Philosophies of India

SR No.: 007309
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Heinrich Zimmer, Joseph Campbell
Publisher: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd
Publication Year: 1953
Total Pages: 709
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 34 MB

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JAINISM
mud, and finally a great darkness to assail him. But the Future Buddha was not moved. The missiles became flowers as they entered the field of his concentration. Māra hurled a keen discus, but it changed into a canopy of blossoms. Then the god challenged the right of the Blessed One to be sitting there, beneath the Bo Tree, on the Immovable Spot; whereupon the Future Buddha only touched the carth with the tips of the fingers of his right hand and the earth thundered, testifying: “I bear you witness!" with a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand roars. Māra's army dispersed, and all the gods of the heavens descended with garlands, perfumes, and other offerings in their hands.
That night, while the Bo Trce beneath which he sat rained down red blossoms, the Savior acquired in the first watch the knowledge of his previous existences, in the middle watch the divine eye, and in the last the understanding of dependent origination. He was now the Buddha. The ten thousand worlds quaked twelve times, as far as to the occan shores. Flags and banners broke from every quarter. Lotuses blooined on every tree. And the system of the ten thousand worlds was like a bouquet of flowers sent whirling through the air."
Obviously this final victory closely resembles that of Pārśvanātha, except that the serpent, "Lord of the Earth," has not yet appeared. Instead, the Earth herself defends the hero. However, the Buddha legend goes on to relate that the Blessed One sat cross-legged seven days at the foot of the Bo Tree, following this achievement, enjoying the bliss of emancipation, then moved to the Banyan Tree of the Goatherd, where he sat another seven days, and next moved to the so-called Mucalinda Tree. Now Mucalinda was the name of a great serpent, and his abode was among the roots of this very tree. While the Buddha was experiencing there the beatitude of enlightenment, there
21 Jälaka 1. 68. (Reduced from the translation by Henry Clarke Warren, Buddhism in Translations, Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. III, Cambridge, Mass., 1922, pp. 76-83.)
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