Buddha in the Earth -Touching Posture

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The moment in the Buddha-life represented in this image immediately follows that of Figure 181. The two temptations repre- sented there having failed, the god who rules all life and whose name is “Desire and Death” transformed himself into the god of “Duty,” Dharma, and in that capacity chal- lenged the right of the Blessed One to be sitting on the immovable spot beneath the axial tree, indifferent to the duties of his social role. To which the Blessed One replied by simply moving his right hand to his knee and letting the fingertips touch the earth, to summon the mother-goddess Earth herself to bear witness to his right to be there. And the goddess thundered with a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand roars: “I bear your witness.” Whereupon the elephant on which the god Dharma sat bent its knees in worship. The army and three daughters of Mara dispersed. And that night the Blessed One acquired in the first watch the knowl- edge of previous existences; in the middle watch, the divine eye; in the last, knowledge of the Twelve Knots of Dependent Origina- tion;18 and at sunrise, omniscience.

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