Introducing Buddha: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides)

by Borin Van Loon

Mara and his daughters are familiar to anyone who practises meditation; the revelation of dark repressed fears, barely remembered fragments of memory, doubts, erotic fantasy and foremost, the desire to get back to familiar ground.

As human beings we all suffer from a fundamental anxiety that creeps into all our activities and makes lasting peace or joy impossible.

The peace and equanimity of the Buddha comes from an acceptance of the transitory nature of life.

The more we cling to the belief in a self, the more pain and alienation we feel.

Enlightenment is the total sense of freedom that comes from letting go of the concept of being an individual “self”.

In meditation practice, we learn to let go of the thoughts and fantasies that block the direct intuitive experience of who and what we really are. Our constant mental activity is what maintains the illusion of a separate self, and this effort makes us weary.

We have to make friends with ourselves and be kind to those aspects of ourselves we like least. Learning to be kind to ourselves brings the discovery that fundamentally we are quite soft. We become hard when we habitually deny our own woundedness and blame others for causing our pain. In admitting our own hurt, we become soft and vulnerable.

In Tibet to kill one’s teacher was seen as the worst crime one could commit.