But the Buddha never came down. He stayed up.
With the 8 worldly winds, he was not immune, though. There would still be gains in the world. And there would still be losses in the world. And these gains and losses might affect him. Like weather. Or bug bites.
But these are outside.
As I understand it, the 8 worldly winds affect all beings in the world, i.e. it affects their bodies, their shell, their outsides. But the Buddha trained enough so the gains and losses stayed outside. They did not need to infect and hijack the mind.
For everyday people, those gains and losses do hijack the mind. Envelope it. Create frenzies. So the outside infects the inside.
Insight and release and Nibbana happen by finding a small part of us, maybe just 1 cm in size, that is not hijacked. And we look and notice it.
And eventually, we can nourish it so it grows. So our insides, our mind, is hijacked less and less. Until it is hijacked no more.
And this is a freedom, a total freedom, for our insides. Our outsides might be wallowing in shit, a situation that previously would have infected and disturbed our insides via the mind. But now, the whole world could be on fire and, inside, there is still peace, calm, freedom, knowing.
