
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:Thanks... INDEED VERY ENLIGHTENING....
http://www.khandro.net/doctrine_four_maras.htm
[b]Maras According to Thrangu Rinpoche
Mara is most commonly presented in the Buddhist tradition as four different types of maras called: Devaputramara, the mara that is the child of the gods; Kleshamara, the mara that is the mental afflictions; Skandhamara, the mara that is the aggregates; and finally Mrtyamara, the mara that is the lord of death. These are primarily internal.
The first of these, Devaputramara, the mara that is the child of the gods, refers not to some kind of external demonic force but primarily to your own great attachment and great craving. Therefore, it is given the name of child of the gods, because when this mara is depicted iconographically — because it is craving or wanting something so much —it is not depicted as something ugly and threatening, but as something attractive, because that is the feeling-tone of attachment. It is liking things so much that it interferes with your dharma practice and your attainment of awakening.
The second mara, Kleshamara, the mara that is mental afflictions, is your mental afflictions themselves. These become a mara because, due to the beginning-less habit of maintaining and cultivating them, they keep on popping up again and again. They are very hard to abandon or even to suppress, and when they are momentarily absent, they come up again, and in that way they interfere with your practice of dharma.
The third mara is Skandamara, the mara of the aggregates. The aggregates here refer to the five aggregates that make up samsaric existence — forms, sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and consciousness. Now, these aggregates are themselves mara, because being aggregates or composite, they are impermanent. Being impermanent they are constantly changing, and therefore they are always a cause, directly or indirectly, of suffering. In order to attain permanent happiness, in order to transcend the suffering of samsara, we must transcend the five aggregates. There is simply no way to attain a state of permanent happiness within the bondage of these aggregates.
The fourth of the four maras is death itself, which is depicted iconographic[al]ly as wrathful or unpleasant. Death, of course, is what we are most afraid of. Death is what comes with great agony and fear and pain.
~ issue 10 of Shenpen Osel news.
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The Buddhist view is that every individual is an entity composed of five categories of phenomena or qualities that may be thought of as aggregates, skandhas in Sanskrit; sometimes translated as heaps or accumulations.So from this we know that the 5 Skhandas are the basis (conditions) for the illusion of a Self. An ignorant mind reacts to the 5 Skhandas and the illusion of "Self" arise. The persistant illusion of an independant self seems to inherent all of us.
The Five Skandhas, also called Formations are:
1. form (rupa)
2. apperception or sensibility
3. perception
4. volition, will
5. consciousness
1. Form is composed of matter made up of four elements: earth, water, fire, wind.
2. Apperception or sensibility is derived from the sense organs:
1. eye enables sight
2. ear enables sound
3. nose enables odour
4. tongue enables taste
5. "body" enables touch
6. mind enables the experiences of the five organs above, but also of its own objects called, like the word for the Teachings, dharma s ('facts').
This set of pairs, ie. organ + function, is known as the Twelve (12) Bases of Consciousness.
3. Perception is a product of the six externals above: sight, sound, etc. It is the individual's processing of the 12 bases to 'feel' the environment. [This skandha is sometimes referred to as 'feeling' though that word could be used in an vague way for any of the skandhas from 2 through 4.]
4. Volition [samskara] is the reaction of the will to the objects and may produce aversion, attraction, etc. In other words, the feeling as basis for emotion.
5. Consciousness [vijnana] grasps the qualities of the six objects. It creates a third member of the sets in 2 above. These are designated Visual consciousness, Auditory consciousness, and so on, ending with Mental consciousness. The eighteen now, are called the Eighteen (1Elements [dhatu].
These five aggregates or formations, the skandas, are not ultimate and eternal in nature but are conditioned. They arise from causes and circumstances. Like all phenomena, they come and go; endure and change and disappear.
Since we are composed of these, we are impermanent. There is no part of us that is eternal. We cannot logically say, "That is mine; I am that; that is my Self"
In the sutras, we find a story of a very famous ascetic-scholar named Saccaka. One day he heard that Buddha taught the anatta doctrine. Since he was a very sharp debater he decided that he would go to the Buddha and convince Him that the anatta doctrine was wrong. He was very confident; he claimed that if he were to debate with a stone pillar, that pillar would sweat from fear. He claimed that, just as a strong man takes a goat and flings it around his shoulders, so he would take hold of Gotama and fling Him around in debate.When this "I" arise, mental afflictions follows. The 3 primary mental afflictions are as follows: attachment/passion, hatred/aggresion, ignorance/delusion.
Saccaka and his followers went to the Buddha and there exchanged greetings. He asked Buddha to explain the doctrines He taught. Buddha replied that He taught anatta. Saccaka countered, “No. There is atta. The five aggregates are atta.” Buddha replied, “Do you really think that rupa (corporeality) is atta?” As it happened, Saccaka was very ugly, and if he said that corporeality was atta, then Buddha could counter, “Then why don't you make yourself more handsome!”
Thus Saccaka was forced to say that rupa is not atta. Here we can see Buddha striking down several characteristics that are attributed to the atta. If Saccaka had an atta, he could call upon it to exercise authority and power in order to change his appearance. After all, atta is identical to Brahman, the supreme ruler the infinite, omnipotent creator and source of all things, as explained in the Bhagavad Gita.
But, according to Buddha, there exist only the five aggregates, the five khandhas, and these are not atta because they are subject to the laws of impermanence, suffering, and no-soul. Rupa (material form) is not atta; it is not master and ruler of itself, and it is subject to affliction. The other khandhas - feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness - are also subject to the same laws. Saccaka was therefore defeated.
Can you explain more on 'anatta'?Originally posted by An Eternal Now:* anatta: Non-Self, one of the 3 Dharma Seals of Buddhism
* atta: Self [illusioned thinking]
"To study the Buddha Way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self, and to forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things."
- Master Dogen
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
- Albert Einstein
Enlightening... Thanks...Originally posted by longchen:From the expanded non-judging state of consciousness, good and evil are but tiny streams of intentions and thoughts in an ocean of consciousness.
Whether, they be good or evil it is only of significances at the relative individual self (egoic) state. These thoughts are intentions crying out for action.