Guide to the Buddhas (Meeting the Buddhas) by Vessantara

Guide to the Buddhas (Meeting the Buddhas) by Vessantara

Author:Vessantara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Windhorse Publications Ltd
Published: 2013-09-27T04:00:00+00:00


Ratnasambhava

Seven

The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel in the South

The sun is climbing overhead. It is time to travel on round the mandala, following the sun, to come into the southern realm. To arrive at the southern gate you will have to cross a great desert. You set out on foot with a servant, an aboriginal. At first there are trees and shrubs, then nothing: just sand. The desert winds pile it into extraordinary shapes. There are sand waves, sand fortresses, sand statues, sand rivers between banks of sand. The sun sparkles on it. Time passes, yet the sun seems to hang directly overhead. Sometimes, in the distance, herds of wild horses pass. It is getting very hot and very dry. You remember tales of people lost in the desert. You begin to feel as though you are made of sand. It is in your teeth, in your hair – the sand is taking you over.

Your servant offers suggestions. You don’t listen – you have your map and compass, and perhaps you are too proud to take advice. You are prospecting for jewels. No, not jewels, just one jewel. You were told as you left the eastern realm that in the south you would find a wish-fulfilling jewel, a jewel which, like Aladdin’s lamp, would grant all your desires. It is the gift of Ratnasambhava, the Buddha of the south – whose name means ‘born from the jewel’. You trudge on. From time to time you see something that you think will satisfy your wishes embodied in a place or a person, but they all turn out to be mirages.

Finally there is nothing left. You are lost. The palace of Ratnasambhava is no nearer. Your servant is still moving along easily beside you, casting occasional anxious glances in your direction. He seems unhurried and unworried. You swallow your pride – the only thing you can still swallow – and ask him if he knows where you are, knows where to find the wish-fulfilling jewel. He looks surprised. Didn’t you know? You had seemed so sure of yourself that he had assumed you did, but then why else would you give yourself such suffering? The wish-fulfilling jewel? Why he’ll give it to you. He picks up a grain of sand and places it carefully in the palm of your hand.

Is this a joke? Could he have picked out one particular grain from all the others? No. It sits in your hand, glittering in the sun. You feel ridiculous asking a grain of sand to grant your heart’s desire. Nonetheless, your servant is looking at you expectantly. You have nothing to lose. You make a wish to enter the southern realm of the mandala, known as ‘the Glorious’.

Instantly you are standing in a vast and fertile plain. In all directions ripe wheat is waving in the gentle breeze. Your thirst has disappeared. Ahead of you is a palace. It is not huge and imposing, but beautifully proportioned and regular. It is built on a human scale, like the temples of ancient Greece.



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