Mara’s Very Presence Is Its Demise

The ultimate checkmate.

Most of us only want to read or hear nice Dharma, uplifting Dharma. That, in itself, is a delusion.
We have to know what it is that is obscuring the pure consciousness that is ever present.

Mara’s very presence is its demise; the moment Mara shows its face, the game is over. Here, we hit on the core paradox of enlightenment; if we want to be enlightened, we’ll never recognise that we are enlightened, and therefore, enlightenment stays hidden.

In the traditional story of the Buddha’s enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, Siddhartha didn’t fight Mara with debate. He simply looked at the temptation to react, and said, “I see you, Mara.”

Mara’s presence is its immediate undoing. Through the simple power of recognition, the spell is broken. An illusionist cannot trick an audience that knows how the magic trick is done. In recognising Mara activity in both our own mind and the minds of others, we are free of it.

The light recognises dark.
The dark cannot recognise the dark; if it could, it would be the light.

The moment temptation, delusion or reaction is recognised, it transforms from a driving force into a passing thought or emotion.