Trees and the Buddha's enlightenment

Buddhanet.net (e-learning, Buddhism, Life of the Buddha) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

The future-buddha Siddhartha under the bodhi tree as the tempter Mara attacks (wiki)

(Part 1) 18. Seven Weeks After the Buddha's Enlightenment by Buddhanet.net

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UNDER THE BODHI TREE

During the first week after enlightenment, the Buddha sat under the bodhi tree experiencing the bliss of freedom and peace. He was free from disturbing thoughts, serene and joyful.

GAZING AT THE TREE

The original bodhi tree from cutting, India

During the second week, with thanks and gratitude to the tree that had sheltered him during his struggle for buddhahood, the Buddha stood without moving his eyes as he meditated on the bodhi tree.

Following this example, it is the custom of Buddhists to pay respect to not only the original bodhi tree, but also to the descendants of the bodhi tree that still thrive today.

THE GOLDEN BRIDGE

In the third week, the Buddha saw through his mind’s eye that the devas in the heavens (space) were not sure whether he had attained enlightenment or not. To prove his enlightenment the Buddha created a golden bridge in the air and walked up and down it for a week.

THE JEWELLED CHAMBER

In the fourth week, he created a beautiful jewelled chamber and sitting inside it meditated on what was later known as the "Detailed Teaching" (Abhidharma). His mind and body were so purified that an aura of six colored rays came out of his body: blue, yellow, red, white, orange, and a blend of these five.

Today these six colors make up the Buddhist flag. Each color represented one noble quality of the Buddha: yellow for sanctity (enlightenment-level), white for purity, blue for confidence (faith), red for wisdom, and orange for contentment (desirelessness). The mixed color represents a blend of all of these noble qualities.

THREE GIRLS

During the fifth week, while meditating under a banyan tree, three most charming "girls" called Tanha, Rati, and Raga [Mara's daughters Craving, Ennui, and Lust] came to disturb his meditation. They "danced" in a most seductive manner and did everything to tempt the Buddha to watch their dance. Yet, he continued to meditate unperturbed, and soon they tired and left him in peace.

THE MUCALINDA TREE

The Buddha then went and meditated at the foot of a mucalinda tree. It began to rain heavily. And a huge king cobra (naga 7) came out coiling his body seven times around the Buddha to keep him warm. It also placed his hood over the Buddha’s head to protect him from the rain. After seven days the rain stopped and the snake changed into a young man (reptilian) who paid his respects to the Buddha. The Buddha then said:

"Happy are they who are contented. Happiness is for those who hear and know the truth. Happy are they who have good will in this world towards all sentient beings. Happy are they who have no attachments and have passed beyond sense desires. The disappearance of the conceit 'I am' is indeed the highest happiness."

THE RAJAYATANA TREE

The great golden stupa (reliquary mound) at the center of Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma

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During the seventh week, the Buddha meditated under the rajayatana tree. On the 50th morning, after seven weeks of fasting, two merchants came into his presence. They were called Tapussa and Bhallika. They offered the Buddha rice cakes and honey to break his fast. The Buddha told them some of what he had found by his enlightenment.

These two merchants, by taking guidance (sarana) in the Buddha and the Dharma (the "enlightenment teachings of a supremely enlightened being"), became the first Buddhist lay followers.

 

There was no Sangha (monastic order with monks and nuns) yet. They asked the Buddha for something sacred to keep with them. The Buddha wiped his head with his right hand and pulled out some hair to give to them.

These hair relics, called kesa dhatu, were later reputedly enshrined by the merchants on their return home to what is now known as Burma. They became the central relics of the great Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon. More

What are "dragons" (nagas)?

G.P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Garuda carries off naga in LA then gets the surprise of its life as it is nearly strangled, brought down, and the snake slithers away unscathed, Echo Park (Ranger Kate/laist.com).

Fantasy? Buddha protected by 7-headed naga.

Nāgas are a class of beings classed with garulas and supannas (garudas and suparnas, avian-hybrids, bird people, giant pterodactyl-like eagles) and playing a prominent part in Buddhist folklore. They are gifted with miraculous powers and great strength.

 

Generally speaking, they are confused with snakes, chiefly the hooded cobra, and their bodies are described as being those of snakes, though they can (shapeshift) assume human form (or other appearance) at will.

