Buddhist creation myth: Science v Bible

This Buddhist creation myth BEATS Judeo-Christian Bible and Islam's Quran

(Maya Wisdom) Explore the profound teachings of Buddhism's primary creation myth, the Agganna Sutta, and its relevance to modern scientific understanding. This video examines:

1. The Buddhist perspective on cyclical cosmic evolution and devolution

2. How it challenges traditional creation narratives

3. The concept of Dependent Origination and its implications

4. Buddhism's unique approach to deities (devas, light beings, shining ones) and divine intervention

5. The Buddha's emphasis on personal experience over scriptural authority.

Gain insights into how this ancient wisdom offers a transformative view of human nature, societal structures, and our relationship with the cosmos.

A Buddhist Genesis?

Dharma...Evolution (Sugunasiri)

Sadly, the Agganna Sutra is not really a proper creation myth. It is only a general explanation of life on earth, and it doesn't even fully explain that. Its principal interest is to emphasize the power and significance of karma (deeds, those things willed, carried out, and stored up). How did human life begin on this plane, this planet, this earth? One day a light being (possibly a light beam if Dr. Sugunasiri's theory (Dhamma Aboard Evolution: A Canonical Study of Agganna Sutta in Relation to Science) holds up under scrutiny. He suggests it is symbolic or metaphorical, not a literal accounting. The Buddha was famous for being able to take ancient teachings from the subcontinent (proto-India) and earlier Vedic culture, which possibly encompassed the great Indus Valley Civilization and city-states of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, that people would have been familiar with and imbuing them with Buddhist knowledge of life, the universe, and everything. The problem with creation myths, including Science-ism's Big Bang Theory, is that they begin in the middle. For instance:

• 

  What was that? - Just another Bang

  SCIENCE MYTH 1: Once upon a time, before everything came into existence, this happened, then it came into existence in a spontaneous Big Bang.
  
• Q: Well, how did that happen if there wasn't anything yet?
• A: Uh, umm, question does not compute, insufficient data, syntax error, program will now shut down for regularly scheduled maintenance.
• 4H MYTH: (Popular in the Dharmic religions). One day God (who spontaneously arose in the midst of a great void and nothingness) got bored so He made everything (maya) else to amuse Himself, and to keep it interesting and full of drama (lila) forgot it was just Him (because we're all Him or figments of His imagination in this illusion), so it's alright whatever happens, just a part of a big game with Hells and Heavens, Hierarchies and Holes in the story (so don't read too much into it).

• 

  God animated dust with breath to create Adam.

  CHRISTIAN MYTH: (Applicable to all of the Abrahamic faiths, i.e., Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Yazidism, Gnosticism, Bahai, and probably their progenitors Mithraism, Zoroastrianism, ancient Mesopotamian, Babylonian, and Sumerian religion). Once upon a time, God was bored in heaven, so He made a terrarium and populated it with all sorts of creatures and even a little man like Himself, in His own image, called him Adam, gave him a partner named Lilith, whom he later divorced and remarried another named Eve, and had a whale of a time creating other fantastical living beings to be in His garden, even a scaly man who was a big smartass and troublemaker, talking Eve into all kinds of mischief so that He had to empty out the project and toss the main characters to the east, which is how we all came about in this sucky world suffering from the cradle to the grave. Nighty night, no question, time for bed!
• Our Lady of La Salette Marian apparition (miracle)

Ooh, let's land on that blue-green one! It looks nice and inviting, and we can b*ng there.

We revolve in a cycle until liberation.

• BUDDHIST MYTH: Once upon a time, in a land near, near this way, two light beings (or beams) alighted on this preexisting celestial body we call Earth, a garden like place, after flying in space and going about in their refined way. They liked it and stayed, and in so doing, they became coarser and coarser, devolving from their previous state.

Yay for Aldebaran! (Maria Orsic)

• The beings were engaging in gathering, eating, tasting, and sensual experiences like sex, experiencing the results (vipaka and phala) of their collective deeds (karma), which had a profound impact on their environment, being reborn over and over, until we find ourselves in our present state with people not realizing that the things they say and do had a previous meaning they've forgotten. And that, monks, is how things in the present are like things in the past, and it's always a good idea to keep good conduct, be pure, and evolve back to that Golden Age of Truth (Satya Yuga) when things will be better before eventually, invariably, decline again and devolve in this spiraling cyclical pattern we call samsara.
• Q: That's a "creation" myth?
• A: No, where in the sutra does it say anything about "creation"? This is just a story about how humanoid life began on this planet/plane, devolving from a higher plane by the workings of karma.

