Mara

In Buddhism, the personification of craving, fear and death.

Mara is in Buddhism the tempter: the force that keeps people in the cycle of suffering through craving, fear and doubt. The word is related to death. Mara is sometimes depicted as a demonic king, but more often understood as an image of what in our own mind works against liberation.

The best-known story takes place on the night of the awakening. Siddhartha sits under the bodhi tree and resolves not to rise before he has seen the truth. Mara comes at him with everything he has. First he sends his daughters, who embody craving, discontent and desire. Then an army of monsters, storms and arrows, which turn into flowers before they reach Siddhartha. Finally Mara challenges him: by what right do you sit here? Siddhartha touches the earth with his right hand, and the earth bears witness for him. That gesture, the bhumisparsha mudra, appears on countless Buddha statues.

Even after his awakening Mara keeps returning, with doubt and temptation, and each time the Buddha answers simply: I see you, Mara. Then Mara disappears. Many teachers use that sentence as a practice: recognising and naming a difficult thought or fear, without fighting it.

For dreams Mara is a helpful image. Nightmares, pursuers, temptations and doubts in a dream can be read in Buddhist readings as Mara: not as a real demon, but as the forces of the mind asking for attention. The practice is the same as the Buddha's: seeing and naming, and letting the fear settle.

The word Mara is related to the Sanskrit for killing: what Mara ultimately seeks is that a person gives up on their own liberation.

On Dreamkin the Buddhist readings use this image without frightening anyone.