Alexandr Korol

that when Mara, the God of Death, sent his daughters — it wasn’t physical, not literal, not actual girls or women — it was, as you can see, qualities, negative qualities of a person. And I also want you to pay attention to what Buddha did — the only thing he did — he pointed to the earth with his hand. This is very similar to how Jesus struggled with the demon, where it was also a spiritual, inner battle with that dark force. And the dark force is precisely those doubts, temptations, delusions — this whole theme. And they resisted not physically, but by, let’s say, not believing in it, staying in their calm state, and putting even more emphasis on simply being in the here and now. That’s it. Alright, let’s move on. “The army immediately dispersed, and the gods of all worlds scattered garlands of flowers. Having achieved this preliminary victory before sunset, the victor, during the first watch of the night, attained knowledge of his past lives; during the second watch — the divine eye of all-seeing vision; and during the final watch — understanding of the chain of causality. At the arrival of dawn, he experienced full enlightenment. Then for seven days Gautama — now the Buddha, the Enlightened One — sat motionless in bliss. For seven days he stood aside and contemplated the place where he had attained enlightenment. For seven days he walked back and forth between the place where he had sat and the place where he had stood. For seven days he remained in a pavilion erected by the gods and contemplated the teaching of causality and liberation. For seven days he sat beneath the tree where the girl Sujata had offered him milk rice in a golden bowl, and meditated on the doctrine of Nirvana’s bliss. He moved to another tree, and for seven days a terrible storm raged, but from the roots of the tree emerged the King of Serpents, who shielded the Buddha by spreading his hood. And finally, for seven days the Buddha sat beneath a fourth tree, still enjoying the bliss of liberation. Then he doubted whether he could convey his revelation to others and considered keeping the wisdom to himself; but from the zenith descended the god Brahma and asked him to become the teacher of gods and men. Thus the Buddha came closer to proclaiming the Path. And then he returned to the cities of men, where, communicating with the inhabitants of the world, he gave them the priceless gift of the knowledge of the Path.”
Well, this is truly “wow.” Why? Because when I first read this text just a few days ago, I saw the whole picture and realized that when he became the Buddha —