In our times there is, allegedly, a lot of fake news. People try to find titbits of “facts” to try and catch people out as proof of lying. It is almost like three year olds trying to get mummy or daddy to tell someone off or punish them. It is what I call sandpit politics. Some believe the bible verbatim and others use this verbatim interpretation to prove that it is not true, that there are errors. The hunt for the resting place of Noah’s Ark continues….
Two thousand years ago they did not have CGI nor for that matter AI. People were largely illiterate and stories had to be crafted in a way that people would remember. There was animistic religion. They had to speak in the parable of the times.
Take a look at the Mucalinda Sutta, – Mucalindavaggo.
Here soon after enlightenment Siddartha is sat deep in thought.
He might have been trying to figure out what to do next. “Ok so what next?”
Mucalindo Nāgarājā notes the incoming poor weather and wraps him in seven coils and protects his head with the hood of a king Cobra risen in threatening manner. They sit for seven days until the weather changes and Mucalinda morphs into a brahmin to praise Buddha the new Bhagavhad.
Naga can also mean Elephant, a semi divine Nāga part snake human who comes from another world Nāga-loka and Buddha is sometimes called Nāga-muni.
Iconography can be easily found with the nascent Buddha protected by a king cobra like Nāga with 1,5 or 7 heads. It is a core piece of iconography. It is core Buddhism.
In occult literature snakes and dragons are words use to hint at wise and sagacious beings, initiates and the like. In the Toltec tradition there are nagal/nagual beings who live in a nagual’s world an alternate assimilation of the one that is commonly held.
Snake is the dreaming symbol for wisdom or need for wisdom.
Rain is the process of life.
Seven is guidance or need for guidance.
Head is intuitive mentality.
Coil or circle is sobriety/ inclusiveness/ unity.
If we interpret this sutta like a dream. Siddartha having awoken as a Buddha had just radically changed his whole view on life the universe and everything. This was mind-blowing. Even for a Buddha. He would need time to assimilate and process things after his ordeal with Mara and the whole shebang. So, he sat in contemplation seeking guidance from his now Buddhic intuition looking at how to apply his Nāga – rājā {very big, king-snake, top notch wisdom} feeling protected by his new found knowledge and had insight, inner guidance, on how to use it to embrace and enlighten all the world.
And he said to himself, perhaps with a chuckle. His intuition had summed it all up for him
Blissful is solitude for one who is content, who has heard the Dhamma, who sees. Blissful is non-affliction with regard for the world, restraint for living beings. Blissful is dispassion with regard for the world, the overcoming of sensuality. But the subduing of the conceit “I am”— That is truly the ultimate bliss.
Dreamyoga 