Mara

Previous (Mapuche) (/entry/Mapuche) Next (Maratha Empire) (/entry/Maratha_Empire)

In Buddhism, Mara is the demon (/entry/Demon) who assaulted Gautama Buddha (/entry/Gautama_Buddha)
beneath the bodhi tree, using violence, sensory pleasure and mockery in an attempt to prevent the Buddha from
attaining enlightenment (/entry/Nirvana). In Buddhist cosmology, Mara personifies unskillfulness, the "death" of the
spiritual life. He is a tempter, distracting humans from practicing the Buddhist dharma through making the mundane
seem alluring, or the negative seem positive. Buddhism utilizes the concept of Mara to represent and personify
negative qualities found in the human ego and psyche. The stories associated with Mara remind Buddhists that
such demonic forces can be tamed by controlling one's mind, cravings and attachments.

Many religions (/entry/Religion) speak of demonic forces within the cosmos representing the antithesis of truth and
goodness—these forces are ultimately vanquished in the triumph of good over evil, or truth over untruth.

Description Contents
In Buddhist iconography, Mara is most often presented as a hideous demon 1 Description
(/entry/Demon), although sometimes he is depicted as an enormous elephant 2 Mara in Scripture
(/entry/Elephant), cobra (/entry/Cobra) or bull. When shown in an 3 The Development of Mara
anthropomorphic (human) form he is usually represented riding an elephant 4 Psychological Interpretation
with additional tusks. Other popular scenes of Mara show his demon army 5 References
6 Credits
attacking the Buddha, his daughters tempting the Buddha, or the flood that
washes away those under Mara's command.

In traditional Buddhism four senses of the word "mara" are given. Firstly, there is klesa-mara, or Mara as the
embodiment of all unskillful emotions. Secondly, mrtyu-mara, or Mara as death, in the sense of the ceaseless round
of birth and death (/entry/Death). Thirdly, skandha-mara, or Mara as metaphor for the entirety of conditioned
existence. Lastly, devaputra-mara, or Mara the son of a god, that is, Mara as an objectively existent being rather
than as a metaphor. This last connotation of mara is strikingly similar to the Hindu concept of Maya (/entry/Maya)
(Illusive Power of God), which may suggest that the two words Maya and Mara are perhaps directly related.

Mara is also known as Namuci ("not-loosing"), a demon described in the Hindu Vedic literature (/entry/Vedas) as
causing drought. Describing Mara thus is a literary allusion used by Buddhists to indicate his power and
malevolence. Mara is also called Kanha ("the dark one"), associating his power with darkness, also a metaphor for
confusion. Other epithets of Mara are Maccu ("death"), Antaka ("the end), and Papima ("evil one"), all of which
further attest to his notoriety in Buddhist thought and literature.

Mara in Scripture
Though Mara makes appearances in a variety of works, he is the focus of a group of sutras in the Pali canon, all
found within the Samyutta Nikaya ("Grouped Discourses") of the Sutta Pitaka. These texts are difficult to date
accurately—traditionally they are dated within the century following Buddha's death. Two sections are specifically
focused on Mara: the Mara-Samyutta and the Bhikkhuni-Samyutta; the first describing Mara's attacks on the
Buddha and his close disciples, and the latter made up of stories of Mara's attempts to interfere the practice of
Buddhist nuns. The Mara-Samyutta is arranged in three parts, the first two parts containing ten chapters and the
third containing one. The Bhikkhuni-Samyutta is made up of ten chapters.

The stories presented are formulaic—Mara appears, tries, and fails to meddle with the affairs of Buddha or one of
his disciples, and is rebuked. Most of the stories found in the Mara-Samyutta describe Mara's attacks on the
Buddha while he is alone during meditation, though some also describe Mara's attempts to distract the Buddha's
teaching. In every story Mara is foiled—the pattern continues in the Bhikkhuni-Samyutta, where clever Buddhist
nuns are able to overcome Mara consistently. The final chapter of the Mara-Samyutta has Mara admit to his
daughters he cannot overcome the Buddha and concede defeat, though later writings indicate he has not lost
interest in harassing Buddha's converts. The eighth chapter of the second part of the Mara-Samyutta suggests that
Mara is not an eternal being, but rather a position held by a succession of beings possessing severely evil karma
(/entry/Karma). Some early Buddhists, however, rather than seeing Mara as a demonic, virtually all-powerful Lord of
Evil (/entry/Evil), regarded him as more of a nuisance. Many episodes concerning his interactions with the Buddha
(/entry/Buddha) and his disciples have a decidedly humorous air to them.