• 

  This is how it happened, according to math.

  SCIENCE MYTH 2: Once upon a time everything declined and collapsed falling in on itself then there was a Big Bounce and it re-expanded until we find ourselves and our universe expanding again as evidenced by the Doppler Effect of the redshift of visible light and there's no discernible beginning or end to it, just like the Buddha taught.
• In science, anything is possible: Physicists turn light into one-dimensional gas with incredibly strange properties (IFL Science) The Big Bang is utterly dumb as a theory of everything because it says there is no need for miracles except this one. Just grant that everything came out of nothing in a nano-instant then everything else we explain will be rational, lawful (in accordance with demonstrable principles), and predictable.
• Maya Wisdom (video), Sept. 3, 2024; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Whole "World" in Three Spheres

Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

"World" (loka) denotes the three spheres of existence that comprise the whole universe (categorized into 31 Planes of Existence). They are:

1. the sensual sphere (kāma-loka), the world of the five senses;
2. the fine-material sphere (rūpa-loka), corresponding to the four fine-material absorptions (see Jhānas 1-4);
3. the immaterial sphere (arūpa-loka), corresponding to the four immaterial absorptions (see Jhānas 5-8).

The sensual sphere is comprised of:

1. the hells (niraya)
2. the animal realm (tiracchāna-yoni) 
3. the realm of hungry ghosts (peta-loka) 
4. the titan/demon world (asura-nikāya) 
5. the human world (manussa-loka) 
6. the six lower celestial worlds (see Deva I).

In the fine-material world (see Deva II) the faculties of seeing and hearing, which together with the other sense faculties, are temporarily suspended in the four meditative absorptions (jhanas, zens).

In the immaterial world (see Deva III) there is no corporeality/materiality whatsoever. There are only the four mental aggregates (see "The Five Aggregates clung to as Self" called the khandha) existing there.

Although the term loka is not applied in the sutras to these three spheres, but rather only the term bhava ("existence," e.g., MN 43), there is no doubt that the teaching about the three spheres belongs to the earliest (i.e., the sutra period) Buddhist texts, as many relevant passages show.

• States of consciousness lead to rebirth on different planes
• Fifty kinds of mental states

Let's do science instead of debating: Flat?

World History Official; Seth Auberon, Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly

Zetetic Astronomy: Earth NOT a Globe

Let's read from Samuel Birley Rowbotham’s book Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe.

• Zetetic means "investigating, inquiring," proceeding by actual observations (experiments) rather than assumptions, as distinct from the sort of "science" we preach on earth, which is theoretic. We pretend to practice the former, but settle for the latter mocking others who disagree.

This old text advocates science over speculation. Let us proceed by empirical experiment to build a picture of truth or reality. Any theory of a globular (oblate spheroid) or flat (contoured) earth needs evidence. But no one is allowed to question the data, the "proof"? No one runs experiments? We're just expected to accept what the government says? We only hear from on high what NASA dictates and shows CGI evidence for? And when someone up there awakens to the fact that some lies are being, they'd better keep quiet or be fired. Whistleblowers will not be tolerated.

It could be different. Working together, remaining open, and gathering tangible data, we could quickly figure out this world, but this debate is not allowed. The question of the shape of the earth is not allowed by "scientists" themselves.



COMMENTARY

Buddhist mandala: map of the universe.

Someone somewhere is going through a lot of trouble to keep us in the dark and fearful of questioning the powers that be. "Oh no, we'll be ridiculed! We'll be called pointy heads for believing anything here is flat -- even what we can see with our own unassisted eyes."

Stop the video periodically to read the amazing series of memes gathered. It may not be possible at first sight to appreciate their import, but as one learns more about this serious subject, they are startlingly clear. It really is a joke how we have been lied to.

