26b: The 8th Rains Retreat (Mahā Moggallāna)
Māra Enters the Belly of Ven. Moggallāna
Once upon a time, Ven. Mahā Moggallāna took up residence at a monastery in the Bhesakaḷā forest sanctuary, near the town of Susumāragiri in the province of Bhagga. While he was taking a walk in an open space, Māra, the evil one, chanced to enter his belly and sat on top of the large intestine. Ven. Mahā Moggallāna felt that his belly weighed heavy like a mass of stone. The belly was tight and weighty as though it was full of cooked gram or a bag full of damp and watery gram. He considered that should the heaviness in his stomach be due to indigestion, it would not be proper to keep on walking in the open. He eventually retired to the chamber and sat on a reserved seat.
Ven. Mahā Moggallāna deliberated as to the cause of the trouble in a normal way. Had he made any attempt to rub his stomach after contemplating on the purity of his morality (sīla) and making a will to do away with all the pain caused by indigestion or disturbances of his internal system, the stupid Māra would have been torn into pieces. But he did not make any attempt to allay his pain in that way, instead, he simply deliberated on its cause in a normal manner.
After scrutinizing the cause of his stomach pain, he noticed that the evil Māra was
Ven. Mahā Moggallāna said this because any attempt to give trouble to the children means giving trouble to the parents. In a like manner, to give trouble to the disciples amounts to giving trouble to the master. That was what Ven. Mahā Moggallāna meant when he said: “Don’t you give trouble to the Realised One.”
Māra thought Ven. Mahā Moggallāna was saying: “Wicked Māra, get out, don’t you give trouble to the Realised One! Don’t you try to give trouble to the disciple of the Realised One; don’t bring trouble upon yourself and suffer the consequences for a long time, without seeing me at all.” He was also of the impression that even the Buddha would not have the power to notice him, let alone his disciple. Whereupon, Ven. Mahā Moggallāna made it plain to Māra: “Wicked Māra, I know you and I know what is going on in your mind, don’t you think that I have no power to know about your thoughts. You are the evil Māra, you are presently thinking I know nothing about you, when I said: ‘Get out evil Māra, don’t try to give trouble to the Realised One; don’t you try to bring trouble to the disciple of the Realised One! Don’t you try to give trouble to the disciple of the Realised One. Don’t bring trouble upon yourself and suffer the consequences for a long time.’ You have been thinking that even the Realised One would not have the power to notice you, leave alone a disciple like me. Isn’t that what was going on in your mind?”
Māra came to realize that the elder had actually noticed him and knew his thought, and so he came out of Ven. Mahā Moggallāna’s stomach and hid himself outside the door. When Ven. Mahā Moggallāna noticed him standing outside the door, he said to him: “Wicked Māra, I see where you are at present. Don’t think I can’t see you. I see you standing outside the door.”
Then it occurred to Ven. Mahā Moggallāna: “Odour emitted from the human body can cause inconvenience to celestial beings 100 leagues away in the sky, Māra belongs to the Paranimmitavasavatti realm which is inhabited by powerful Devas who are noted for their purity and delicate body. But, since Māra had placed himself on top of a filthy intestine, it may be assumed that he is out to do me harm and cause my destruction. For a being with such a frame of mind, there is no immoral act that he would be loath to do! He does not seem to have any sense of conscience or concern about the consequences of his evil deeds. It would, therefore, be wise, in the circumstances, to let him know that we were relatives by blood and to make him meek and sober so he can be persuaded to leave.”
With this end in view, Ven. Mahā Moggallāna acquainted Māra with the fact that he was his nephew by revealing the course of his own unwholesome life in a previous existence.
Unwholesome Deeds in the Past
“Wicked Māra, there was an event of interest that occurred in the time of Buddha Kakusandha. I was a Māra by the name of Dūsī and my sister was Kāḷī and you were then the son of my sister. Thus you were my nephew then.”
In this connection, Mahā Moggallāna recounted a succession of paternal and maternal relatives from knowledge handed down from generation to generation. In the case of human beings, a son ascended the throne of his father by inheritance, but this is not the case with beings of the celestial world. A celestial being springs into life to take the place of another celestial being as and when his predecessor dies, according to his merits. The present Vasavatti Māra was a nephew of Dūsī Māra. After passing away from that existence, he performed good deeds and consequently became Vasavatti Māra, according to his merits. It was not that Dūsī Māra’s nephew was still remaining in existence in that realm.
