entertained these [wrong] views:
“I AM that God, the One who makes,
Father of the whole World.
I flourish from My own purity.”
But He had wrongly
conceived of
views that wrapped around Him
as tight as serpents’ coils:
The supreme wandering ascetics
conquered Him by knowledge.
He
was cured. Source
I am that I am?
A god (brahmā) known as Baka once reflected privately that he
and his heavenly plane of existence were everlasting. He thought that it was not possible that there could be a higher plane of rebirth and was therefore convinced
he had overcome all rebirth and suffering.
The Buddha discerned his deep-seated wrong view and decided out of sympathy to pay Baka a visit in his heaven. When the Buddha appeared in that brahmā world, Baka Brahmā welcomed
him formally but immediately announced:
“Now, good sir, this [place] is permanent, this is everlasting,
this is eternal, this is total, this is not subject to pass
away; for this neither is born nor ages nor dies nor
passes away nor reappears, and beyond this there is
no escape”
(MN 49).
The Buddha, however, contradicted him, pointing out that
every one of his claims was wrong. Just then Māra the Tempter [a kind of Lucifer figure] joined their conversation. Māra’s task is to prevent
beings from being won over to the Dhamma, to keep them
trapped in the cycle of rebirth and death, what Mara views as his personal
domain [11].
Taking possession of one of the brahmā’s attendants, Māra
urged the Buddha, with a display of sympathy, to accept
this brahmā as God, the creator of all other beings.
He told the
Buddha that wandering ascetics of the past who delighted in things of
this life and “who lauded Brahmā” won happy rebirths
afterwards, while those who disbelieved and rejected Brahmā had to endure
terrible punishment [in hells].
The Awakened One (the Buddha) let Mara have his say
and then called his bluff:
“I know you, Evil One. Do not think, ’He does not know me.’ You are Māra, Evil One, and the Brahmā
and his assembly and the members of the assembly
have all fallen into your hands, they have all fallen
under your power. You, Evil One, think, ’This one, too, has fallen into my hands. He, too, has fallen under my
power.’ But I have not fallen into your hands, Evil
One. I have not fallen under your power.”
“All beings subject to craving—humans, subhumans, devas (celestial deities),
or brahmās (grand divinities)—are said to be under Māra’s power because they
can all be moved by their mental defilements and must drift along in the
current of rebirth and death.
But the Buddha and the other arahants (fully enlightened ones) have permanently and completely escaped Māra’s
circle of influence, for they have eliminated all defilements.
They have exhausted the fuel that leads to rebirth and thus have
vanquished the Lord of Death (Mara).
Baka Brahmā begins to speak on his own behalf. He reminds the Buddha of his opening statement on permanence. He
warns him that it is futile to seek “an escape beyond” his
own brahma realm. Then he cajoles and threatens the Buddha in the same
breath:
“If you will hold to earth… beings… gods… you
will be close to me, within my domain, for me to work my
will upon and punish.”
The Buddha agrees that if he clung
to earth (or any other aspect of existence) he would remain
under the control of Mahā Brahmā ("Great Supremo") and Māra, too, but he
adds:
“I understand that your reach and sway extend
thus: Baka the Brahmā has this much power, this much
might, this much influence.”
The Buddha points out that beyond the thousandfold world system over which Baka
reigns there are planes of existence of which Baka is totally
unaware, and beyond all conditioned phenomena there is a
reality that transcends even “the allness of the all”—a
consciousness without manifestation, boundless, luminous
on all sides—to which Baka has no access whatsoever.
The Buddha, demonstrating
his superiority in knowledge and power, then uses
his superior psychic powers to humble Baka in front of his entire assembly.
By the end of the discourse, these once haughty divine beings
marvel at the might of the wandering ascetic Gotama:
“Though living
in a generation that delights in being…he has extirpated
being [becoming, bhava] and its root” [12].
A brahmā with wrong view
Once an unnamed brahmā gave rise to this deluded thought:
“No ascetic is powerful enough to reach my [divine] realm.”
The
Buddha read his mind and proved him wrong by simply
appearing before him and sitting at ease in the air above his
head, while radiating flames from his body in a dramatic
display of supernormal powers.
Four great arahant (fully enlightened) disciples—Mahā Moggallāna (the monk the Buddha declared "foremost in psychic powers" among his disciples), Kassapa, Kappina, and
Anuruddha—independently realized what had happened
and decided to join their Teacher on this divine brahmā plane.
Each
disciple sat cross-legged in the air respectfully below the Buddha—but
above that brahmā—in one of the cardinal directions,
emitting fire around himself.
A short dialogue in verse took place between
Mahā Moggallāna, the Buddha’s second chief male disciple, and that brahmā:
“Today, friend, do you still hold that view,
The same view that you formerly held?
Do you see a radiance
Surpassing that in the brahma-world?”
“I no longer hold that view, dear sir,
[I reject] the view I formerly held.
Indeed, I see a radiance
Surpassing that in the brahma-world?”
Today how could I assert the view
That I am permanent and eternal?”
According to the Commentary (tika) to this story, the brahmā gave
up his wrong view, his wrong belief in his own superiority when he observed the
magnificence of the Buddha and a few of his arahants.
When the
Buddha preached the Dhamma to him, that brahma was established
in the fruit of stream-entry and stopped thinking of himself
as permanent.
When this brahmā saw his own [radical] impermanence clearly and distinctly for himself, his former
tenacious wrong view, wrong opinion that his world and life were immortal was
uprooted.
Many aeons of preparation, the brahmā’s quick
intellect, the Buddha’s perfect timing, and the support of the
four arahants bore fruit in this divinity becoming a stream
enterer (one who has reached the first stage of awakening).
After the Buddha and those arahants left and returned to
Jetavana, the great brahmā wanted to learn more about the
powers of Buddhist monastics. He sent a member of his retinue to ask Mahā Moggallāna whether there are even more monastics of this teacher who can perform such feats as he can. Maha Moggallāna replied:
“Many are the disciples of the Buddha
Who are arahants with taints destroyed,
Triple knowledge bearers with spiritual powers,
Skilled in the course of others’ minds”
(KS I, 182–84; SN 6:5).
Not only do large numbers of monastics have such special
powers and the ability to know other people’s minds, but
there are numerous fully purified arahant disciples of the
Buddha as well. The emissary was glad to hear this answer,
as was that brahmā when he received the report. Source
- Matt (Buddha's Wisdom); Susan Elbaum Jootla (Buddhist Publication Society, Wheel 414/415/416, Teacher of the Devas); Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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