The Last Thread
When the Buddha was almost ripe, filled with the warmth of the sun and sweetening like an autumn fruit, he was called by Sujata's golden bowl to the Bo Tree. There the great Lord Kama-Mara attacked him with his thousand arms and with his armies of warriors, pernicious like fumes assaulting the air. But the Buddha differentiated between victory and liberation and was not disturbed. Then the great Lord Kama-Mara called his three daughters Desire, Pining, and Lust, each one more enticing than all the perfumes of the gods, but the Buddha discerned the difference between relief and release and was not aroused. Furious, the great Lord Kama-Mara challenged the Buddha's right to be and the Buddha, who understood the dependence of all life on the Earth, gently placed his fingertips onto her skin, asking her to be his witness. Supported by the goddess' joyous affirmation, the great Lord Buddha, now perfect like a golden pear, let go. |
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