Mara (demon)

Mara (or Mara ) ( from Sanskrit derived from Marati, "die", " kill " ) in Buddhism is the principle of death and disaster.

It represents a symbol of the painful world of samsara, and forms in his incarnation of death along with the aging of the twelfth link in the chain of dependent origination. He is personified described as the tempter and so sometimes compared with the Christian devil.

Origin and occurrence

In the legends Devaputra Mara is the opponent of the Buddha Shakyamuni. When his helpers his three daughters Rati, pleasure, Arati, the discontent and Tanha, greed apply. It occurs several times in the life history of the Buddha in appearance. The most important phenomenon is that immediately before its enlightenment ( see below). As a metaphor Mara stands for " what causes suffering." In this sense, includes the five groups world -like existence, called skandhas to him, the factors that determine the adherence to a secular, non- enlightened existence.

Hermann Oldenberg suspects a pre-Buddhist origin and sees the original idea of ​​Mara in the figure of the god of death, Mrityu kathaka the Upanishad.

Mara in the legend

When Buddha Shakyamuni was under the Bodhi tree just before the enlightenment, Mara turned on all forces to stop him. To this end, he called phenomena such as armies of violent warriors forth to make him angry, or women who wanted to indulge him and riches to tempt him. However, Buddha saw through his intentions, because he realized that everything is impermanent offered him and like an illusion. In a final attack Mara tried to persuade the Buddha for immediate entry into nirvana. However, this declined because he first wanted to find students to facilitate the dissemination of his teachings. Mara itself sank into a puddle, the illusion was cut from the Buddha's enlightenment as with a diamond (see Diamond Sutra ).