Mara
The Opera
Prologue
Three figures (Siddhattha, Namuci and Tanha) in plain, identical dress appear on a dimly lit, bare stage.
Siddhattha, Namuci, Tanha:
A creature concealed inside its cell,
A man sunk in dark passions
Is a long, long way from solitude.
Hard is it to let go of what drives you,
Hard to be free from wants
That bind you to the thrills of life,
The hankering for what’s gone and to come,
Hunger for those delights now.
In dumb pursuit of pleasure,
Lonely and unbalanced.
You cry out in anguish:
What will become of us when we die?
We see you tremble on this earth,
Compelled by craving –
Weak men gabbling in the mouth of death,
The thirst for it is and it’s not unquenched,
Trembling for what’s yours,
Like fish in shallow puddles of an arid gorge.
Embrace what you meet and don’t be obsessed –
Embrace what you see and cross the flood –
Extract the arrow and bevigilant –
Don’t long for this world or the next.
The stage darkens until the figures are no longer visible.
Act One:
Scene One
Siddhattha, the Buddha to be, a young man adorned in flowing robes and jewels lieson a bed covered in silks. Beside him sit his mother and father, distraught, their heads in their hands, wearing simple robes as though in mourning.
Siddhattha:
I who am still so tender
With long and sleek black hair
In the very prime of life
With the blessing of my youth
O tell me what is true delight,
What is tragedy, I pray,
Tell me what I need to do
For life here to be free.
As Siddhattha recites the following four phrases, his parents mime what he describes:
I was born,
Yet I crave what was born.
I fall ill,
Yet I crave what falls ill.
I grow old,
Yet I crave what grows old.
I’ll perish,
Yet I crave what will perish.
O why?
Why do I not achieve
The unborn and unfailing,
Unageing and undying
Joy of understanding?
I’ll shave my hair and beard,
Don robes of yellow rags,
Go forth from this home
Into the homeless state.
My mother and my father,
Whose hearts I have just broken,
Weep with tear-filled eyes,
Imploring me to stay.
The household life is full of dust –
A life gone forth so open wide.
Siddhattha exits. His mother and father throw off their mourning robes to reveal themselves as Namuci and Tanha. They pace around the empty bed, their grief turning to cynical laughter. Tanha jumps up on the bed and stands to solemn attention.
Tanha: (to the departed Siddhattha)
Long is the life of human beings,
The good do not despise it.
Go live like a suckling baby,
Death is not yet here.
Corrupted man,
Who thinks he’s O so pure:
You will never find the way
That leads to joy and peace.
You’re caught in every snare
Of celestials and men;
Tied by Mara’s bonds,
You won’t escape our grip.
Mental snares float in the sky,
Invisible and deadly,
That we will use to catch you out:
You won’t escape our reach.
Tanha starts to dance ecstatically as Namuci slinks forward to the edge of the stage.
Namuci:
From now on,
If a speck of desire,
A hint of malice,
A touch of cruelty
Stirs inside him –
I will be the first to know it.
Let me attach myself to him
Like a shadow to its body,
Waiting for an opportunity
To strike him down!
Scene Two
On the bank of the Neranjara River, in the shade of a Pipal, sits Siddhattha. He is emaciated, determined, composed. Namuci approaches, holding a guitar. He stands before Siddhattha.
Namuci: (with compassion)
How thin you are, how ashen.
How very close to death.
One tiny flicker of you lives,
The rest of you is dead.
O, live, dear one! Do live!
Life far surpasses death.
Do good and lead a holy life,
Ignite the sacrifice!
What use is all the struggle?
What use? What use? What use?
Siddhattha:
Why have you come here?
Of what goodness do you speak?
Why, when I am resolute,
Are you urging me to live?
As wind dries out the river,
This struggle dries my blood.
Yet mind becomes more vivid
As my muscles shrivel up.
With mindfulness well focused,
Intelligence stands firm.
Embracing this experience,
I crave delights no more.
I see your forces round me,
The devil’s finest troops.
A coward cannot conquer them,
A hero gains great bliss.
Your soldiers hoist their banners,
You sit astride your mount.
As I enter into battle,
You’ll not move me from my ground.
Your army seems invincible,
Undefeated by the gods.
I’ll smash it with discernment,
Like a stone an unfired pot.
Namuci: (aside)
For seven years I’ve followed him,
My efforts were in vain.
A circling crow descended
On a stone that looked like fat:
“Is there something tender here?
A morsel I can eat?”
With nothing there to nourish him,
The crow took flight again.
I’m like a bird attacking rock,
Gotama wearies me.
Namuci goes away and sits down cross-legged, not far from Siddhattha, silent, dismayed, with shoulders drooping, downcast, brooding, unable to speak, scratching the earth with a stick.
Tanha – his daughter – appears.
Tanha:
Why are you despondent, dad?
Has someone near you died?
I’ll catch him with the snare of lust,
Bind him tight and drag him back,
Under your control!
Namuci:
He is no easy catch, girl,
Even with your wiles.
He has gone beyond me
That is why I grieve.
Tanha approaches Siddhattha and bows before him.
Tanha:
O monk, O dear ascetic,
Behold me at your feet.
I only want to serve you,
Do with me as you please!
Siddhattha pays no attention. Tanha begins to swirl around him, dancing faster and faster, her form changing from a virgin to a young mother, from a middle aged woman to a crone.
Tanha:
For one still in the grip of lust
This dance would burst his heart,
Blood would gush out of his mouth,
His mind would go beserk.
If not, he would just wither
And become a shriveled cock,
Like a firm green reed just severed
Droops and then drops off.
(to Siddhattha)
Poor man, you’re lost in sorrow.
Is that why you’re in these woods?
Perhaps you’ve been molested
Or committed some offence?
Have your friends deserted you?
Why are you all alone?
Siddhattha:
The army’s been defeated,
Solitude brings joy.
I need no friends, no intimates,
Peace rests within my soul.
Tanha:
You’ve crossed the floods of vision,
Of sound, smell, taste and touch.
How did you cross the flood of mind,
Of thought and consciousness?
How is it that your senses
Have lost their hold on you?
Siddhattha:
I give rise to nothing,
Nor do I have a home.
My body has grown tranquil,
My mind is free and clear.
Thoughts do not entangle me,
I’m mindful of all things.
No longer prone to outbursts,
I neither drift nor freeze.
That is why my senses
Have lost their hold on me.
Tanha: (in despair)
Craving has been severed.
Now others too will cross.
He will rescue many souls
From the king, my lord of death.
Forlorn, Tanha returns to Namuci. He watches her approach from afar.
Namuci:
You fool!
You tried to smash a mountain
With the stalks of lotus flowers.
You tried to raise a mighty rock
With brittle fingernails.
You tried to chew an iron rod
With chipped and fragile teeth.
There’s no foothold in the abyss
When the weight is on your head.
You crashed into a pillar.
Gotama wearies you.
Overcome with sorrow, Namuci drops his guitar. When it hits the ground, he vanishes.
Siddhattha blows Tanha away like the wind disperses a fallen tuft of cotton.
Adapted fromthe following canonical sources:
Guhattaka Sutta (Sn. 772-9)
Ariyapariyesana Sutta (M. 26)
Salayatana Samyutta (S. 35:13)
Pabbaja Sutta (Sn. 406)
Padhana Sutta (Sn. 425-49)
Mara Samyutta (S. 4 passim)
Stephen Batchelor
July 2008 – June 2013.
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