Is the earth flat? Probably not. Is the earth a globe (oblate spheroid) spinning around at 1,000 MPH with water clinging to it everywhere flat an undistorted? Certainly not. So what shape is it? What is this world? Let's investigate instead of believing lies or thinking we know it all already so that there's no need to question.
 

As for this terrible presenter who can neither speak the language nor speak at all, s/he explains: "i can't speak, i had speech disorder. so, i am sorry to use robot voice on the video. many people complain about this. but now, i had buy a better speech software with good voice. i also put the text on the video, so you can read them if you not comfortable with this voice. so, here we go!"

NAZI Shangri-La: today's New Swabia? (video)

UFOmania, April 13, 2018; Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

US Pres. Don Trumf is German, as is Germany's PM Angela (Hitler's daughter?) Merkel

I'm not a German NAZI. I'm an American one

NAZI coin from "future" [or from one of their D.U.M.B.s (Deep Underground Military Bases) in Antarctica] found – sparking claims of parallel universe or WW III.

What and where is New Swabia (German Neuschwabenland)? Could it be Germany's own secret Shangri-La?

Bizarre footage has emerged that proves we may be living in a parallel universe -- according to some tantalizing physical evidence and wild online claims (source: dailystar.co.uk).

Vedic, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain cosmology

More likely than a literal ethereal "parallel universe" is the Buddhist and older Vedic cosmological concept of co-existing worlds on earth situated in concentric circles from a center called Mt. Sumeru.

It is too big to be an actual "mountain" but is more likely electromagnetic, a "mountain" of magnetic lines of force emerging from the inner earth world(s) of Agartha.

UFOmania YouTube

It is amazing that the identity card of a NAZI officer from Germany's secret Antarctica Station 211 has been found! It can now be analyzed for authenticity, if only an uncompromised lab existed to document it and report unbiased results.

Something strange is happening around Antarctica amid negotiations for a new financial system. High strangeness in Antarctica as tunnels as tall as the Eiffel Tower are discovered.

• Helenastales.weebly.com, facebook.com/ufo.maniaII

German U.S. Pres. Trump launches war

Posted by RJ Johnson (@rickerthewriter) More

"Trump announces retaliatory strike on Syria for [alleged] chemical weapon attacks"

Tonight, @POTUS Donald J. Trump addressed the nation to announce a combined operation- with the #UnitedKingdom and #France- of precision strikes against sites associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of the #Assad regime in #Syria. pic.twitter.com/m0H3Pk8Dh1 — Department of State (@StateDept) April 14, 2018

UFOs... Buddhism's 31 Planes of Existence

Access to Insight; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Thirty-One Planes of Existence

Scattered throughout the Buddhist sutras are references to as many as 31 distinct "planes" or "realms" of existence.

Onto these planes beings are reborn during their long coursing through samsara, the Wheel of Life and Death or literally the "Continued Wandering On [Through Rebirth]."

These realms range from the extraordinarily grim and painful hell realms all the way up to the most exquisitely refined and blissful celestial realms.

Existence in any and every realm is temporary, although the lifespan there may last aeons. In Buddhist cosmology there is no such thing as an eternal heaven or hell.

Beings are reborn into a particular realm according to their karma (actions of thought, speech, deed).

When we pass away, we take rebirth again elsewhere according to the quality of our karma: wholesome actions bring about a desirable rebirth, whereas unwholesome actions lead to an unwanted one. And so the wearisome cycle continues without end [or until enlightenment and final liberation].

The countless worlds in the realms of existence [categorized roughly into 31 varieties] are customarily further divided into three distinct "spheres" (loka), listed here in descending order of refinement:

 

The Immaterial Sphere (arupa-loka) consists of four realms that are accessible to those who pass away while meditating in the formless meditative absorptions or jhanas.

 

The Fine-Material Sphere (rupa-loka) consists of 16 realms whose inhabitants (devas) experience extremely refined degrees of mental pleasure.

These realms are accessible to those who have attained at least some level of meditative absorption and who have thereby managed to (temporarily) suppress aversion and ill-will.

The beings here are said to possess extremely refined bodies of pure light.

The highest of these realms, the "Pure Abodes," are accessible only to those who have attained to the third stage of enlightenment or awakening called "non-returning."
 

Pleiadian (deva) arrival to Earth: aliens

The ethereal Fine-Material World and the formless Immaterial World together constitute the "heavens" (sagga) along with the highest of the Sensual Sphere realms.

