by Harvey Kraft
The Skeptics delighted in Siddhartha Guatama’s return. His reputation as the foremost challenger of meditation and ascetic practice had become legendary among them, even after he returned to society. His old teachers intended to ask him a series of questions, but looking at his glowing countenance they could only wonder if he could be the long-awaited messianic figure they had seen in their visions.
Gautama said only that his Budii brothers had given him a second chance to achieve his life goal. This time he was determined to accomplish the breakthrough he sought when he was younger. When he returned from his vision quest, he said, he would adopt the honorific title the Budii had bestowed on him, that of The Buddha, “The Awakened One.” Now he needed to be alone.
He bid his farewells to his old friends and walked into the cosmic forest.
The time for him had come to confront the demon within. He was determined to face Mara, Lord of Death (aka Demon King of the Sixth Heaven of Desire) or the in the effort. He would not be stopped until he acquired perfect knowledge.
Under the canopy of a starry night sky he sat on the grass-covered ground. Above his head a bountiful tree instantly transformed into the Cosmic Tree its “branches” extended to the far reaches of the biosphere (Gaya) and to the stars in every direction.
Behind him loomed the excellent Cosmic Mountain. It shook more strongly than it had since the first human became aware of the unseen. The Sun, Moon, and Earth aligned in perfect harmony. The Heavens awakened. Brahma rained crimson flowers from the sky. Music filled the air. The Devas danced all around the Cosmic Mountain.
He had entered a meditative trance by roaring the sacred Vedic syllable of OM (pronounced as three sounds: a-u-m). The sound located the stargate that opened to the Universal-Mind. He sensed the energy of humanity shoot up from the tree roots. He felt it explode through his body and up his spine. As it filled his mind, this cosmic luminescence simultaneously burst through the crown of his consciousness and the cosmic treetop sending beams of light into the astral array. The Cosmic Tree welcomed the “foremost shaman of all shamans” into the Universal-Mind. The rustle of its limbs and leaves whispered in his ear this phrase from the Upanisad:
This imperishable syllable is all this.
That is to say:
All that is Past, Present, and Future is OM
And what is beyond Threefold Time—that, too, is OM.118
The colossal Tree of Enlightened Life (Skt. Bodhi tree) was rooted across past, present and future. It had expanded until it was as tall as the Universe and its verdant foliage as bountiful as innumerable stars. Flowers and fruit of “boundless wisdom” suddenly blossomed on its branches.
The Sage of the Saka reflected on its beauty and grandeur:
The flowers and fruit are Buddhas, and those who aspire to become Buddhas; sentient beings are its roots.119
His vision traveled fast across the Universe toward the darkness beyond. Suddenly he found himself standing at the edge of a vast chasm. He could see no end below or across. There he stood as one would stand facing death looking into an abyss of boundless depth and infinite width. A cold wind penetrated his body.
Now he must let go of all that he had ever learned. The knowledge he had acquired in this life must be sacrificed into this pit.
CHAPTER FIVE
Stargazer
Facing the endless darkness, Siddhartha Gautama sat perfectly still, determined to pierce the mortal veil. Time slowed as the last moments of his life closed in upon him. He looked into the cold, inconceivable depths of the black chasm as screams arose from the distant underworld realms of the dead below.
Drawing what seemed to be his last breath, his Individual-Mind emptied of all the knowledge and experiences he had accumulated since birth. His memories suddenly projected on the cosmic wall of darkness. The seeker of Perfect Enlightenment sat silent and motionless as his personal experiences flashed by swallowed into oblivion. One after another the reel rolled back through time:
He saw himself only minutes earlier as he takes his seat at the foot of the Cosmic Tree.
He rides into the forest with the Budii brethren and is greeted by the Skeptics.
Zoroaster smiling whispers in the ear of Darius as he places the crown on his head, “The Magus is gone for good.”
Standing atop the Watchtower at Esagila, Gautama sees distant worlds among the stars.
