Bodhisattva Gautama, remain true to his resolution to practice meditation. Mara, the tempter was alarmed by his progress and appeared to dissuade him. Mara tried to reason with him that the search for Truth is hard and long. "You look so thin and pale, almost on the verge of death. Truth is still far away and life is short, go back and enjoy your remaining years in the palace. Take my advise friend." said Mara.

The Bodhisattva replied, "You! Friend of the indolent, the wicked one. Why do you come and tempt me? I have faith, power and understanding. While I am exerting myself, why do you speak of enjoyment? While the body may waste away, the mind gets more tranquil, meditation gets more steadfast, and understanding deepens. I no longer look for sensual pleasures."

At this, Mara disappeared. Next arrived many beautiful maidens of various kind, They danced provocatively and tried their best to seduce the Bodhisattva away from his effort. Gautama remained steadfast and continue with his meditation. The maidens disappeared just as mysteriously as they appeared.

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Weapons changed into flower petals

 

A terrible roar shook the world and armies of Mara gathered in full force, surrounding the Bodhisattva. They rained weapons of all kind at the Bodhisattva. However, these metals only turned into flowers when they neared the Bodhisattva. All sorts of threats like boulders, fire balls and tidal waves are aimed at the Bodhisattva. Thoughout all this, the Bodhisattva remained mindful and clam and his concentration became stronger than ever. ; Registration code (if you have it) ; Reglink opened in new frame? ; Name of new frame for reglink ; Image 1 to load ; Image 2 to load ; link 1 ; link 2 ; statusbar msg on image 1 ; statusbar msg on image 2 ; resolution (1-8) ; speed of fade (1-255) ; pause (value = milliseconds). ; Progresive fading ("YES" or "NO") ; Optional image over applet ; Over image X offset ; Over image Y offset ; Memory deallocation delay ; Task priority (1..10) ; Min. milliseconds/frame for sync Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java ; Msg in no java browsers

"Desire, discontent, hunger and thirst, craving, laziness and drowsiness, cowardice, doubt, hypocrisy and dullness, gain, fame, honour, celebrity and conceit - these are your armies. None but the brave will conquer them. Death in battle is better for me than living defeated. Seeing on all sides an army, I am going to fight. I will shatter your armies with understanding, just as one shatters a claypot with a stone. Having my thoughts under contrl, and my attention firm, I shall go from kingdom to kingdom, training many disciples. They will be determine and energetic.

Mara was shaken and retreated submissively.

Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java. On the night of the full moon in the 5th month of the year, Bodhisattva Gautama attained Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree at Boddhagaya. That night, he was in deep mediatation. In that calm and purified state, he was able to focus his mind single pointed.

In the first part of the night, he developed mental power by which he recollect his past life in detail. In the middle of the night, he developed the mental power to see the past lives of others. He saw how the good begets good and evil doer suffers ultimately. Finally, just before dawn, the Buddha realised that all things arise dependent upon causes. Suffering is caused by desire and ignorance. Therefore, when these are removed, suffering does not arise. After this realisation, he was freed from desire and ignorance and rebirth. He acquired perfect wisdom and attained Enlightenment.

"Truly, when things are revealed to one who earnestly meditates, Then his doubts disappear completely for he understands things and their causes.

At the age of thirty five, he had become a Buddha.

After the Enlightenment, Buddha remained seated in deep meditation under the Bodhis tree for seven days, experiencing the bliss of freedom. For the next seven days, He stood gazing at the Bodhi tree and reflected upon the usefulness of the tree during crucial period before Enlightenment.

Out of compassion for mankind, the Buddha was then ready to spread His Teachings to all who could benefit from it. He surveyed the world with is mind to find out who is most receptive to his teachings. He found that his two teachers, Arada and Udraka had already passed away and the next best choice would be the five ascetic who accompanied him before. They were in the deer park at Varanasi then.

Buddha walked for days to reach the deer park. When the five ascetic saw the Buddha approaching they all decied to ignore him. However, as he came close, they noticed that he had somehow changed and it became very difficult to show disrespect. Having settled down, the Buddha delivered His first sermin which is known as The Turning of the Wheel of the Dharma. The first to understand was Kaundinya, who requested the Buddha to ordain him. When the rest of the ascetic understood the teaching, they too asked for ordination.

"Come, monk! Lead a religious life to make a complete end of suffering."  With this, the first order of Buddhist monks was formed.