Description
This image captures moments central to Buddhist beliefs. First, the Buddha’s victory over the evil forces of Mara, the personification of physical desires and delusions of the mind, who tried to tempt the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, with physical pleasures. Siddhartha continued to seek enlightenment through meditation and reached down to call earth to witness his fortitude. In victory over Mara, the goddess of the earth emerges to testify to Siddhartha’s perfected virtues, then, by wringing her hair, she creates a flood to wipe out Mara and his troops.
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