Mara: embodiment of the death of spiritual life
Mara: We have heard about Mara, the Evil One from the story of the Buddha'scourageous battle with his armies, minions, and daughters on the evening of hisenlightenment under the Bodhi tree.
As soon a Siddhartha started mediating, he was confronted with the figure ofMara, the Lord of Darkness. Mara tried to tempt Siddhartha into despair and ingiving up his quest for enlightenment.
Mara's armies are: desire, lust, dislike for the higher life, hunger,thirst, craving, sloth and torpor, fear, cowardice, doubt, hypocrisy, obduracy,gain, praise, fame, honor, false glory, exalting self-despising others. Mara'sdaughters represent: lust, greed, desire, pride and ignorance. Mara's hordesrepresent the sum total of our deepest fears.
Mara can be viewed as the embodiment of unskillfulness and the death of thespiritual life in all of us. The nuns at the time of the Buddha grappled withMara. He would sneak into their hearts and thoughts, desiring to arouse fear,trepidation, and terror.
They, Uppalavanna, Cala, Soma, Alavika, Gotami, Vijaya, Upapacala,Sisupacala, Sela, Vajira, to name but a few of the nuns, caught Maraimmediately and answered him with brilliant replies whereby Mara sneaks away,caught in the act, foiled again his tricks. Several years ago, on Visakha Puja, Ajahn Amaro gave a brilliant Dhammatalk. He assumed the voice of Mara, as George Saunders, a British characteractor who often played the role of an oily cad. In this voice Mara confronts the Buddha and asks him who he thinks he isthat he should be enlightened as he is a loser who abandoned his wife, son, andpalace responsibilities. He couldn't even make it as an ascetic. He had tostart eating again. Mara shows up in all our lives whispering such things as: "You couldhave done better, why don't you have that piece of pie, you deserve it, I needa new I-Pod, you're no smart enough, I see it, I want it, I like it, I get it,If only I had a boy/girlfriend then everything would be alright, why me? Idon't like it and it shouldn't be this way. I have really ugly thighs."
For the past many years, I too have started hearing Mara's voice. Humor andskirmishes have begun with this dark trickster. On the last evening of a pastThanksgiving Retreat with Ajahn Amaro, I composed a song dedicated to Mara basedon the tune, "I'm Just a Gal Who Can't Say No." One line read"I'm in your terrible grip. I always say 'come on let's go' just when I need to do zip." Anothertime, I wrote an article entitled "Hearing Mara on the Loop Trail"which addressed my fears of getting lost, getting stuck, encountering amountain lion, falling off the mountain and missing the meal. The latest battle with the Evil One was just a few months ago. I had a bonemarrow biopsy and was waiting for the results which took two weeks.
There were four possibilities: nothing, something to be checked yearly, aquick exit from planet earth, or an extremely rare blood disease calledWaldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia - which I later found out, was the diagnosis.During the next two weeks, Mara's voice was a deep diabolic laugh and then thevoice said, "Mettika, you're going to die."
Sometimes I was able to feel the fear in the belly which created awarenessand then was able to see Mara and watch him slunk away. Sometimes I felt thepure dread of impending death. Mara was happy with that response. So, Dharma friends and wayfarers are on the lookout for Mara in his manyforms. The worst form of all is not seeing or hearing Mara's whisperings andbecoming entangled, shackled, trapped, upset, blind, deaf, heedless, andunprepared. We now have the opportunity to catch Mara's armies, minions, and daughters.Stay tuned and feel free to write to Mara's Desk if you too have hadencounters. Drop me a line. Cindy Mettika Hoffman is an upasika who has long been a part of theAbhayagiri community.