The Magi Council cheers his Middle Path seminar and appoints him Chief Magus.
Rejecting ascetic practices a young Siddhartha departs for Babylon.
At the Babil of Saka Sanctuary he eagerly studies with teachers from all religions, excelling in world history, mythic languages, star charting, and divination.
He is a child when his father takes him to watch visionaries dancing around a ritual fire deliriously celebrating their immortality. They drink Soma singing in chorus and repeatedly chanting: “Our souls are destined for the rewards of immortality in Heaven.”
Suddenly like a giant flame leaping from the fire of Cosmic Time, the voice of the dark lord of fate, thunders forth while the immortal dancers continue to dance around the fire.
The serpent Kala,120 calls out this challenge to the immovable Gautama:
“As Existence is extinguished in the Fire of Time, its charred remains reveal the endless capacity of humans for self-delusion and an insatiable appetite for power and violence. How can one who has beheld such incontrovertible Truth expect to enter the ultimate realm of Perfect Wisdom?”
With each word Kala takes another bite out of time.
But Gautama is silent.
The images of his personal experiences are like a gentle breeze touching his face.
Kala realizes that he has failed to shake his resolve.
The flames begin to dim, the dance of the euphoric celebrants slows, until the fire suffocates and the dancers turn into ashes.
The dark lord having received no reply spits at the ambers, and laughing he dives down into the chasm.
Out of the darkness, a pinpoint of light emerges.
Siddhartha is born. He sees his mother Maya holding him close to her breast.
It’s dark again for an extended time until suddenly the unwinding retrospective resumes. The screening begins to display events reflecting Siddhartha Gautama’s Shared-Mind housing his knowledge of human history, starting from recent times and rolling back at increasing speed all the way to the awakening of the first shaman visionary:
Darius is seen ordering his generals to murder Kambujiya.
Kambujiya is seen ordering the murder of his brother Bardiya.
Cyrus, Kambujia’s father, is killed in battle.
A humiliated Kambujiya rides the white ox leaving Esagila with his father’s crown.
Babylon falls to the Persians as Cyrus consolidates the Babylonian and Medes Empires.
The interfaith Magi and ascetic sages in many lands predict the coming of a Savior-Teacher, the One-Who-Comes to Declare the Truth
Under penalty of death Daniel interprets the Emperor Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the giant metallic robot and predicts the fate of Babylon’s future regimes.
The Chaldean stargazer-seers first look into a lapis lazuli tablet to read destinies in the stars.
Nebuchadnezzar rebuilds the Esagila Ziggurat in Babylon and destroys the Judean Temple in Jerusalem built by King Solomon.
The Magi of Babylon, keepers of border stone markers, draw up a World Map.
The brutal Assyrian Empire falls.
The five tribes of Medes with the help of Israelite exiles unite to overthrow Assyria.
The Israelites arrive in Medes cast out of their promised land by their own God.
The Assyrian Empire dominates, ravages and enslaves in the name of civilization.
The Upanisad Brahmins claim exclusive right to merge the soul with the divine self.
The Saka (Arya Scythians) descend south into Greater Aryana.
The Arya shamans of the Lion-Sun tradition compose the hymns of the
Rig Veda as they migrate east and settle in Gandhara of the Indus Valley.
Abraham heads for the Promised Land following the Almighty One, Elohim.
In Hammurabi’s Babylon Marduk assumes the role of the Supreme Being, from which all other gods emanate.
The Arya leave the cold climes of the Black Sea.
The Akkadian Gods fall as the Epic Drought sweeps away the old religions.
Akhenaten and Nefertiti declare Aten, the Sun Disc, to be the one and only god.
The Minoan and Harappan civilizations show what civilization can accomplish. They are the first innovators, builders, sailors, artists, and traders.
Large gatherings at Egyptian and Sumerian temples pray to a host of giant idols.
