his final days before Buddha achieved his Enlightenment, the demon Mara came to tempt him. Buddha had been sitting under the Bodhi Tree in deep meditation for a long time. Mara wanted to distract Buddha and bring him out of meditation so he would not get his Enlightenment.
First Mara sent his beautiful daughters to play in front of Buddha in order to excite Buddha’s passions and bring him out of meditation. Buddha remained in a such a natural state of peace that he didn’t even notice the passionate dance of Maras three daughters. Mother Earth saw what Mara’s daughters were trying to do and created a strong wind to blow them away so that Buddha could continue with his meditation.
Mara was so upset that he called on demons from all over the Earth to come and wage war on the Buddha. The thousands of demons marched towards Buddha with the intention to kill him. Mara knew that Prince Siddhartha was trained as a great warrior and thought that the army of demons would make Buddha stop meditating and defend himself from the threat of certain death.
The demons were shooting thousands of fire arrows at Buddha and created a raging fire all around him. But Buddha was not concerned and continued to meditate even under the threat of death. Mother Earth once again saw what Mara was doing and wanted to help Buddha release his karma as a warrior. She rose up out of the ground and transformed her long hair into a hose that poured water over the fire and drowned the demons so that Buddha could continue to meditate without being distracted by his past karma of anger and war.
Buddha passed the tests of the karma of passion and the karma of anger easily with the help of Mother Earth. But Mara knew that there was one more test that could distract Buddha from gaining his Enlightenment. Mara transformed his own body to look exactly like the body of Siddhartha and sat in front of Buddha. This was a test for Buddha’s ego and his attachment to his life in the identity of Prince Siddhartha.
When Buddha saw his own likeness sitting in front of him, he simply smiled and told his body that now he was not attached to it any more. Buddha addressed his body as the architect that had created his life and said, “Dear Architect, you have created this life and everything that I have been, but now you no longer have a hold on me. You are free to go and do as you please. I will remain here and complete my union with my true nature so I can achieve my Enlightenment.”
At that instant Buddha got his Enlightenment and found eternal freedom from all the push and pull of his past life. Mother Earth rejoiced and knew that now all her children had an example to follow that would inspire them to overcome their karma and achieve Enlightenment. At that time Mother Earth made a promise to Buddha to help any human being who is struggling with their karma.
When you karma is getting so difficult that you are not able to handle it, you can go to Mother Earth and ask her for help. Go to your garden or any plot of earth and make an offering to Mother Earth. Place five sticks of incense and one candle in the ground and ask Mother Earth to help release you from the grip of your karma. If your heart truly believes you are free, Mother Earth will grant your wish. The next time you are in the grips of some difficult karma, find some plot of earth and do an offering to Mother Earth. It works.
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