Mara is best known for his role in opposing Buddha prior to and during his enlightenment. Many Buddhist works
recount this tale, and it is told in great detail in the Buddhacarita, written about 100 C.E. by the Buddhist writer
Ashvagosha. As Buddha sits beneath the bodhi tree Mara is alerted to this impending enlightenment. As lord of
death and sensual pleasure, Mara recognizes Buddha's success will mean an end to his reign. Though futile, he
decides to make attempts at disturbing Buddha and preventing his enlightenment.

Mara attempts to tempt Buddha, both with promises of glory and pleasure, and
then begins to warn of consequences for breaking away from the prince's religious
and secular duties. Buddha easily rejects these, knowing they are meaningless.
Mara uses force against Buddha, appearing as a hideous demon and sending an
army of likewise revolting and terrible creatures, bent on the bodily destruction of
Buddha. They launch a volley of arrows at Buddha, but as these projectiles
approach they are transformed into flowers and fall harmlessly to the ground.
Buddha invokes the earth goddess to wash away the demons in a flood—the earth
goddess obliges. The daughters of Mara try to coerce and seduce Buddha, but he
recognizes them as they are, and is not swayed from his goal. Finally Mara mocks
Buddha, and tells him his work is for nothing, as there is no one there to recognize
his achievement. Buddha responds that the earth will be his witness, and after
touching the ground the earth trembles in agreement. Thus Mara admits defeat for (/entry/File:MaraAssault.JPG)
the moment; however, he is determined to carry on harassing the Buddha and his Mara's assault on the Buddha
(aniconic representation: the
followers.
Buddha is only symbolized by
Legend continues to portray Mara as an enemy of the dharma. During various his throne), second century
C.E., Amaravati (India).
attempts by Buddha to teach key Buddhist ideas to groups of listeners Mara
intervenes to halt the enlightenment of further seekers. For instance, when Buddha
preached in a busy market place, Mara manifested himself as a bull and began to destroy the wares of merchants,
causing those amassed to hear the dharma to turn their attention to restraining the beast. Mara also beguiled
Ananda (/entry/Ananda), Buddha's disciple, tricking the student into accepting his teacher's decision to leave the
world though having the power to stay. In the Asokavandana (third century B.C.E.), the monk Upagupta is said to
have had his potential converts led astray by the spontaneous appearance of money and valuables and celestial
music. This same source indicates that Upagupta was eventually able to convert Mara to Buddhism; however, this
hagiography is considered apocryphal by many Buddhists.

It is notable that though the recognition and depiction of Mara persisted in the spread of Buddhism to China, Tibet
(/entry/Tibet), Japan (/entry/Japan), and other regions, little was added to the mythos surrounding him or his role in
Buddhism. Far Eastern understandings and representations of Mara are fundamentally congruent with their Eastern
predecessors.

The Development of Mara

In his work Buddhism and the Mythology of Evil, T. O. Ling suggests that Mara is the Buddhist extension of an
existing framework for demonology in Hinduism (/entry/Hinduism). He makes the case that Mara qualifies as a
yakkha, a Pali word for nature spirit (Sanskrit yaksha). Ling notes that both yakkhas and Mara attack their victims in
the night, seek to bring distraction to spiritual people, can shape-shift into all manners of terrifying creatures, seek
to preserve the existing ritual framework (at least those in which they are beneficiaries), and can spiritually possess
mortals (Ling, 45). These similarities indicate that Mara is not entirely a Buddhist invention, but evolved from
popular yakkha mythology.

Though these similarities do exist, scholars (Ling included) note that Mara does possess a great deal of attributes
that do define him as distinctly Buddhist. Buddhists themselves differentiate between Mara and yakkhas: whereas
Mara is set up in diametric opposition to the Buddha, the yakkhas only serve as small role in Hindu mythology—
that is, Mara is not unlike Satan (/entry/Satan) as found in Christianity. Hinduism has no such figure, and yakkhas
are certainly not identified this way. As well, Mara's motivation is dressed in Buddhist thought;to distract those who
are intent on learning the Buddhist dharma.