The Sensual Sphere (kama-loka) consists of 11 realms [including the human world which is much bigger than our minuscule earth] in which experience -- both pleasurable and unpleasant -- is dominated by the five senses.
 

Buddhist, Jain, Vedic "UFO" = vimana.

Seven of these realms are desirable destinations, and include our own human plane as well as several realms occupied by sensual/light body devas (a word that literally means "shining ones").
 

The lowest realms are the four "bad" or unwanted destinations, which consist of the animal, ghost, titan, and hell realms.

Welcome, light beings! Follow the stupa/pagoda built as a mandala (Boudhanath, Nepal)

• Sources: Buddhist Dictionary, Ven. Nyanatiloka (Kandy: BPS.lk, 1980)
• The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction (4th ed.), R.H. Robinson & W.L. Johnson (Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 1997)
• The Long Discourses of the Buddha (introduction), Maurice Walshe, trans. (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1987)
• A Manual of Abhidhamma, Ven. Narada Thera (Kuala Lumpur: Buddhist Missionary Society, 1979)
• The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (introduction), Ven. Ñanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans. (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995)
• Teacher of the Devas (Wheel Publication 414/416), Susan Elbaum Jootla (Kandy: BPS.lk, 1997)
• The Three Worlds (wall chart) Ven. Acaro Suvanno 
• See also: Intentional Action (Karma)
• Buddhist Heavens (sagga)
• The Round of Rebirth (samsara)

Help prepare for Disclosure by learning to practice meditation (Pasadharma)

MAPS of our unknown Earth (video)

Wayki Wayki, (Dorje Daka, 6/11/17); Seth Auberon, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

This map is fake, but we keep selling it and teaching it in classrooms. Obey authority.

There are Other Lands

Mark Knight (waykiwayki.com)

Here is a fascinating look at maps showing other lands we are never told about, brought to us by waykiwayki.com. Ancient Vedic sources gave us a clear view of this world. The Buddha, called a "Knower of the Worlds," saw and classified the world into 31 planes. As for our Earth, which contains more than four "worlds" (lokas, realms), there are old European maps that cannot be explained. They are very detailed and were used in the past. Has our world so changed that these lands are lost? Or are they just as named, having been explored for cartographers to have produced such detail and precision?

Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. FAIR USE NOTICE: These works by waykiwayki are criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, and research. All footage taken falls under ''fair use'' of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998). Therefore, no breach of privacy or copyright has been committed. This video may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This material is being made available within this transformative or derivative work for the purpose of education, commentary and criticism, is being distributed without profit, and is believed to be "fair use" in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.

 

"I am that I am": universe as illusion

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Mysterious Matters; Howe; t2

Science's "space photos" are all fake, Photoshopped pieces of fanciful art (7-themes.com)

Maya, the Mirror of Illusions, painting by American artist Arthur Bowen Davies (1910)

 

Our world is illusory and unreal.

How this universe began will not be satisfying for most of those looking for answers. Elan Musk was onto something when he publicly said this was more a "simulation" than a real world. 

It is an illusion (maya). This world is quite unreal, according to the Buddha and Buddhist and Vedic sages before him. (There were Buddhists before the Buddha? Yes. This is because there were buddhas before the Buddha, and the Dharma they followed could rightly be referred to as Buddhism, too).

What is so "unreal" about this universe? For one thing, it appears to be permanent, but it is falling apart. It is hurtling toward destruction. It appears to be able to satisfy the desires and cravings it engenders. But it is ultimately unsatisfactory, unfulfilling, disappointing.

Photoshopping our view of space (tofu.space)

It appears -- and this is the biggy -- to be me, mine, and personal. But it is impersonal, not me, not mine. Me, myself, and I are compounded fictions. I am never being but only becoming, dynamically changing, not able to keep any identity.

I cling to stories, to histories, to states and preferences, but it's all falling away. I can cling to anything, but it's all the same. How do those things I cling to regard me? I'm nothing, no one special, just another clinger.

(Linda Moulton Howe) This world is concocted. Other beings play us.

