Nov 28, 2009 4:24:33 AM cite

Dharma- Dharma is an Indian word it means social duty. As in a king has a duty to work towards the betterment of the people; parents have a duty to provide for their kids. In Buddhism however it means something different it means the teachings of the Buddha the Buddhist scriptures and so forth. What happened is when the Buddha was about to achieve enlightenment he was assailed by the lord of the world Lord Kama. Below is the version I like the most it is from Joseph Campbell’s book. So to test him, there came the lord of the world, and his name was desire and fear. As desire he was called Kama which means lust, desire, delight, pleasure. He tried to move the Buddha by displaying to him his three beautiful daughters. Their names were Desire, Fulfillment, and Regret. Future, Present, Past. The Buddha had disengaged himself from the biology of this body, and so he wasn’t moved. Kama/Mara was desperate and he turned himself into Dharma, the Lord of Social Duty. How in heaven’s name are you going to find your own track if you are always doing what society tells you your duty is? So it is at this point that Mara, now as Dharma, Duty, says to him, “Young Prince, You are supposed to be on your throne governing a country, don’t you read the morning paper? Don’t you know what is going on? Things are falling apart. There are picket lines all over the place.” What do you do when the call comes? He just dropped his hand and touched the earth. This is: “Don’t try to move me with this journalistic appeal. I’m interested in eternity.” And he calls the goddess, Mother Universe, to witness to his right to be there. She in her majesty, with a voice that resounds like thunder on the horizon, says, “This is my beloved son, who through innumerable lifetimes has so given of himself that there is nobody here.” And with that the elephant on which Dharma was riding bowed in worship, the army was dispersed, and the Buddha achieved illumination. So The Buddha saw the perils of social duty and that if you are interested in disengaging yourself from your body to see what you really are you can’t follow ordinary lifestyles the ordinary life isn’t for you that is why there are monks they have given up the ordinary life. This is a hard pill to swallow for us in the real world if one wants illumination but it does come in bits and pieces and hopefully by the time we die we will have reached illumination. What the Buddha did was change the meaning of the word Dharma (social duty) to mean his teachings, the four noble truths and the eight fold path. More closely in Buddhism Dharma is that what holds you free from desire and fear, the two main problems of the individual. In India it still means social duty as it is a normal word without religious connotations. Below is the original Campbell text in full. THE STORY OF THE BUDDAHS ENLIGHTMENT (From Joseph Campbells book Myth through time.) When this quester, this seeker, this one who is about to become the Buddha, came to the tree in the middle of the universe, the axis mundi, which is called the immovable spot, he sat there. That’s a psychological condition. You don’t have to go to Bodh Gaya to find the immovable spot. You’ve got it right here, if you have it. And what is it? It is the spot that is not moved by desire and fear. So to test him, there came the lord of the world, and his name was desire and fear. As desire he was called Kama which means lust, desire, delight, pleasure. He tried to move the Buddha by displaying to him his three beautiful daughters. Their names were Desire, Fulfillment, and Regret. Future, Present, Past. The Buddha had disengaged himself from the biology of this body, and so he wasn’t moved. Kama was unhappy about that and turned himself into Mara, the Lord of Death, to inspire fear. He threw against the Buddha all the weaponry of an army of ogres. There was nobody there. This is why we don’t see him in the early works; he wasn’t present as a body. And so the weapons turned into lotuses as they entered his field of nonentity, and he was, as it were, worshipped. Kama/Mara was desperate and he turned himself into Dharma, the Lord of Social Duty. How in heaven’s name are you going to find your own track if you are always doing what society tells you your duty is? So it is at this point that Mara, now as Dharma, Duty, says to him, “Young Prince, You are supposed to be on your throne governing a country, don’t you read the morning paper? Don’t you know what is going on? Things are falling apart. There are picket lines all over the place.” What do you do when the call comes? He just dropped his hand and touched the earth. This is: “Don’t try to move me with this journalistic appeal. I’m interested in eternity.” And he calls the goddess, Mother Universe, to witness to his right to be there. She in her majesty, with a voice that resounds like thunder on the horizon, says, “This is my beloved son, who through innumerable lifetimes has so given of himself that there is nobody here.” And with that the elephant on which Dharma was riding bowed in worship, the army was dispersed, and the Buddha achieved illumination.

by Thai sean