Having acquainted Māra with how they were related by blood in a previous existence, Ven. Mahā Moggallāna went on to reveal the fact that he, in the capacity of Dūsī Māra, had committed a heinous act, and he had to suffer in the plane of miseries for a long time (Māra-tajjanīya-sutta, MN 50 and its commentary).
“Wicked Māra, I was Dūsī Māra during the time of Buddha Kakusandha, whose chief disciples were Vidhura and Sañjīva. The chief disciple, Vidhura, excelled the rest in matters concerning the Dhamma hence he was named Vidhura, meaning a wise elder. Ven. Sañjīva would abide in the attainment of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti) with ease wherever he might be, either in a forest, at the base of a tree, or at a secluded place. Once it so happened that cowherds, farmers and passers-by mistook him for a dead monastic in a sitting posture, while he was actually enjoying the attainment of cessation. They all collected fire-wood, dried grass and cowdung and placed them on his body, and wanting to cremate him, they set it alight and departed.”
Non-returners and Arahats wishing to enjoy the attainment of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti) perform four preliminary functions of willing: 1) That such possessions of his as are not on his person, may not be destroyed by the five enemies, such as fire, water, etc.; 2) that he may rise up even before a messenger arrives and be ready when his services are required by the Saṅgha; 3) that he may rise up even before the messenger arrives and be ready when called or sent for by the Buddha; 4) that he will not pass away while he is still absorbed in the attainment which is achieved by preliminary ascertainment of the time of expiry of his life-continuum. It is not necessary to will for the safety of what he is wearing, and so on, as not a single thread of his robe could be affected by any danger, including the fire caused by the cowherds and others.
“Wicked Māra, on the following morning, Sañjīva emerged from his attainment, and came out treading on the burning red hot cinders, shaking off dust from the robe, and entered the village for alms round. Cow herders, farmers and passers-by who had cremated him the day before, were struck with wonder when they noticed the great elder on his alms round. They spoke among themselves: ‘This is a sort of miracle which has never occurred before; the monastic was seen to have died in the sitting posture the other day, and now he is miraculously back to life again.’ Wicked Māra, all those people therefore called the great elder by the name of Sañjīva because he sprang back to life again.
Wicked Māra, Dūsī Māra hit upon a plan to create a situation that would agitate the minds of the good natured monastics by cruel means. He thought to himself: ‘I have no knowledge of whence those virtuous, righteous monastics come from and where they are bound for; I will incite the Brahmin householders to decry those monastics who are reputed to be virtuous and righteous, to speak evil of those monastics among themselves, using abusive language, despising, condemning, decrying, and deriding the monastics. Such behaviour on the part of the Brahmin householders will disturb and derange them, thereby creating a chance for me to cause harm to them.’
Wicked Māra, that Dūsī Māra went ahead to incite the Brahmin householders to act according to his instructions by calumniating and humiliating the monastics, with the result that Brahmin householders started to speak ill of the monastics through that misunderstanding: ‘Those monastics with foul means of livelihood, those shavelings of dirty, low castes, born of the arched upper part of a Brahma’s foot, sitting down lazily, gloomily pretending to be enjoying absorption (jhāna), with bent necks and faces drooping down. They may be likened to an owl lying in wait for rats in the foliage of a tree, a fox looking slyly for fish along the banks of a river, like a cat lying in wait for its prey at the mouth of a drainage pipe or at a garbage container, like an ass, with a hole in
They thus abused the monastics by using abusive and harsh words, they calumniated the monastics according to the instruction of Dūsī Māra, through that misunderstanding. Most of those people were reborn in the planes of woe, such as Niraya, the animal worlds, the worlds of the Petas and Asuras, according to their guilt.
We should consider the following points with reference to this passage: “Most of those people were reborn in the four planes of woe,” in order to arrive at a correct view of the case.
