Mara, O, Mara (the defilements)

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit of Mara (demon)

Mara's daughters Craving, Lust, Aversion

Etymology The word māra comes from the Sanskrit form of the root verb mṛ. Māra is a verbal noun from the causative root that means "causing death" or "killing" [4].

It is related to other words for "death" from the same root, such as Pali maraṇa and Sanskrit mṛtyu. [In English we have mort and mortuary, French le morte, Spanish Muerte.]

• Mara's daughter Arati, Arāti, Ārati, Ārāti (wisdomlib.org)

The latter is a name for Death personified and is sometimes identified as the kind judge Yama, the King of the Dead. The root mṛ is related to the Indo-European verbal root *mer, meaning "die, disappear" in the context of "death, murder, or destruction."

It is "very widespread" in Indo-European languages suggesting it to be of great antiquity, according to Mallory and Adams [5].

Four types of Māra

In traditional Buddhism, four or five metaphorical forms of Māra are given [6]:

• Kleśa-māra: Māra as the embodiment of all defilements (unskillful root intentions, underlying motives, pernicious emotions, kleshas, kilesas), such as greed, hate/fear, and delusion.
• Mṛtyu-māra: Māra as Death personified.
• Skandha-māra: Māra as metaphor for the entirety of conditioned existence [explained in terms of the Five Aggregates clung to as self].
• Devaputra-māra: The deva (being of light, lit. "shining one") of the [top of the] Sensuous Sphere, who tried to prevent the Bodhisattva Siddhartha Gautama from from becoming a buddha by attaining liberation from the Cycle of Endless Rebirth (samsara) on the night of his great enlightenment.

Character

Early Buddhism acknowledged both a literal and psychological interpretation of "Mara" [7, 8].

• EDITOR'S NOTE: It is easy to believe nowadays that Mara is only a metaphor for the subtlety of the mental defilements. But this is contradicted by extensive texts describing his deeds. It would be very difficult to read the collection of Mara texts (Mara Samyutta in the fourth section of the SN, S.i.103 27) and come away thinking he is anything but real.
• Indeed, there are many maras, at least one in each world-system. The word may also refer to ogres (yakkhas), as Mara seems to be their chief, as on the night under the bodhi tree at the great awakening.
• In the Mara Sutra, Rādha asks the Buddha what is meant by "Māra.” Anything that perishes, answered the Buddha -- such as [the Five Aggregates clung to as self, namely] form (this body), feelings, perceptions, mental formation, and consciousness..." (S.iii.188.).
• FOR MUCH MORE ON THIS SUBJECT, SEE Māra

Mara is described both as an entity having an existence in the Sensuous Sphere (kāma-loka) [9] and coming down to interact with the Buddha and also as described in the description of Dependent Origination (pratītya-samutpāda) as, primarily, the guardian of passion and the catalyst for lust, hesitation, and fear that obstructs meditation among Buddhists.

The Denkōroku refers to him as the "One Who Delights in Destruction," which highlights his nature as a light being among the Parinirmitavaśavarti devas [10]. More