Mara has also been associated with the Hindu deity Kama, a god linked with sensuous desire and love. This
identification does not appear in the earliest Buddhist writings, but appears to be a later development. The
implication is clear: Kama's domain is essentially the same as Mara's, seen through the lens of Buddhist thought.
According to the second Noble Truth (/entry/Four_Noble_Truths) of Buddhism desire is a cause of suffering; in other
words, the realm of Kama leads to the realm of Mara (ie., death). This understanding of the Kama/Mara relationship
is not found in Hinduism. In Buddhist cosmology Mara is sometimes referred to as the ruler Kamadhatu, the "sense
and desire realm."

Psychological Interpretation
Early Buddhists, as well as later Buddhists, acknowledged both a literal and "psychological (/entry/Psychology)"
interpretation of Mara. Mara can be interpreted either as a real external demon or as internal vices that one faces
on the pathway to enlightenment. From the psychological perspective, Mara is a manifestation of one's own mind.
No external demon exists since it emerges from our own deluded thoughts. Those who see Mara as a
personification of our human ego interpret the stories associated with him in a symbolic way. Mara becomes a
representation for internal vices. His attack on the Buddha represents internal impulses towards violence and rage
that can be overcome by following the Buddha's teachings of cultivating compassion, detachment and gentleness.
The daughters of Mara represent lust and desire, which the Buddha overcame by recognizing their true nature as
emptiness. Mara's own attack on the Buddha's pride was defeated by the Buddha's denial of the self since there
was no "I" (ego) left to feel pride. Thus, the story of Mara's temptation can be interpreted symbolically, whereby the
Buddha's own emotions, desires, and sense of self were represented by demons. Regardless of how Mara is
understood, it is agreed that Mara has power only to the extent that our minds give it to him, and he must be
overcome to proceed further into the Buddhist understanding of reality.

Buddhist legends about Mara likely served several purposes. They may have been stories formulated to satisfy the
laity of a newly formed religious group that lacked much of its own mythology. They may also have represented a
veiled critique of Hindu understandings of spirituality. However, it seems likely that the purpose of stories about
Mara was largely didactic in nature. They were (and still are) meant to inform practitioners of the dangers they face
when they tread the Buddhist path. In this sense Mara is used as a tool to teach Buddhists about physical and/or
psychological obstacles they will confront in their meditation practice.

References
Corless, Roger J. The Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree. Paragon House, 1989. ISBN
1557782008 (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1557782008?tag=encyclopediap-
 20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1557782008&adid=0NQQZXQ96PDAJGB1J8XS)
Falk, Nancy E. Auer. Mara. In The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, 188. MacMillan, 1987.
ISBN 0028971353 (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0028971353?tag=encyclopediap-
20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0028971353&adid=0NQQZXQ96PDAJGB1J8XS)
Hamilton, Sue. Early Buddhism: A New Approach: The I of the Beholder. Curzon, 2000. ISBN 0700713573
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0700713573?tag=encyclopediap-
20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0700713573&adid=0NQQZXQ96PDAJGB1J8XS)
Ling, T.O. Buddhism and the Mythology of Evil. Allen and Unwin, 1962.
Lopez, Donald S., Jr. (ed.). Critical Terms for the Study of Buddhism University of Chicago Press, 2005. ISBN
0226493156 (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0226493156?tag=encyclopediap-
20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0226493156&adid=0NQQZXQ96PDAJGB1J8XS)

Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New
World Encyclopedia standards (/entry/Help:Writers_Manual). This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons
CC-by-sa 3.0 License (/entry/New_World_Encyclopedia:Creative_Commons_CC-by-sa_3.0) (CC-by-sa), which may
be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference
both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation.
To cite this article click here (http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Special:Cite?page=Mara) for a list of
acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
history (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
Mara (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mara&oldid=54800040)
title=Mara&action=history)

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

History of "Mara" (http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Mara&action=history)

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

Retrieved from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Mara&oldid=686833

(http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Mara&oldid=686833)
Categories (/entry/Special:Categories): Philosophy and religion (/entry/Category:Philosophy_and_religion)
Religion (/entry/Category:Religion) Credited (/entry/Category:Credited)