[Ingeborga]

Dear friends,

I saw this article on the internet and wondered if anyone had any comments.

Mara Looks Just Like Buddha

By Lewis Richmond



Mara is the master illusionist of Buddhism. He/she appears before Siddhartha the Buddha-to-be, who is sitting under the Bo tree on the verge of his final enlightenment, to co-opt and destroy Siddhartha's spiritual quest. Mara says, "How presumptuous of Siddhartha ... to assume the cross-legged posture on the seat of Wisdom! He is desirous of passing beyond my control but I will never allow it." (These and subsequent quotes are from "The Buddha: His life Retold by Robert Allen Mitchell.")

Mara is the classic narcissist. He wants to own and control everything -- including Siddhartha's spiritual accomplishment. Mara tries various strategems on Siddhartha; he sends hailstorms, beautiful women, the promises of gain, fame, honor and glory -- all to distract Siddhartha from his goal. These strategies are not idle; Mara could not be a true threat to Siddhartha's efforts unless Mara is some version or shadow of Siddhartha himself.

Mara is Siddhartha's unconscious double; Mara has experienced everything Siddhartha has experienced -- though he has no real understanding of it all. Mara knows all about the spiritual journey, and speaks Siddhartha's spiritual language. In fact -- or so I imagine -- Mara looks and feels just like Siddhartha, both to Siddhartha himself and to other people. Mara seems to have all the talents and attributes of a truly realized spiritual leader. That is why he is so dangerous.

As his last challenge to Siddhartha, Mara says, "Get up from this seat, Siddhartha. That seat does not belong to you, it belongs to me." Siddhartha responds, "You are not striving for the welfare of the world, or for enlightenment. This seat belongs to me."

And then -- in a famous gesture replicated in Buddha statues the world over -- Siddhartha touches the earth, asking her to witness his spiritual sincerity. In response she roars (for the earth is feminine), "I, EARTH, BEAR YOU WITNESS!" This defeats Mara for good, and he flees at last. Thus Siddhartha grounds himself in the wholesome motivation of his dedication to the welfare of all beings. That is the one approach Mara cannot understand. Mara is self-absorbed; he just wants the benefits of realization for himself.

I think we in the West are at a stage where we find it difficult to distinguish clearly between Mara and Buddha. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, according to the Dalai Lama, a person should closely observe a teacher for three years before consenting to be his/her student. It takes that long, apparently, to clearly differentiate Mara from Buddha.

As we live in a modern world of instant gratification, we don't wait three years or often even three weeks. I know of people who ask to be a teacher's student one hour after meeting him/her. Easy come, easy go -- that is the style of much that passes for real spiritual activity these days. The real path is full of pitfalls, including the difficulty of knowing which teachers are real and reliable, and which just seem to be.

So how do we differentiate Mara from Buddha? What are criteria and how do we test for them?

Continued at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lewis-...b_1804369.html