Mara, The Smartphone And The Great Disconnect

Mara and the smartphone both perfectly illustrate cognitive drain and fragmented consciousness, and the modern struggle to keep control of one’s mind in a world dominated by persuasive engineering. Inventors know exactly what they’re doing – creating need and gathering information.

In Buddhism, Mara is the demon who personifies temptation, illusion, and the distraction of the human mind. Mara tried to pull the Buddha away from enlightenment by using earthly desires.

Our phone functions as a metaphor for the ancient concept of Mara – a constant, seductive whisper in our hand, designed to distract consciousness, break our presence, and pull us away from reality with illusions of likes, alerts, and endless scrolling.

Dependency causes us to reach for our phone to escape anxiety, loneliness, or awkward social situations, feeding our boredom and removing us from this world.

Real world connection can feel uncomfortable and possibly unrewarding, but it gives us a chance to see our own mind at work, and that is the path to freedom and enlightenment.

When we connect to life, we connect to consciousness.

It’s what we are, without expectations,
and free from hypnosis.