More about Mara

Karma HalW's blog : Mara, Satan and Identity Theft

" Not all the travellers did this, but a lot did. So when they encountered stories of the Buddha being tempted by Mara - well you don't need to be a genius to see what happens next. 'Mara' is equated with 'Satan' - tempting and being behind all the pain and suffering. Let me suggest a radical re-interpretation.'Mara' itself has multiple identities. 'Mara' is the daemon holding the 'Wheel of Becoming' (also known as the wheel of life'). So Mara is a personification of Death or more accurately of Transience. And that is simply the way things are. Samsara is transience plus clinging. So Mara is holding the wheel of becoming. But Mara is also the highest god of the sensual realm. So Mara is also a personification of all the sense pleasures that make corporeal existence so desirable. When Mara famously sent his daughters to tempt the (historical)Buddha when he was on the point of liberation, this is very similar to the imagery and thinking behind the infamous 'Last Temptation' film. Sensual desire is a fact until you see through it. Denial is not seeing through it, and denial implies the thing to be denied. What the Buddha did at liberation was disolve the mirage - that is why he gained liberation. Mara is said to fight to hold all beings within his domain. Mara hates liberation. This is simply symbolism for the mighty hold of sensuality - and possibly that mighty hold is so strong that it has created a plane of existence in which entities such as Mara can existence independent of any individual human existence.Think about that for a moment. Mara is simply trying to keep people enjoying the world. It is not trying to drag people into Hell. Everyday transient existence is Mara's realm. Mara doesn't need to drag beings into an existence disfigured by old-age, disease and death - it is there all around us.

So it seems to me that the correct parallel is that Mara is the same personification as Yahweh. Yahweh is the jealous god, the one that brooks no other, the one that seeks to hold on to every soul.Seeing Mara directly literally means Death - it means coming face to face with the dissolution of your identity. Yahweh was also famously dangerous in that respect.So I put it to you that Mara does not represent some rebellious creation, but is the very essence of daily existence ('Samsara') - and only Yahweh permeates all of existence.
Mara = Yahweh. "