Khufu builds the Great Pyramid, emulating the Cosmic Mountain, to facilitate his journey to immortality beyond the stars.
Gilgamesh’s “Stairway to Heaven” Ziggurat collapses, ending his quest to climb the Cosmic Mountain in search of immortality.
In Sumer, the clergy of Kish reveals the Three Universal Gifts: the illumination of life, the weaving of consciousness, and the medicines that bring health.
The God Enlil orders the Great Flood, and the God Enki sends the Sun to the rescue.
Horse-mounted militaries attack the first successful settlements of civilization, causing walled and gated cities to be built. War becomes the means for domination.
The Great Freeze drives humans underground.
Man discovers the gods.
A shaman Spirit-Seer climbs the Cosmic Mountain and sees the triple-level world.
The first Lion-Sun shaman roars and opens the gateway channel in the center of the world.
Tribal shamans discover that they can talk to, listen to, call to, and see the Spirits.
On the verge of death and extinction the early ones wander the world in wonderment.
The first human being to sit under the Sacred Tree of Illumination is enlightened by the revelation that an unseen world exists beyond what is apparent. The human brain makes an evolutionary leap.
VICTORY
The images of the past ended. The darkness was stark again. The silence was endless.
“Across the Universe you can find many worlds of peace, my dearest,” a woman’s voice is heard. His mother Maya,121 meaning “illusion,” emerged from the emptiness, her face aglow at seeing her dear son.
“My wonderful Siddhartha,” she said, her voice quivering and her eyes tearing. “I left you in childbirth so that you would have no illusions about life or death. You have done magnificently in learning, giving of yourself, and achieving the Truth. Come with me now. It is time for you to enter the realm that is beyond all time, beyond all place, beyond all thoughts and emotions, and beyond all limitations. Come my dearest son. Drink in the full scope of Perfect Knowledge without any further delay. Fulfill your honorable desire. Leave this mortal world behind and forever transcend the illusions of humankind. Enter now, World-honored One, and take your place on the throne of glorious Perfect Enlightenment in the Nirvana of Non-Birth.”
While she spoke, the seeker’s ears were listening to a stream of enlightened phrases, the wisdom emanating from the cosmic Sacred Tree under which he sat; the words of innumerable Buddhas overtook his mother’s voice.
Siddhartha Gautama looked right through his mother’s conjured image and saw the Great Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, Mara, hidden behind her. He had reached the stage of invulnerability to temptations. He had arrived at the gate of Perfect Knowledge, the crossing into the Enlightened Realm.
Guarding the gate, the seducer-serpent licked his lips with a great forked tongue, not yet realizing that he had been discovered. Mara, the deceiver, father of false gods, known for his role in deporting the earliest humans from the paradise of divine innocence, had himself been banished from the Sacred Tree. In vengeance he had vowed for all time to keep others from reaching the illumination of Perfect Wisdom.
For his part, the Sage of the Saka was focused on entering the state between the worlds of Existence and Non-Existence through the gate of Nirvana. His mind was as still as a space with no winds, where deceptions and diversions could not penetrate. From it flowed a single thought directed at the gatekeeper’s clever attempt to appeal to his ego.
“I have no intention of retiring to the Nirvana of Non-Birth at this time, Mara, for I am not alone in my quest. Know this: pretending to deceive me with your wisdom-murdering illusions has failed. Hear now my promise and keep it in your mind always. Innumerable seekers will enter through my gates of liberation before I ever consider my departure from the worlds of mortals. I am not here for the first time, nor will this be my last advent. I vow to be born again and again opening the way for all beings to discover the ultimate Truth of the Reality of All Existence. You will never stop this great population from entering the Buddha-land with me and after me. This is my reason for being. So be gone, lonely Mara, for your days are numbered.”
Mara recoiled as these words rained down upon him like a barrage of stones. Convulsing, like a snail in a hurry to retract into his shell, the coward disappeared back into the darkness.