If those people were possessed by Dūsī Māra and were made to abuse the monastics as his agents, they were not guilty of an offence because of lack of intent or volition on their part in doing so. Dūsī Māra was solely responsible for this immoral act and it follows that those people were not liable to be reborn in the planes of misery on that score.
What actually happened was this: Dūsī Māra did not attempt to possess them and use them as his agents, but he created a situation that compelled them to turn against the monastics through a misunderstanding. He created scenes that showed the presence of women in the vicinity of the monks; scenes that showed the presence of men in the vicinity of female monastics; monastics in the act of fishing with traps and nets, of catching birds with traps, of hunting with hordes of hounds in the forest, enjoying drinks in the company of women at the liquor shops, dancing and singing; women lingering in the vicinity of monastics and young men in the vicinity of the residence of the female monastics at dusk. These were the tactics adopted by Dūsī Māra.
People noticed such incompatible, discordant scenes whenever they went to the forests, to the parks and to the monasteries, so much so that they were thoroughly disgusted with the monastics and agreed among themselves not to make any further offerings to them saying: “These monastics indulge in acts inappropriate for them. How would we gain merit by making offerings to such base persons?”
They reviled the monastics whenever they saw them and they were thus reborn in the planes of misery for their unwholesome deeds toward monastics.
“Wicked Māra, when Buddha Kakusandha came to know that his monastics had been outraged by the people under the undue influence of Dūsī Māra, he urged his disciples to cultivate the four sublime abodes (Brahma-vihāra): 1) loving-kindness (mettā), 2) compassion (karuṇā), 3) altruistic joy (muditā), 4) equanimity (upekkhā). The monastics cultivated the four sublime abodes, with due diligence as instructed by the Buddha.
When Dūsī Māra found out that such a tactic could not influence the minds of the monastics, whose past existences and future destinations were beyond his range of intelligence, he decided, once again, to reverse the mode of his tactics by influencing the people to pay homage and make offerings, with an ulterior motive to disturb and derange the monastics, thus giving him an opportunity to harm them.
Wicked Māra, those Brahmins did as they were bid, paying homage and offering alms to the monastics. Wicked Māra, most of those people were reborn in the celestial planes of happiness for such deeds of merit.”
Some points of interest with regard to the attainment of the people to the planes of happiness: Just as Dūsī Māra created unpleasant scenes on the previous occasion, so he created pleasant and agreeable scenes to promote devotional faith of the people in the monastics;
When the people noticed the monastics engaged in such activities wherever they went, in the forests, in the gardens or in the monasteries, they told the people in the town their own experience saying, “These monastics, even young novices are of great glory and powers and worthy of offering. It is greatly beneficial to make offerings to such glorious, worthy monastics.”
People then made offerings to the monastics in the form of robes, food, monasteries and medicine and earned great merit; they were reborn in the celestial planes of happiness after death for such deeds of merit!
“Wicked Māra, this is how Dūsī Māra used his undue influence on the people to pay homage and make offerings to the monastics once again.”
After revealing this part of that fateful event to Māra, Buddha Kakusandha turned to the monastics and urged them to practice meditation: “Come monastics, abide practising meditation by contemplation on the unpleasantness of the physical body (asubha); the repulsiveness of material food (ahāre paṭikūla); the unpleasant, undelightful, unsatisfactory nature of the world (anabhirati), the insubstantial and impermanent nature of conditioned phenomena (anicca). Wicked Māra, in obedience to the exhortation of Buddha Kakusandha, all the monastics meditated on these subjects in the forests or secluded corners and at the base of the trees, with the result that they became Arahats in due course.”
Buddha Kakusandha visited all the residential places of the monastics in the world, regardless of the number of monastics at one place, and urged them to take up meditation. The monastics practised these four kinds of meditation as the foundation of their spiritual work and went on to cultivate insight meditation, ultimately gaining the Arahat fruition.
“Wicked Māra, sometime afterwards, Buddha Kakusandha went on alms round, attended by his right-hand chief disciple, Ven. Vidhura, and Dūsī Māra, failing to get an opportunity to harm the monastics by instigating the householders to revile them or also to honour them, made his last bid to destroy the Saṅgha. He took possession of a youngster and threw a handful of stones at Ven. Vidhura. The stones hit the elder’s head cutting the skin and bruising the skull, as the result of his assault.
