The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume I)Bigandet, Paul Ambroise
Religion
The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume I)
Bigandet, Paul Ambroise
Buddhism -- Burma; Burma -- Religion; Gautama Buddha
Having thus spent seven days in that place, close to the Bodi tree, he
repaired to the foot of another gniaong tree, called adzapala, or the
shepherds' tree, so called because, under its cooling shade, shepherds
and their flocks of goats rested during the heat of the day. It was
situated at the east of the Bodi, at a distance of thirty fathoms. There
he sat in a cross-legged position, during seven days, enjoying the
sweetness of self-recollection. It was near to that place that the vile
Manh, who, since his great attack on Buddha, had never lost sight of
him, but had always secretly followed him with a wicked spirit, was
compelled to confess that he had not been able to discover in that Rahan
anything blamable, and expressed the fear of seeing him at once pass
over the boundaries of his empire. The tempter stooped in the middle of
the highway, and across it drew successively sixteen lines, as he went
on reflecting on sixteen different subjects. When he had thought over
each of the ten great virtues, he drew, first, ten lines, saying: "The
great Rahan has indeed practised to a high degree those ten virtues. I
cannot presume to compare myself to him." In drawing the eleventh, he
confessed that he had not, like that Rahan, the science that enabled to
know the inclinations and dispositions of all beings. In drawing the
twelfth, he said that he had not as yet acquired the knowledge of all
that concerns the nature of the various beings. Drawing the four
remaining lines, he confessed successively that he did not feel, like
that Rahan, a tender compassion for the beings yet entangled in the
miseries of existence, nor could he perform miracles, nor perceive
everything, nor attain to the perfect and supreme knowledge of the law.
On all these subjects he avowed his decided inferiority to the great
Rahan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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