 

They are broadly divided into two classes, those that live on land (thalaja) and those that live on water (jalaja). The jalaja-nāgā live in rivers as well as in the sea, whereas the thalaja-nāgā are regarded as living beneath the surface of the earth (subterranean). Several nāga dwellings are mentioned in the books, such as:

Unbelievable REALITY: 7-headed cobra naga born in India (beforeitsnews.com)

• Mañjerika-bhavana under Mt. Sineru (Sumeru),
• Daddara-bhavana at the foot of Mt. Daddara in the Himālaya,
• Dhatarattha-nāgā under the Yamunā river,
• Nābhāsā Nāgā in Lake Nabhasa,
• Nāgas of Vesāli, Tacchaka, and Payāga (D.ii.258).

The Monastic Disciplinary Code (Vinaya, ii.109) contains a list of four royal families of nāgas (Ahirājakulāni):

1. Virūpakkhā
2. Erāpathā
3. Chabyāputtā
4. Kanhagotamakā.

Some nagas live in rivers as serpentine behemoths, like this Amazon arapaima.

 
Two other nāga tribes are generally mentioned together, the Kambalas and the Assataras. It is said (SA.iii.120) that all nāgas have their young in the Himālaya.

Human-naga, reptilian

Stories are given -- for example, in the Bhūridatta Jātaka -- of nāgas, both male and female (nāgis), mating with humans (and creating hybrids we call reptilians today).

But originally the offspring of the first attempts of such unions were "watery and delicate" (J.vi.160).

Spitting cobra (Profberger)

The nāgas are easily angered and passionate, their breath is poisonous (i.e., fire breathing dragons or venomous spitting ringhals), and even their glance can be deadly (J.vi.160, 164) [like a mesmerizing "demon" or "ogre," yakkha, rakshasas, some dimensional and Bigfoot species].
 
They are carnivorous (J.iii.361), their diet consisting chiefly of frogs (J.vi.169), and they sleep, when in the world of humans, on ant hills (Ibid., 170). The enmity between the nāgas and the garulas is proverbial (D.ii.258).

Naga (dragon) adorns temple ceiling, Kiyomizu-dera, Japan (Divemasterking2000/flickr).

 

With devi (Game of Thrones)

At first the garulas (avians) did not know how to seize the nāgas (reptilians), because the latter swallowed large stones so as to be of great weight, but they learned how in the Pandara Jātaka. The nāgas dance when music is played. But it is said (J.vi.191) that they never dance if any garula is near (due to fear) or in the presence of human dancers (due to shame).
 
The best known of all nāga is King Mahākāla, the ruler of Mañjerika-bhavana. He lives for an entire kappa (age, aeon, epoch, a variable "world period") and is a very pious follower of the Buddha.
 

Some identify with nagas

The nāgas of his world had the custodianship of a part of the Buddha's sacred cremation relics until they were needed for the Māha Thūpa or "Great Pagoda" (Mhv.xxxi.27f.), and when the Bodhi tree was being brought to Ceylon (a branch from the original tree where the ascetic Siddhartha became the Buddha was brought and still thrives in Sri Lanka, known as the oldest documented tree in the world) they did it great honor during the voyage (Mbv. p. 163f.).

Other nāga kings are also mentioned as ruling with great power and majesty and being converted to the Buddha's path, for example, Aravāla, Apalālā, Erapatta, Nandopananda (and perhaps the most famous of all, Mucalinda, the seven-headed hydra cobra who protected the Buddha), and Pannaka. (See also Ahicchatta and Ahināga). In the Atānātiya Suta (D.iii.198f.), speaking of dwellers of the Four Great Sky Kings (Cātummahārajika) world, the nāgas are mentioned as occupying the Western Quarter, with Virūpokkha as their king (regent for Sakka, the king of these four kings).
 

Naga, dragon ceiling, Engakuji Temple, Kamakura, Japan (Ezioman/flickr.com)

 
The nāgas had two chief settlements in Sri Lanka, in Nāgadīpa and at the mouth of the river Kalyānī. It was to settle a dispute between two nāga chiefs of Nāgadīpa, Mahodara and Cūlodara, that the Buddha paid his second visit to Sri Lanka. During that visit he made a promise to another nāga-king, Manjakkhika of Kalyānī, to pay him a visit, and the Buddha's third visit was in fulfillment of that undertaking (Mhv.i.48f.).
 
The nāgas form one of the guards set up by Sakka on Mt. Sineru against the titans or asuras (J.i.204). The nāgas were sometimes worshipped by human beings -- as in China, Cambodia, and Mesoamerica -- and were offered sacrifices of milk, rice, fish, meat, and strong drink (J.i.497f.) [and possibly human sacrifices judging from Aztec and Mayan carvings].