Wicked Māra, the elder Vidhura followed behind Buddha Kakusandha with streams of blood running down his head, unmoved or unshaken by the incident. Thereupon, Buddha Kakusandha turned around bodily to look at him, with the look of an elephant and condemned the offender: ‘This foolish Dūsī Māra does not know his limits,’ and at that very moment Dūsī Māra passed away from the world of the Devas, and was reborn in the plane of misery.”
Herein, the passage: “With the look of an elephant” should be understood. When an elephant turns to look at an object, it does not turn its head only, it actually turns its body right round.
The bones of ordinary people are joined together with their edges touching one another; in the case of Paccekabuddhas their bones are joined together by hooks at the end of each joint, in the case of Buddhas their bones are joined together by rings on either side of the joints. It is for this reason that Buddha Kakusandha had to make a complete turn of the body before he could look at the object behind his back, like a golden figure turning round mechanically. Buddha Kakusandha thus turned round and made that remark: “This Dūsī Māra does not know his own limits. He has done an extremely heinous act.”
In connection with the passage: “At this moment Dūsī Māra passed away from the world of
It should be borne in mind that although Dūsī Māra died the moment Buddha Kakusandha turned round to look at the scene of crime, it does not mean that he lost his life on that score. As a matter of fact, his life term was cut off as if by a huge axe because of his atrocious offence against a Buddha’s chief disciple who was possessed of great virtue and had vast attributes.
“Wicked Māra, Dūsī Māra had to serve his term of punishment in the Great Hell (Mahā Niraya) also called the Hell of the Six Contacts (Chaphassāyatanika), the Hell of being Pounded by Stakes (Saṅku-samāhata) and the Hell that is Personally Experienced (Paccatta-vedanīya).”
The denizens in the Hell of the Six Contacts type of hell had their sense-organs: eye, ear, nose, tongue and body pierced by tapered iron-rods, and, as a result, they were constantly subject to excessive pain at the site of each sense organ, which is termed “pain through contact.” That plane of misery is accordingly known as the Hell of the Six Contacts plane of misery.
The same hell is also known as the Hell of being Pounded by Stakes plane of misery because it has abundant supply of tapered iron-rods to punish the denizens.
Another name for it is the Hell that is Personally Experienced, because of its nature of self-infliction even without anyone to impose the suffering.
“Wicked Māra, warders of this Great Hell used to come at regular intervals, and told me that when two javelins had come together at my chest it would mark the completion of 1,000 years.”
The passage: “When the two javelins have come together,” needs to be explained. The denizens of this type of hell measure three miles in size. The executioners, in two groups, started to punish them by piercing and lacerating his body from the chest with javelins, saying: “This is the spot where your thoughts arose to do evil.”
Each javelin was of the size of a palm tree in diameter; each party of executioners comprised 50 in number. One group went from the chest towards the head causing severe pain by lacerating with javelins all the way along. The other group made their way towards the feet from the chest in a like manner. Each party took 500 years to reach to the head or to the feet, or 1,000 years to make a complete round trip when the two groups come together again at the chest.
“Wicked Māra, I had to suffer torment in that Great Hell for hundreds of thousands of years, and on being released, I had to pass through a sub-section of that hell, named Ussāda, where I was subjected to punishment more severe than in the Great Hell, for 10,000 years before final release.
Wicked Māra, I had the body of human beings and the head of a fish throughout the time I was being tormented in that hell.
The head of man is round and on it the javelins are liable to slip off whereas the head of fish is long and flat and serves as a good target.
After recounting the events of the past, Ven. Mahā Moggallāna proceeded to preach to Māra in 21 verses to make him repent his own follies:
“The hell where Dūsī Māra was punished for offending the Arahat Vidhura, the disciple of the Buddha, as well as the Buddha himself, has the nature of being tormented by piercing with iron javelins; these javelins give punishment automatically, even without executioners to wield them. Wicked Māra, you are liable to be tormented in such a hell for offending the disciple of the Buddha, who has understood the cause and effect of any deed.
