Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c31.2744

v2.c31.2744

That this account of the Buddha’s struggle with Māra is literally true, none but the most ignorant of the Buddhists believe, even at the present day. The Buddhist point of view has been well expressed by Rhys Davids.⁴ We are to understand by the attack of Māra’s forces, that all the Buddha’s “old temptations came back upon him with renewed force. For years he had looked at all earthly good through the medium of a philosophy which had taught him that it, without exception, carried within itself the seeds of bitterness and was altogether worthless and impermanent; but now, to his wavering faith, the sweet delights of home and love, the charms of wealth and power, began to show themselves in a different light and glow again with attractive colours. He doubted and agonized in his doubt, but as the sun set, the religious side of his nature had won the victory and seems to have come out even purified from the struggle.” There is no need to ask, as does Thomas, with apparently great suspicion,⁵ whether we can assume that the elaborators of the Māra story were recording “a subjective experience under the form of an objective reality,” and did they know or think that this was the real psychological experience which the Buddha went through? The living traditions of the Buddhist countries supply the adequate answer, without the aid of the rationalists. The epic nature of the subject gave ample scope for the elaboration so dear to the hearts of the Pāli rhapsodists.