At this moment a bright cosmic light powerful like the Sun, burst forth from the Sacred Tree of Illumination, as recorded in the Flower Garland Sutra (Skt. Avatamsaka Sutra):
The Sacred Tree of Illumination was tall and outstanding. Its trunk made of diamond; its main boughs of lapis lazuli; its branches and twigs were of various precious elements. Its leaves and precious blossoms were made of various colors; its branches spread to the stars in all directions provided shade over the cosmic world. Its fruits were jewels containing a blazing radiance interspersed together with flowers in great arrays. The entire circumference of the Sacred Tree emanated light across a vast space; within these beams of light were rains of precious stones, and within each gem were Enlightening Beings gathered in great assemblies, like cloud formations, all appearing simultaneously as if time did not exist . . . Therein, by virtue of the awesome spiritual power of the Buddha, the Sacred Tree constantly and without end gave forth sublime sounds and emitted phrases of various Enlightened Truths.122
The audio afterglow of Universal Truth emanating from the tree vibrated in Siddhartha’s Universal-Mind taking him on a journey among the stars, across the Universe, across all time. At once he saw that everywhere throughout innumerable worlds living beings experienced a myriad of conditions, spanning from great suffering to sublime joy.
Great assemblies of Enlightening Beings (Skt. Bodhisattvas) appeared before him to pledge their assistance in his cause.
As the outer limits of the Universe fell away untold numbers of dimensions opened before him like the petals of a blossom. Images from throughout Existence and beyond eagerly revealed to him all their hidden secrets of Enlightenment. His visionary trance exploded with sparkling lights and delightful landscapes, the images now reflecting the profoundly beautiful Reality perfectly endowed within everything:
Giant lotus flowers emit bursts of light in numerous colors.
Distant lands appear in every direction.
Throughout boundless space animated sentient beings rejoice to celebrate his presence.
Everywhere the Nature Spirits of land, air, fire and water shake with delight.
Celestial spirits, giant heavenly bodies, appear in endless numbers at unlimited scale.
He sees himself in lives gone by as numerous as the innumerable stars.
Here he lives and dies. There he aspires to learn. Untold times he attains his goal and teaches many devotees who follow from life to life.
Beyond Existence he sees his original self.
He discovers the place where the Universal Laws were made and put into motion.
All the secrets of Existence and Non-Existence lay bear before him like a simple phrase.
He sees wisdom made of Information-bodies in myriad states of probability, manifestation, and condition.
Buddhas throughout all Existence greet him with broth
erly love.
In unison, they extend their long tongues of Truth across the boundless cosmos in every direction, expressing all the Buddha-wisdom that ever was, is, or will forever be.
At that moment the seeker who had been the King of Babylon instantly transforms into the One-Who-Comes to Declare the Truth, the light emitting from his mind exposing all the mysteries of the cosmic field.
The ground beneath him shakes six ways.
Red flowers rain from the sky.
All the heavenly residents of the Cosmic Mountain cheer and applaud.
All at once all the unseen is seen: the Truth of the Reality of All Existence and its innumerable meanings; the boundless field of the Universal-Mind and its laws of order and continuity; the pure and infinite essence of Existence infused with Life’s evolutionary capacity.
He takes his seat on the Lion-throne of the Buddha.
He sits silent and motionless in the Sacred Place of Jewels in his Buddha-land of Tranquil Light—abiding yet emerging; departing yet returning; all-encompassing, yet in the here and now; his body neither coming nor going; always traveling, transmigrating, yet never leaving his Buddha-land, bathed in the pure joy of tranquil light radiating from the boundless, indestructible, all-wise, ever-present, yet ever-changing Universal-Mind.
He is at once here in the mortal realm and omnipresent everywhere, as well as beyond past, present, and future and beyond Existence and Non-Existence, bathing in the light of infinite wisdom.
The road ahead is clear.
He knows now his true identity and mission.
Victory.
The starting point for all that is to come.