There are certain abodes situated in the middle of the ocean. They have the pleasant appearance of gems with brilliant colours. A great number of Devakaññā can be seen singing and dancing in those abodes. Wicked Māra, you have offended the chief disciple of the Buddha, who is fully
That monastic caused the Eastern Monastery, donated by Visākhā, mother of the rich man Migara, to be shaken, even while being watched by the company of the Saṅgha at the instance of the Buddha. Wicked Māra, you will have to suffer the consequences of your offence against the monastics accomplished in supernormal power (abhiññā) and wisdom (paññā).
That monastic caused Sakka’s Vejayanta palace to be shaken with his big toe, with the aid of his supernormal power, thereby frightening all the Devas. Wicked Māra, you will have to suffer the consequences of your offence against the monastic accomplished in supernormal power and wisdom.
That monastic went to the Vejayanta palace of Sakka and asked him this question: “Sakka, do you know the emancipation that is void of all forms of desires?” Sakka, on being asked thus gave the right answer. Stupid Māra, you will have to suffer the consequences of your offence against a disciple of the Buddha, who is accomplished in supernormal power and wisdom and who was able to ask such a question.
That monastic asked the Brahma a question near the Sudhamma Dhamma hall: “Dear lay devotee, are you still of the erroneous view that there is no powerful monastic or recluse capable of coming to the realms of the Brahmas? Have you ever seen the overwhelming radiance of the Buddha that excels those of the illuminations of the Brahmas, of their mansions and of their costumes?” The Brahma answered: “I no longer hold the old erroneous views. I see the radiance of the Buddha that surpasses the illuminations of the Brahmas and of their mansions and of their costumes. Why should I insist anymore that I am a permanent, or an immortal, being?” Wicked Māra, you will have to suffer the consequence of the offence against the disciple of the Buddha, who is accomplished in supernormal power and wisdom that he was enabled him to ask such a question.
That monastic contacted through supernormal power (abhiññā) based on the freedom-absorption (vimokkha-jhāna), the summit of Great Meru and the four islands continents, east, west, south and north, at the time of suppressing the Nāga King, Nandopananda.
Ven. Mahā Moggallāna had covered the Great Meru and the four islands continents through the agency of a created Nāga at that time.
“Wicked Māra, you will have to suffer the consequences of your offence against the disciple of the Buddha, who is accomplished in such supernormal power and wisdom that he was enabled to ask such a question.”
In dealing with Māra, Ven. Mahā Moggallāna was referring to himself as if he was another monastic. Such a mode of teaching is termed the method having reference to another (añña-padesa).
Ven. Mahā Moggallāna managed to subdue Māra by exhibition of his supernormal power (abhiññā) in seven ways from:
1. With reference to the Discourse Rebuking Māra (Māratajjanīya-sutta, MN 50).
2. With reference to his supernormal power to go on teaching tours as in the Stories about Mansions (Vimāna-vatthu) and the Stories about Petas (Peta-vatthu).
3. With reference to the exposition of the Discourse concerning Mahā Moggallāna (Mahā-moggallāna-sutta, SN 51.14).
4-5. With reference to the Short Discourse on the Destruction of Craving (Cūḷa-taṇhā-saṅkhāya-sutta, MN 37).
6. With reference to the Discourse about a Certain Brahmin (Aññatara-brahma-sutta, SN 6.5).
7. With reference to the Path of Purification (Visuddhi-magga) on the suppression of the Nāga King.
8. Fire does not make any effort to burn the foolish person. It is the foolish person that gets burnt by touching the fire. Just as the foolish person gets burnt by touching the fire, so will you be burnt by offending the Buddha.
9. Māra, you have done sinful acts by offending the chief disciple of the Buddha. Do you think that your sinful act will not produce a fitting result?
10. Wicked Māra, the amount of unwholesome deeds standing against you increases with the progress of time. Wicked Māra, have you not got tired of doing harm to the Buddha? You should have taken your lesson from the evil deeds of your uncle Dūsī Māra who had to suffer in the realms of misery. You should at once cease harming the disciples of the Buddha.
Citing examples Ven. Mahā Moggallāna thus exhorted Māra so as to cause him to repent his follies and to dread the consequences for a long period in the forest sanctuary of Bhesakaḷā, with the result that Māra, with a heavy heart, disappeared on the spot.