Against the stream of common thought.
Deep, subtle, difficult, delicate.
Unseen ’twill be by passion’s slaves
Cloaked in the murk of Ignorance.”[f53]
According to this report transmitted by the compilers of the Nikayas, which is also confirmed by the other literature we have of the Buddha’s Enlightenment, what flashed through his mind must have been an experience most unusual and not taking place in our everyday consciousness, even in the consciousness of a wise, learned, and thoughtful man. Thus, he naturally wished to pass away into Nirvana without attempting to propagate the Dharma, but this idea was abandoned when Great Brahma spoke to the Buddha in verse thus:
“As on a crag, on crest of mountain standing,
A man might watch the people far below,
E’en so do thou, O Widsom fair, ascending,
O Seer of all, the terraced heights of Truth,
Look down, from grief released, upon the nations