aya does not mention that the
Buddha during his struggle for enlightenment was assailed or tempted by
Mara, the personification of evil and of transitory pleasures but also
of death. But that such an encounter--in some respects analogous to the
temptation of Christ by the Devil--formed part of the old tradition is
indicated by several passages in the Pitakas[330] and not merely by the
later literature where it assumes a prominent and picturesque form. This
struggle is psychologically probable enough but the origin of the story,
which is exhaustively discussed in Windisch's _Buddha und Mara_, seems
to lie not so much in any account which the Buddha may have given of his
mental struggles as in amplifications of old legends and in
dramatizations of metaphors which he may have used about conquering
death.

The Bodhi-tree is still shown at Bodh-Gaya. It stands on a low terrace
behind the temple, the whole lying in a hollow, below the level of the
surrounding modern buildings, and still attracts many pilgrims from all
Buddhist lands though perhaps not so many as the tree at Anuradhapura in
Ceylon, which is said to be sprung from one of its branches transplanted
thither. Whatever title it may have to the reverence of the faithful
rests on lineage rather than identity, for the growth which we see at
Bodh-Gaya now cannot claim to be the branches under which the Buddha sat
or even the trunk which Asoka tended. At best it is a modern stem sprung
from the seeds of the old tree, and this descent is rendered disputable
by legends of its destruction and miraculous restoration. Even during
the time that Sir A. Cunningham knew the locality from 1862 to 1880 it
would seem that the old trunk decayed and was replaced by scions grown
from seed.

The texts quoted above leave the Buddha occupied in teaching the five
monks in the Deer Park and the Mahavagga gives us the text of the
sermon[331] with which he opened his instruction. It is entitled Turning
the Wheel of Righteousness, and is also known as The Sermon at Benares.
It is a very early statement of the main doctrines of primitive Buddhism
and I see no reason to doubt that it contains the ideas and phrases of
the Buddha. The gist of the sermon is extremely simple. He first says
that those who wish to lead a religious life should avoid the two
extremes of self-indulgence and self-torture and follow a middle way.
Then he enunciates what he calls the four truths[332] about evil or
sufferi