What Is the Dharma? by Sangharakshita

Author:Sangharakshita
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9781907314360
Publisher: Booksource
Published: 2012-08-21T22:00:00+00:00

Dispassion

In dependence upon withdrawal arises vairagya, which can be translated, approximately at least, as ‘dispassion’. This stage differs from the previous one in that while withdrawal is the movement of detachment from conditioned existence, dispassion is the state of actually being detached. In this state you can’t be moved or stirred or touched by any worldly happening. This isn’t hardness or insensitivity, but a state of serene imperturbability, like that exemplified by the Buddha just before his Enlightenment.

According to legend, when the Buddha was sitting under the bodhi tree along came Mara, the embodiment of evil – or, it would be more accurate to say, the embodiment of samsara – with his forces. In depictions of this episode in Buddhist art you see Mara leading his army, with elephants and horses and soldiers and all sorts of monstrous demon figures, and they’re throwing great rocks and spitting fire and releasing arrows against the Buddha, hundreds and thousands of them swarming and swirling around. But the Buddha doesn’t take any notice. He doesn’t even see them, doesn’t even look, doesn’t even listen. He’s in a state of complete imperturbability, complete dispassion.80 And this is what this stage represents. You’re so firmly fixed in the truth, your mind is so absorbed in the Unconditioned, that nothing can touch you.

There’s a beautiful touch in these representations of the defeat of Mara in Buddhist art. As all the arrows, all the stones, all the flames that are hurled by these demon hosts close in on the Buddha, as they whizz through the air, when they touch the edge of his halo they just turn into flowers and fall to the ground. So this is the state of dispassion. All the forces of Mara may rise up against you, all these weapons may come hurtling through the air, but as soon as they touch the edge of your halo, they just turn into flowers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.