship is the Greatest ...
Let there be Calm & Free Bliss !!!
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