Fearless Mountain Newsletter
Spring 2007 Articles
Peace, Peace From the Monastery Adventures of Me and I Anagarika Life Māra’s Desk Tales from Varapañño Calendar View Archive
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We have heard about Māra, the Evil One from the story of the Buddha’s courageous battle with his armies, minions, and daughters on the evening of his enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. As soon as Siddhattha started meditating, he was confronted with the figure of Māra, the Lord of Darkness. Māra tried to tempt Siddhattha into despair and in giving up his quest for enlightenment. However, the future Buddha called upon the Earth Goddess to be witness to his quest.
Māra’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. Māra’s daughters represent: lust, greed, desire, pride and ignorance. Māra’s hordes represent the sum total of our deepest fears.
Māra can be viewed as the embodiment of unskillfulness and the death of the spiritual life in all of us. The nuns at the time of the Buddha grappled with Māra. He would sneak into their hearts and thoughts, desiring to arouse fear, trepidation, and terror. They, Uppalavanna, Cāla, Soma, Alavika, Gotami, Vijāya, Upapacala, Sisupacala, Sela, Vajira, to name but a few of the nuns, caught Māra immediately and answered him with brilliant replies whereby Māra sneaks away, caught in the act, foiled again. HISSSSSSS.
Beginning in the fall of 1997 Fearless Mountain Newsletter featured a four-part series by Ajahn Punnadhammo entitled “Letters from Māra.” I found my interest and imagination piqued about this character named Māra. If you have a chance to read these letters, do so. They are most humorous and elucidating.
Several years ago, on Visakhā Pūjā, Ajahn Amaro gave a brilliant Dhamma talk. He assumed the voice of Māra, as George Saunders, a British character actor who often played the role of an oily cad. In this voice Māra confronts the Buddha and asks him who he thinks he is that he should be enlightened as he is a loser who abandoned his wife, son, and palace responsibilities. He couldn’t even make it as an ascetic. He had to start eating again.
Māra shows up in all our lives whispering Page 2 of 2
such things as: “You could have done better, why don’t you have that piece of pie, you deserve it, I need a new I-Pod, you’re not 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? I don’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 Māra’s voice. Humor and skirmishes have begun with this dark trickster. On the last evening of a past Thanksgiving Retreat with Ajahn Amaro, I composed a song dedicated to Māra based on 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.” Another time, I wrote an article entitled “Hearing Māra on the Loop Trail” which addressed my fears of getting lost, getting stuck, encountering a mountain 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 bone marrow biopsy and was waiting for the results which took two weeks. There were four possibilities: nothing, something to be checked yearly, a quick exit from planet earth, or an extremely rare blood disease called Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia—which I later found out was the diagnosis. During the next two weeks, Māra’s voice was a deep diabolic laugh and then the voice said, “Mettika, you’re going to die.” Sometimes I was able to feel the fear in the belly which created awareness and then was able to see Māra and watch him slunk away. Sometimes I felt the pure dread of impending death. Māra was happy with that response.
So, Dhamma friends and wayfarers, be on the lookout for Māra in his many forms. The worst form of all is not seeing or hearing Māra’s whisperings and becoming entangled, shackled, trapped, upset, blind, deaf, heedless, and unprepared. We now have the opportunity to catch Māra’s armies, minions, and daughters. Stay tuned and feel free to write to Māra’s Desk if you too have had encounters. Drop me a line.
