Kris asks about Mara the "devil"

Citizen Krissy, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

Who in the world is Mara? (GQ)

CK: When you stopped criticizing me, it was a melodious dream come true.  

WQ: That's sad. They say, "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar." But we say, "What do you want with a bunch of flies?"

CK: It was an answer to my prayers!

WQ: That's God for you, always giving even when not asked. So much for the maxim, "Ask and it is given."

CK: Oddly enough, it came only after the realization of your role as "Mara"

WQ: OMB! (Oh My Brahma!) Maybe you don't know who Mara is. Although Gary Sanders speaks of Mara as a metaphor for the defilements, there is a real Mara, too.

He appears frequently in the sutras. In fact, there is a whole section dedicated to him called the Mara Samyutta.

The metaphorical one as the defilements or effluents or taints -- an army of ogres, three seductive sisters, outflows and inflows -- is discussed in the commentaries as a pedagogical device.

Mara is a yaksha, too.

But one can hardly dismiss a real flesh and blood Mara, a tricky Cupid/charming Lucifer character who resides in the highest Sensual Sphere heaven just beneath the Fine Material Sphere and comes down to the human plane to obstruct the arising of a teacher that might lead others to liberation from the Sensual Sphere. (Read about him below).

CK: It was as if you had been the physical representation in many forms of self doubt in its myriad expressions. Dare I ask if this was your purpose/goal all along?

WQ: Mara is clever, very clever, exceedingly clever. See the original "Bedazzled."

Kris, ask a psychic about Mara

CK: Please do not answer. You have said I ask too many questions and make too many assumptions. But note that I do listen, though admittedly, my response is often untimely or in a convoluted form.

WQ: A wink is as good as a nod to a blind woman, right?

CK: Certainly, there have been many enlightening awarenesses from my association with you.

WQ: "How terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise." That is to say, "How dismal it is to know when knowing brings no benefit."

CK: I sincerely hope that continues but in a less arduous way, if possible.

WQ: I like the benefits of school, but does there have to be homework, tests, or studying? I want mental muscles, it's true, but not if I have to actually exercise -- is that what you're saying?

CK: I see what you mean.

WQ: Maybe what you needed all along was not noncriticism but a "compliment sandwich"?

Mara as mere Metaphor

"Calm down, Kris, maybe Mara is simply a metaphor!" (stoa.org.uk)

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In search of metaphor (lemmalab.com)

(Wiki edited by WQ) In traditional Theravada Buddhism there are four metaphorical forms of "māra":

1. Kileśa-māra, or Ma̋ra as the embodiment of all unskillful states, such as greed (craving), hatred (aversion), and delusion (wrong view).
2. Mṛtyu-māra, or Māra as the personification of [aging and] death and endless rebirth (again and again becoming).
3. Khandha-māra, or Māra as metaphor for the entirety of the aggregates of conditioned existence.
4. Devaputra-māra, the deva (a "Lucifer"-like archangel) of the Sensuous Sphere (Kama-loka, this world where Kamadeva or the Roman god Cupid/Greek Eros is supreme), who tries to prevent Gautama Buddha from finding liberation from the endless cycle of rebirth on the night of the Buddha's great enlightenment fearing that many will escape this realm and Mara's influence if the path is rediscovered.