The jewel or "wish-fulfilling gem" of the nāgas is famous for its beauty and its power of conferring wishes to its possessor (J.vi.179, 180).
 
The word nāga is often used for tusker elephants and as an epithet of other "great beings" like the Buddha and the arhats, and in this connection the etymology given is āgum na karotī ti nāgo (e.g., MNid.201). The Bodhisatta -- the Buddha striving for supreme enlightenment before succeeding -- was born several times as king of the nāgas: Atula, Campeyya, Bhūridatta, Mahādaddara, and Sankhapāla.
 
In the accounts given of the nāgas there is undoubtedly great confusion between the nāgas as supernatural beings, as mere snakes, and as the name of certain non-Aryan tribes, but the confusion is too difficult to unravel.

• VIDEO: Naga as alien sex fiend, a real life Japanese pervert cannibal who fell from the sky preying on Western women

7 animals that are not DINOSAURS (video)

CC Liu, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; SciShow (Facebook/YT/TT, May 1, 2014)

Buddhist nagas are reptilians from the view of the terrifying Crocodile Cage (wiki)

Getting most information about ancient animals from vintage cartoons? If so then it may come as a surprise that a lot of beings we think of as "dinosaurs" actually aren't. Learn the definition of true dinosaurs and the evolutionary relationships shared by the non-dino reptiles that lived on land, in the sea, and in the air on this quick excursion into the world of Western science.

Like SciShow? Support it: get things to put on walls, attach to torsos, and hold liquids by checking out the awesome products at DFTBA Records or help support by subscribing on the Subbable page. Enough of "science"; it's time to journey into Eastern mysticism.

• VIDEO: A living dinosaur in Africa today (Monster Quest)
• VIDEO: Frankenstein labs: chimera pig-human-baboons
• VIDEO: THE NEW YORK MONSTER (History.com)
  The "Monster of Whitehall" lives in upstate New York. Sightings of this 800 lb. bipedal creature culminated in several police officers encountering it. It haunts the area to this day. However, sightings of these humanoid giants go back many hundreds of years to Native American (Algonquian and Iroquois) accounts and that of French explorers in the 1600s in a wilderness that runs all the way up to the Canadian border.

The Monster of Whitehall is not a single creature but a concentration of them in upstate NY.

 
Sutra: the Reptilian Mucalinda

John D. Ireland (trans.), Mucalinda Sutra (Udana 2.1, BPS); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.)

Theropod dino egg nest discovered (news.nationalgeographic.com/Museu da Lourinha)

 

Mucalinda the naga (khanh_huynhtuan/flickr)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha (Bhagava, the "Blessed One") was staying at Uruvela next to the river Nerañjara at the foot of the Mucalinda Tree, having just realized full enlightenment.
 
At that time he sat cross-legged for seven days experiencing the bliss of liberation. Now it happened that there occurred a great rainstorm. For seven days there was unseasonable weather with rain clouds and cold winds.
 
Then [the magical dragon] Mucalinda the Naga-King left his dwelling and with his coils encircled the Buddha's body seven times. He stood with his great [cobra] hood spread over the Buddha's head (thinking) to protect him from cold and heat, from gadflies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, and the touch of creeping things.
 

At the end of seven days the Buddha emerged from that profound concentration (samma-samadhi). Then Mucalinda the Naga-King, seeing that the sky had cleared and the rain clouds dispersed, removed his coils from the Buddha's body. Transforming his appearance (shape-shifting) and assuming the appearance of a youth, Mucalinda the Naga-King stood in front of the Buddha with his hands placed together (añjali mudrā) venerating him.
 
Then realizing its significance, on that occasion, the Buddha uttered this inspired utterance, this verse of uplift:
 

Blissful is detachment for one who is content,

For one who has found Dharma [Truth] and who sees;

Blissful is non-affliction in the world,

Restraint towards all living creatures;
 

Blissful is passionlessness in the world,

The overcoming of sensual desires;

But the abandoning of the conceit "I am" —

That is truly the bliss supreme!
 

The seven are the five mentioned in the SciShow video (above), the "Monster of Whitehall" (an American Sasquatch), and the reptilian Muclinda. Mokele Mbembe is real and is a non-extinct dinosaur frequently seen in the Congo river in basin of Africa.