■Book 103 - The Great Spiritual Response Of Tantrayana
■Written by master Sheng-yen Lu
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I learned about how Ananda was frightened by the mara at the vulture hill from the book ”Westside Story”. Let me reproduce the relevant paragraphs:
（Note - original in classical Chinese）
To summarise the paragraph, it has mentioned about, one day, Ananda was meditating in a room made of stone, which was situated North West of the room occupied by Shakyamuni Buddha.
The mara changed into a vulture, standing on top of the rock, waving its wings and crow very loudly to frighten Ananda.
Frightened by this, Ananda did not know what to do.
Shakyamuni Buddha came to know this immediately. He stretched his hand, and used his magical power to pass through the stone walls and touched Ananda’s head. He told Ananda compassionately, ”That was the impersonation of the mara, do not fear”. Ananda was then able to calm down.
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I have read the mara-destruction dharani sutra of unlimited school, which teaches all kinds of dharma to help us from the persecution of mara.
A lot of people asked me what is mara. I explained to them: ” We must know how to identify what is mara, then we wouldn’t be cheated. Those that are to take away our lives are known as mara. So are hindrance and disturbance facing us in our cultivation.
The mara king of the six heaven （kamadhatu） and his relations and followers in the desire realm are maras. Normally maras can be divided into four types.
1. the mara of passions such as greed, hatred, and ignorance that could harm our body and our mind.
2. the mara of negative forces, the five skandhas（aggregates）, namely, rupa （physical）, vedana （feeling）, sanjna （conception）, samskara （function of mind）, and vijnana （perception） that create all kinds of pains for the human beings.
3. the mara of death - that could take our lives.
4. the mara of kamadhatu - the mara king that could prevent our effort in the cultivation, and doing good deed.
Ghosts are in the Bardo state （the intermediate existence between death and reincarnation）. They are formless spirits and are not maras.
Maras are able to disturb our cultivation, so that we are unable to see our true self, our life and wisdom will be affected. They will force us to harbour ill intension, and rob us of our merit.
（the ghost can make people feel sick, known as ghost-god sickness. Sometimes the ghost can also take human life, it is equalled to mara at this stage.）
Living in a higher level and have dharma power, the ghosts will be kind hearted and commonly called ”gods”.
On the other hand, those existing in the lower level and would like to disturb others are called devil or Raksasa.
Hindrance from mara is not uncommon when we cultivate. To deal with this problem, a Tantric Cultivator must have the right mind and right behaviour. He must chant the mara-suppression mantra and learn either Manjusri Bodhisattva’s five dharma to tie up maras, or how to deal with fifty negative maras from Surangama sutra.
I believe to deal with maras effectively we must:
Wu-Shi––do not bother about anything （immoveable）
Wu-Xin––maintain nothingness （unconfused）
Wu-wo––utmost emptiness （non-destructible）
I am telling you the truth, as I am often called the Religious Mara. Since I have reached the stage of unification of Buddha and mara, I am an expert in destroying the mara. My dharma body has abandoned the world of form and entered into tranquillity. But the dharma nature can be applied in many inconceivable ways. I have all the mystic powers and the great wisdom to change many things. As I am omnipresent, I will appear whenever my disciples pray to me.
-To be continued-