I say, "I am that I am" but I say it in Aramaic. And in Aramaic it means, "I am all that it is possible to be." And that's nice. I cling to it ALL. I say, I am that. That thou art. Thou art not that. When I cling, when I identify, I say all that is me.

This "me," it is all of that. But that's just my identification. It isn't so. This "this" isn't this. I thought it was something, something I could give away or separate from everything else. I can't. This "this" was defined and detailed by the Enlightened One and ones before him.

These five things, these heaps, these groups of things, these clusters come together, and I call them my "self." That is me, the essential me, the real me, my soul, my ego, my permanent stuff, my personality...but they are not that.

• There are forms -- bodies I assume, cling to, lose. Karma made them and took them away.
• There are feelings -- all of the sensations of the senses I temporarily possess and feel.
• There are perceptions -- all of the things I am aware of, receiving, taking in through sense media, all of that stimuli producing some form of recognition.
• There are mental formations -- the recognitions, the labels, the reactions, the feelings about them, the many psychological states to be experienced in response to what is coming in and/or being generated here.
• There are consciousnesses -- plural because there is eye consciousness, ear consciousness...mind consciousness. The Buddha laid it all out, and the commentators explain it in exquisite detail in the Buddhist psychology text known as the Higher Teaching (Abhidharma).

(Thoughty2) Intelligent people have fewer friends, that's the claim. Is it true? Yes. Here's why.

I could add to this list of five (aggregates), I could take away from it, but if I examine it in deep meditative states, I will see these are the things I'm really clinging to as me and mine -- ideas, feelings, opinions, views, concepts, awarenesses, and this body, O, this precious body, fleeting but containing other bodies, my astral body, my sheath within a sheath, my spirit body, my pain body, my deva body, my projectable body, my light body, my dream body, my brahma body, whatever body it may be. It's all the same. Adding or subtracting from this list does not make it so.

What is the true nature of reality?

The ultimate truth is, there is no abiding "self" here. It does not remain the same for two consecutive moments. It doesn't remain unchanged for a single moment.

For in a moment (citta) there are submoments: the arising phase, the passing phase, and in between the "turning of that which stands" phase. There is no being, only becoming, no standing still, only turning, revolving, cycling. This is the great truth of radical impermanence.

Seeing this, I (I in the conventional, not ultimate, sense of a person coming to understanding) can begin to see how it would be unfulfilling. I'm being tricked by the senses and the mind to crave and crave more and go from this to this to that in hopes of satisfaction, of being satiated, of coming to rest and fulfillment.

But I don't find it. I find disappointment, lack of fulfillment and lasting satisfaction. This is samsara the great "continued wandering on," the Wheel of Life and Death the Buddha and Indian sages long warned was the problem in need of a solution.

This wandering is painful, like traveling a desert with few comforts. We may come by an oasis, a heavenly world on rare occasion, but it is not much more than a temporary respite. Where is nirvana, a "final solution," a real "end to all suffering"?

SUTRA: Mara's power (video)

Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly, Marapasa Sutra (SN 35.115)

(WLP) Viewer discretion advised. The world is sicker than we thought. Christians are piss*ed.

 

Mara's a devilish Cupid/Kamadeva

"Meditators, there are sights [forms, shapes] cognizable through the eye -- agreeable, pleasing, charming, endearing, fostering desire, enticing.

"If a meditator relishes them, welcomes them, and remains fastened to them, one is said to be a meditator fettered to sights cognizable through the eye. One has gone over to Mara's camp; one has come under Mara's power. The Evil One can do with one as he wills.

• "There are sounds cognizable through the ear...
• "There are scents cognizable through the nose...
• "There are savors cognizable through the tongue...
• "There are tactile sensations cognizable through the [skin of the] body...

Ahhh, you're no fun (Mara Stewie)

"There are things cognizable through the mind -- agreeable, pleasing, charming, endearing, fostering desire, enticing. If a meditator relishes them, welcomes them, and remains fastened to them, one is said to be a meditator fettered to things cognizable through the mind. One has gone over to Mara's camp; one has come under Mara's power. The Evil One can do with one as he wills.
 
"[On the other hand,] there are sights cognizable through the eye -- agreeable, pleasing, charming, endearing, fostering desire, enticing. If a meditator does NOT relish them, welcome them, or remain fastened to them, one is said to be a meditator freed from sights cognizable through the eye. One has not gone over to Mara's camp; one has not come under Mara's power. The Evil One cannot do with one as he wills.

