Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.7

c8.7

Senart seeks to trace step by step in the history of Buddha’s life, the history of the life of the sun-hero: like the sun from the clouds of night, he issues from the dark womb of Mâyâ; a flash of light pierces through all the world when he is born; Mâyâ dies like the morning-cloud which vanishes before the sun’s rays. Like the sun-hero conquering the thunder-demon, Buddha vanquishes Mâra, the Tempter, in dire combat, under the sacred tree; the tree is the dark cloud-tree in heaven, round which the battle of thunderstorm rages. When the victory is won, Buddha proceeds to preach his evangelium to all worlds, “to set in motion the wheel of the Law;” this is the sun-god who sends his illuminating wheel revolving across the firmament. At last the life of Buddha draws to a close; he witnesses the terrible destruction of his whole house, the Sakya race, which is annihilated by enemies, as at sunset the powers of light die away in the blood-red tints of the evening clouds. His own end has now arrived: the flames of the funeral pile, on which Buddha’s corpse is burnt, are extinguished by streams of water, which come pouring down from heaven, just as the sun-hero dies in the sea of fire kindled by his own rays, and the last flames of his divine obsequies die out on the horizon in the moisture of the evening mist.∗