{"id":782,"date":"2009-04-27T18:40:29","date_gmt":"2009-04-28T01:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coolkarma.com\/dharma\/?p=782"},"modified":"2009-04-27T18:40:29","modified_gmt":"2009-04-28T01:40:29","slug":"buddha-or-mara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/?p=782","title":{"rendered":"Buddha or Mara?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"touching-the-earth-side-view-edit4-glow\"As the tale goes Buddha overcame the illusion of Mara and touched the earth as witness in what is now a famous mudra of the enlightened one.\u00a0 Left palm in the lap facing up and the right hand draped over the knee with fingers pointing down, touching the ground to summon Sthavara <\/em>(EarthMother) as witness of the final understanding. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As I crouched this morning in what could not even be recognized as Vipassana because of the body pain and dis-ease, I could witness the places in my body that were still and solid.\u00a0 It was easy to notice the places of agony and angst as they tend to draw the biggest crowd of firing neurons and peptide brews.\u00a0 But at the same time there was an equal and opposite awareness of stillness and solidity.\u00a0 The soles of my feet were warm and stable, while the vortex in my neck and shoulders was raging wildly.\u00a0 The birds outside my window were singing with the same essence as the feeling in my feet, grounded in their treetop pavilions.\u00a0 Other noises and sensations were also present, loud cars driving too fast on residential streets and noisy outbursts inside the house as well.<\/p>\n

The left palm facing up in bliss and the right hand touching the earth and pain on the level of form.\u00a0 Only this silly (yet solid perception) of a “me” was trying to push one away and embrace only the left hand.\u00a0 The birds were not chasing after the unruly car.\u00a0 That which was able to witness both hands, was able to allow each to be as they were.<\/p>\n

Had it been a moment of Satori, there may have been a feeling of lightness and well-being in that moment.\u00a0 But instead only a heavy realization that the “me” was still stuck in the thick of it — neither Buddha nor Mara but perhaps the whole of Buddha and Mara at once and at One.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the tale goes Buddha overcame the illusion of Mara and touched the earth as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dharma","category-satori","tag-dysautonomia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=782"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":790,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions\/790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}