He has to make great Effort to learn this Knowledge and acquire his vast wisdom; he was not born with it.
The Buddha is also "Jina" the conqueror, one who has conquered his defilements. We read of the 3 daughters of Mara appearing to him to tempt him; this allegorical story has their names as Desire, Unrest and Pleasure.
Today in the 21st century, the 3 daughters of Mara dance in front of us everyday the instant we switch on the internet! Countless emails sent to my Inbox daily tempt me with every pleasure of the flesh and mind, from "Do you want to be my friend?" to drugs promising miraculous enhancements of my bodily parts. Click on to the News sites and at the sides are small boxes offering to satisfy my every desire!
Mara's daughters no longer come and go, today they are here to stay within every step of the net.
Worse still are emails from good friends, their accounts obviously hacked, asking me to click on this and that site. I just called a sister a few minutes ago, she had from her account "sent" me an email asking me to visit some most unusual webpages! I called her to inform her that her email account has been compromised, perhaps she should change the password or consult some expert on the matter.
Metta Lodge Public, our eDhamma site used to be attacked on a daily basis with similar mail; this most inappropriate postings on a Dhamma site only stopped after I reset the settings to direct all mail to me first before it is allowed to be posted on the site. The site is saved BUT I AM not! For now all the mail comes to me!!
The struggle for Enlightenment is described vividly in the texts, we all similarly struggle. I certainly do. The daughters of Mara are ceaselessly dancing all around me and you; I do not know about you, but I certainly have to struggle to keep sane.
BTW if any one of you know how to prevent our accounts from being hacked and "interesting mail" canvassing the whole world forwarded from it, please let me know! And I will let the sister know!
Thanks!