• "There are sounds cognizable through the ear...
• "There are scents cognizable through the nose...
• "There are savors cognizable through the tongue...
• "There are tactile sensations cognizable through the [skin of the] body...

"There are things cognizable through the mind -- agreeable, pleasing, charming, endearing, fostering desire, enticing. If a meditator does not relish them, welcome them, or remain fastened to them, one is said to be a meditator freed from things cognizable through the mind. One has not gone over to Mara's camp; one has not come under Mara's power. The Evil One cannot do with one as he wills."

Cupid and the Buddha (sutra)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly based on Ven. Thanissaro translation ("Farmer Discourse," Kassaka Sutra about Mara Devaputra, SN 4.19)

Buddhist Māra or Mara Devaputra is Roman Cupid, Greek Eros, Hindu Kamadeva.

.

Cupid (Mara) can appear so cute!

At one time the Buddha was residing in Savatthi. Now at that time the Blessed One was instructing, urging, rousing, and encouraging his disciples with a Dharma talk on nirvana (complete freedom).

The disciples were interested, attentive, enthusiastic, absorbed in their focus listening to the teaching.
 
Then the thought occurred to Cupid (Buddhist Devaputra Mara, Māra, Hindu Kamadeva, Greek Eros): "The ascetic Gautama is instructing, urging, rousing, and encouraging his disciples with a Dharma talk on nirvana. His disciples are interested, attentive, enthusiastic, absorbed in focus listening to the teaching. What if I were to go to the ascetic Gautama to obscure his vision?"

Cupid (Māra) visits the Buddha

Then Cupid, transforming at will into the shape of a farmer with a large plowshare over his shoulder, carrying a long goad stick -- his hair disheveled, wearing clothes of coarse hemp, feet splattered with mud -- went to the Blessed One and said: "Hey, ascetic, have you seen my oxen?"

 

"And what are your 'oxen,' Cupid?"

 

"Mine alone is the eye, ascetic. Mine are forms (visible objects), mine is the sphere of consciousness (vision), and eye-contact (the coming together of sense object and consciousness) at the eye. Where can you go to escape me?

• [This is an odd brag. Mara Devaputra, a Lucifer-figure, imagines himself the "god" or "lord" of the Sensual Sphere (Kama Loka). He does not imagine rulership over the two higher and more refined spheres, the Fine-Material and Immaterial, nor of nirvana, which transcends all three spheres and their 31 planes. Mara cannot stand that anyone escapes the Sensual Sphere. Yet, the Buddha not only found an escape but also taught others the path to full liberation. So why the pride, Mara/Cupid?]

God of erotic love Eros (wiki)

"Mine alone is the ear... nose... tongue... body...
 
"Mine alone is the mind, ascetic, and mine are objects of mind (thoughts, ideas, mental impressions, notions), mine is the sphere of consciousness, and mind-contact at the mind. Where can you go to escape me?"

"Yours alone is the eye, Cupid. Yours are forms, yours is the sphere of consciousness of contact at the eye. Where no eye exists, no forms (visible objects) exist, and no sphere of consciousness of contact at the eye exists: There, Cupid, you cannot go.

"Yours alone is the ear... nose... tongue... body...

"Yours alone is the mind, Cupid. Yours are objects of mind, yours is the sphere of consciousness of contact at the mind. Where no mind exists, no mental objects exist, no sphere of consciousness of contact at the mind exists: There, Cupid, you cannot go."

Mara: "Of what they say, 'This is mine'

And those who say, 'Mine,'

If your mind is here, ascetic,

You can't escape me.

 

The Buddha: "What they speak of is not mine,

And I am not one who speaks it.

Know this, Cupid,

You will not even see my tracks."

• [That is, Mara will have no way of seeing where one who experiences nirvana goes, like a flame that goes out, it cannot be sensibly asked, "Where did it go, which direction, north, south, east, west, up, down?]

Then Cupid, sad and dejected at realizing, "The Blessed One knows me, the One Well-gone knows me," vanished then and there.

• O, Science, where's my "Mr. Right"?
• O, Buddha, what is the way to nirvana?