Who Is Mara to You?
As in most Buddhist teachings, the point of Mara is not to "believe in" Mara but to understand what Mara represents in your own practice and experience of life.
"Mara's army is just as real to us today as it was to the Buddha," Jnana Sipe said. "Mara stands for those patterns of behavior that long for the security of clinging to something real and permanent rather than facing the question posed by being a transient and contingent creature. 'It makes no difference what you grasp', said Buddha, 'when someone grasps, Mara stands beside him.' The tempestuous longings and fears that assail us, as well as the views and opinions that confine us are sufficient evidence of this. Whether we talk of succumbing to irresistible urges and addictions or being paralyzed by neurotic obsessions, both are psychological ways of articulating our current cohabitation with the devil."
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