Buddha's Enlightenment

There is a common way of  depicting the story of the Buddha's moment of enlightenment where the Earth Deva wrings out her hair, full of tears, and washes away the hosts of Mara. This is the Deva letting go of its grieving for the earth. To my mind this is also like the mysterious phrase in the suttas of 'the body realising the deathless' because at this moment the samādhi ​of the Buddha was brought down to earth through mindfulness of the body. This is how the Buddha let go of the world and grief for the world together (having previously let go of covetousness when leaving the palace). Letting go of attachment through seeing suffering is all that is needed for the mind to go beyond the elements. This is letting go of the world.

And, if we like a good fairy tale, we can understand this literally or as a way of depicting the dynamics by which the power of samādhi takes the mind to liberation. The Buddha could thus be the connection between the power of the Devas and the earth. The Deva channelled by the mind of a man may reach back from their abiding beyond to ‘save the world’ with pure emptiness.


I offer this for your reflection

Ajahn Kalyāno
http://www.openthesky.co.uk
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