Facing maya within
More often than not, something of such extraordinary psychological tenacity has evolutionary underpinnings, which means that they would have been favoured along the course of the natural evolution of our species due to conferring a prominent survival advantage. And it isn't hard to imagine how maya would have been favoured by evolution. The idea and experience of Brahman did little to improve the reproductive fitness of the primaeval human. All that they needed to perpetuate themselves—from invading neighbouring chiefdoms to warding off assailants—only made sense in the presence of maya, and it is the world of maya that our innate faculties needed to master. And maya remains as relevant to us today in our lives as it ever did, which effectively rules out the possibility of us ever losing this embedded mental programme.
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Time of India
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New Indian Express
2 days ago
- New Indian Express
Facing maya within
Maya is real. It is as real as it is misunderstood. One can contend that it is less real than the absolute reality, that which Vedanta calls Brahman, but even such gradations are open to question. Swami Vivekananda has given a felicitous definition of maya—what we are and what we see around us. One can understand it simply as the manifold world we all know as 'our world'. And as much spirituality seeks to cut through maya to expose the absolute, the fact is that its tenacity remains scandalously underappreciated, precisely why most spiritual expeditions fall short of the finishing line. Its roots run into the greatest depths of psychology and preponderate on the unconscious, which makes it crucial to adopt a scientific approach towards countering it. More often than not, something of such extraordinary psychological tenacity has evolutionary underpinnings, which means that they would have been favoured along the course of the natural evolution of our species due to conferring a prominent survival advantage. And it isn't hard to imagine how maya would have been favoured by evolution. The idea and experience of Brahman did little to improve the reproductive fitness of the primaeval human. All that they needed to perpetuate themselves—from invading neighbouring chiefdoms to warding off assailants—only made sense in the presence of maya, and it is the world of maya that our innate faculties needed to master. And maya remains as relevant to us today in our lives as it ever did, which effectively rules out the possibility of us ever losing this embedded mental programme.
Scroll.in
6 days ago
- Scroll.in
‘At his feet I pay homage, cupping my hands in reverence': The Buddha as man, animal, and god
Homage to the Bhagavan, the enlightened one, the fully awakened Buddha. For many hundreds of thousands of births, immeasurable benefit to the world has been brought about by the leader of the world: the great sage. At his feet I pay homage, cupping my hands in reverence to the teaching, and bowing down to the Sangha, the vessel of all honour! I have cut through obstacles by the great power resulting from the merit of this homage to the three jewels: For the birth stories, starting with 'The True Story Jataka,' taught long ago by the brilliant sage, act by act, births in which, for a long time, the Teacher, the guide dedicated to the salvation of the world, brought the ingredients for awakening to ripeness – for acquiring all these birth stories, long recited together under the name of 'Jataka' by the chanters and compilers of the Buddha's teaching, the Elder Atthadassina approached me and inquired, hoping to preserve this lineage story of the Buddha. Atthadassina lives apart from the world, always in the company of other monks; I was also asked in the same way by the wise and calm Buddhamitta, who was born in the lineage of mahimsasaka, and is knowledgable in method; and in the same way by Buddhadeva, also a wise monk. So, this commentary on the birth stories, which illustrates the splendour of the inconceivable actions of a great man, I will recite, in the way those who live in the Great Monastery explain it. May good people grasp fully what I am saying! And this commentary on the birth stories will be comprehensible to listeners when I have explained the far origin, the near origin, and the recent origin – so long as they have understood it from its beginning. So, I will recount it, after explaining and making clear the three origins. The division into these three origins from the beginning should be understood as follows: The course of the story of the Great Being's existence, from the time that he made a resolution to become a Buddha at the feet of Dipankara to his appearance in the Tusita heaven after falling away from his life as Vessantara, is called the far origin. The course of the story from his falling away from the Tusita to his attainment of awakening on the ground by the Bodhi Tree is called the near origin. And the recent origin is found in all the various places at which he stayed on his travels, in this place and that. Now follows the far origin. The story of Sumedha They say that a hundred thousand eons and four incalculable epochs ago, there was a city called Amaravati. In that city lived a Brahman called Sumedha. He was respected, being of irreproachable birth, completely pure descent on both mother's and father's side for seven generations: a man of a noble line, of handsome appearance, good-looking, friendly, and endowed with an excellent, lotus-like complexion. He applied himself only to his Brahmanic studies, not taking on anything else. While he was still young, his parents died. Then, a minister who was in charge of his wealth brought the accounts book and opened the rooms filled with gold, silver, jewels, pearls, and other valuables. He said: 'Young man, so much belonged to your mother, so much to your father, so much to your grandparents and great-grandparents.' Pointing out to him the wealth inherited from seven generations, he said: 'Guard this well.' The wise Sumedha reflected, 'When my parents and all the rest of my ancestors passed on to another world, they could not take even one little coin with them. Is it right for me to try to take it with me?' So, after telling the king, he had a drum beaten around the city, gave his wealth to the people at large, and went out into homelessness as an ascetic. To make this matter clear, the story of Sumedha needs to be told. Although it is given in full in the Buddhavamsa, it is not so clearly explained because it is in verse. I will tell it here, with sentences at intervals explaining the verses. Four incalculable epochs and a hundred thousand eons ago, there was a city, resounding with ten sounds, called Amaravati or Amara, about which this is said in the Buddhavamsa: A hundred thousand eons and four incalculable epochs ago, there was a city called Amara – Deathless – beautiful and delightful. It was filled with the ten sounds and was abundant in food and drink combined: The trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, drums, conches, carriages, and the shouting of offers of food and drink: 'Eat! Drink!'
