The Buddha's Enemy: Māra

The Buddha faced a supernatural obstacle on his quest to become enlightened and a Buddha: Māra. Learn about this entity in the Buddha's life, and how we can use Māra as a way to practice Buddhism.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:16 Who is Mara?
00:11 The Buddha and Mara
01:30 Mara Compared to Buddha
02:50 Mara's Daughters vs the Buddha
04:08 Mara's Army vs the Buddha
04:55 Mara vs the Buddha
06:38 The Buddha's Witness (the final part of the Battle)
09:55 How We Battle Mara in our Daily Practice
11:42 Seeing Mara
12:59 Questions?

[surendrasharma]

Mara considers itself the ruler of 6th heaven and all the realms below it and it considers it a challenge or threat to his authority if one tries to surpass him.
As Buddhism leads one beyond all the heavens, it also leads one beyond Mara's control and this Mara dislikes.
He tries to hinder the practice of those who are close to attaining jhanas.

[Ifasanya]

Also Mara continues to interact with the Buddha throughout his teachings and impacts the Sangha continuously throughout the Suttas. Mara is like gravity. Its nature wants to pull us down. You can look at aviation as our Buddha nature, finding its path to the skies of awakening.

[lifengliu]

Thank you Allan. Mara and BUDDHA are like two sides to a coin. That coin is our enlightment. In our journey to Enlightment, Mara is also good in a sense like you said in your vedio to help us to aware of it(in its manifestations as challenges and obstacles) and improve on our practices, so that we can get closer to or/and even enlightment. When unaware, Buddha becomes Mara. Buddha and Mara are one and within us. Which side will you choose? 😁All the best, Allan.

[skarrven]

Is it fair to assume that Mara can be perceived as everyday struggles or temptations such as laziness, distractions, digital obsessions, greed, hate, and all negative emotions trying to sway us from the path? If so, how do we overcome them quickly and effectively?

[InvisibleFeats]

So, operating in this world, Mara could sometimes be those people who encourage you to feel your anger or grief? Those who say "don't bottle it up, express it" are not giving you a way to detach from it, they're making room for its expression into the field of humanity? Like psychologists?

[TheFiestyhick]

Very nice
Informative

Small question, for an American that has never read Lotus Sutra, do you have a suggestion on a user friendly Lotus Sutra?

[adammobile]

Interesting story. Thank you for sharing.
I'm curious if an anthropomorphic-symbolic way of presenting Mara is western rationalization or if people in ancient times see it this way as well. I'm just afraid that long time ago people believe in ghosts and kind of demons.

[fredfarmer]

You are the first I've heard call Mara a Deitiy". I've always heard that Mara a Demon.