Beginning to enter Nirvana - Mara Appears

milkmoth

Just as the title says.

As you may know... Mara is the Lord of Illusion. He tried to tempt Buddha countless times to keep him from attaining enlightenment.

I believe that Mara is really the Guardian of Enlightenment.

I can't begin to count the times this has happened to me. It's a very powerful experience. I will have *that* moment where the Heavens open up and the beauty overwhelms. When I am completely AWAKE and in realization of my awakened self... transcending all mental and physical boundaries - a moment of true magic, the miracle. But just as that moment takes place that moment is stolen. Stolen by a mysterious interruption, confusion, or vivid hallucinations of evil or uglyness.

This experience brings up a lot of stuff: the nitty-gritty of what keeps us from attaining enlightenment. It's almost as if Mara or this moment of complete delusion and cofusion, next to this moment of pure awakened mind, is like a test. Mara will not let us achieve complete cosmic union until every scrap of karma and defilements have been dealt with. I think that's what's going on. So just as you are about to realize total Buddha... Mara appears in his most powerful self to test you.

I've had more than one showdown with Mara. And these things happen not just in the mind... but in the physical world around us. I cannot begin to fathom how it all works... but real enlightenment connects us not just mentally but physically to a place we call Nirvana.

Anyway... I hope Mara lets me go eventually. I am tired of him nosing around my peace and serenity.

SherabDorje

Seeing Mara as the Guardian of Enlightenment is one way of looking at it. Whatever the case, it's Mara that is seeking to prevent Enlightenment.

But reifying Mara could ultimately prove to be problematic. There are large and sometimes very scary obstacles to Enlightenment, but reifying those obstacles as a big scary phenomenon know as "Mara" could prevent us from chipping away at those obstacles a little bit at a time.

taiyaki

you are mara and mara is your mind.

mara doesn't exist, but you believe it really does exist, thus mara persists.

mara wants to get rid of mara and mara wants peace of mind.

but "you" can't do anything to get to enlightenment because there is no "you" nor "path" to get there other than getting "you" getting out of the way so that "enlightenment" can naturally arise.

hence in buddhism we study to get rid of our beliefs, assumptions, interpretations and we practice meditation so that we can see clearly in the moment. the buddhist path is a path of purification. getting rid of what's not really there. getting rid of our grasping. AND getting RID of getting rid of grasping.

if we negate the mind, we must also negate the negating of the mind. this is the true middle way.

just be and see.

but you mind says easier said than done or that's too simple or i need to attain such a state.

remember whatever is conditional isn't enlightenment. whatever arises will fall. enlightenment isn't a infinite satori. enlightenment is just seeing clearly without your conditioning. thus if you throw down all your thinking and grasping and in one moment you see clearly BAM you awaken.

nirvana is always here, we're just caught up in samsara. but samsara is nirvana and nirvana is samsara. a buddha see's both as they are, thus accepts them as they are.

Vincenzi

mara is a tendency within samsaric minds, it is not a being...

Jeffrey

There was something like this in the Carlos Constaneda books.. I recall at one time he was having a spiritual experience under the guidance of Don Juan and some kind of guardian appeared to him. Don Juan protected him and he 'came to' from the trip.

zombiegirl

@taiyaki you took the words right out of my mouth... and then phrased them better

i stumbled upon a quote the other day that i think succinctly sums up your point:

"Nirvana is simply samsara rightly experienced in light of a proper understanding of the emptiness of all things."

it comes from this wikipedia article explaining nagarjuna's view of sunyata

SherabDorje

@zobiegirl - cool. Thanks for the link.

taiyaki

yes yes it's important to understand and experience nirvana. it isn't some magical land far away from us. it's right here and right now if we get out of the way.

Temporary_arising

What Taiyaki said! Also, realising what mara is goes a long way towards eliminating it's power.

Lostie

Does Mara exist?

I'll go with taiyaki. It's right here, right now without us getting in our own way.

MindGate

I though Mara was the god of desire...?

DaltheJigsaw

You need to start writing your experiences down and putting it into a book:)
Maybe a blog?
I'm working on just that...http://www.leonbasin.net

SherabDorje

Does Mara exist?

I'll go with taiyaki. It's right here, right now without us getting in our own way.

That's the whole point. Mara is a mythical figure that serves a purpose up to a point, but when we reify Mara as something that actually exists and this obscures our own delusions and attachments to the point that we can't capably deal with them, then the mythical interpretation does more harm than good.

caz

Does Mara exist?

I'll go with taiyaki. It's right here, right now without us getting in our own way.

That's the whole point. Mara is a mythical figure that serves a purpose up to a point, but when we reify Mara as something that actually exists and this obscures our own delusions and attachments to the point that we can't capably deal with them, then the mythical interpretation does more harm than good.

The Devaputra mara that tempted Buddha was as real as you or I.

DharmaField

Show me Mara and I will show you a Buddha. Milkmoth - your insight is still in the realm of good and evil.

Evil, being of Eve, the casting out from the garden of Eden, the turning away from the sacred, Similarly, Mara is simply a turning away from the the garden of this very moment, you are clinging on to enlightenment as something to be gained. Give it up and just be.