What
  is Mara?
 

We have discussed God, the Goddess, the Devil and the Christ.


But there is something more in our universe—that imprisons us all.


Even God Himself.


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“Mara” is the Name given by Buddhists, Hindus, and others, for the Deity that keeps people trapped in a world of frustration—never getting what we really want—never ceasing to strain and struggle to keep what we have as things inevitably change and pass away.


It is also very close, in the language of the Bible, to a bitter river, “Marah”—a name meaning “bitter.” (Exodus 15:23-25)


The condition of being trapped on an endless “wheel” of bitter frustrations, longings, fleeting pleasures, and always-returning pain, is called “Samsara.”


Mara, therefore, in some religions, is the God or Goddess of Samsara.


We in the All Faith Church of Liberation do not believe this Force is a “God” or “Goddess.”


We believe It to be the Force of Frustration, Boredom, and Restlessness, that leads people to dissatisfaction with their lives.


The same dissatisfaction Satan exploited in the Garden, when he tempted Adam and Eve to find the Garden frustrating—limited by the one fruit they'd been forbidden to taste.


So, Mara does not tempt, as Satan does.


Mara sets up the dissatisfaction needed for Satan to tempt us!


Mara doesn't draw a person away from the Body, as the Old God did, or away from the Spirit, as the Old Mother Goddess did.


Mara does not liberate, as Christ shows the path to enlightenment.


Mara is that which says to all of these—try harder!


It's not good enough!


You could always be better off!


Mara/Samsara provide the feeling of dissatisfaction, and then Satan tempts us to grab and conquer, to relieve it.


This is the source of envy and covetousness of other people's lives, and the spirit of rancor which arises in those jealous of others.


This is the reason so many people do devilish things—seeking addictions that can momentarily satisfy the longing and pain Mara and Samsara cause them.


This is the reason our relationships do not last, as we fail to grow together with our loved ones, and become devilish with them in our resentment.


Mara/Samsara is a condition of the universe.


Suffering.


Unable to hold onto anything.


Because everything is constantly changing, and passing away.


*


Disunity leads to war.


To madness.


The unity of the Community of God—the Elohim—the “We” that once was, and shall be again—is the cure for madness and war.


As God is divided from the Goddess, as the Devil uses the Goddess against God, as we all live our lives estranged from Spirit and Body, tortured by Devilish doubts and angers and dissatisfactions, unable to free ourselves from our woes.


And this is the condition of Samsara—the game of Mara—which sits somewhere outside the universe, spinning warps and wefts of frustration into the fibers of God's creation.


This Samsara even frustrates God's attempts to reunify Himself!


*


But God provides His own way to Enlightenment:


Ourselves.


We human beings!


For we are the bridge between His consciousness and the Flesh of the Earth.


By dwelling within us, God experiences our lives, and helps us to live our lives righteously.


We are the ones who can choose whether we go the Devil's way or Christ's way.


Or, we can choose to do neither—becoming neither hot nor cold.


This makes us more susceptible to the endless games of Mara—for we believe in nothing with our hearts and spirits—regardless of what we say we believe with our minds and mouths.


This is why Jesus Christ spat venom at such “lukewarm” people, saying he will spew them out of his mouth! (Rev. 3:15-16)


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We must take a stand.


We must love or hate.


But how can we be so pure?


When love dominates, a hateful part of us can be brought under control.


But when hate dominates, any love in us is lost.


The Buddha showed the way to escape Mara and Samsara.


But the Christ, which is a Buddha unified with God's Love, can one day convert Mara to Its own enlightenment!


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Many are the exhortations of the Christ against worry, against frustration, against the desire for wealth and control over life.


Why should we worry about tomorrow? He says.


“Therefore I say unto you. Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the the life more than meat, and the body more than raiment?” (Mt. 6:25 KJV)


Jesus goes on to ask if the fowls of the air or the lilies of the field worry about what they shall eat or wear—yet they are arrayed in a glory beyond Solomon! (Mt. 6:26-29)


Such was how the enlightened Christ combated the fear Mara makes of the fears we have over survival.


When confronted with the Samsara of being attacked by an enemy, Jesus counsels:


“Ye have heard that it hath been said. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you. That ye resist not evil: But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel the to go a mile, go with him twain.” (Mt. 5:38-41 KJV)


Further, He says: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless those that curse you, do good fto them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecuteyou. That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Mt. 5:44-45 KJV)


Loving your enemies is a way to neutralize their power over you.


Loving all, as Christ loved, is a way not to have enemies—and to free yourself from the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” endless battle.


You must still work for positive change in the world, still oppose the forces of evil in the world that seek to deprive God's People of what they need.


But when you confront those opposing you, release yourself and them from hate:


Then, you can act freely—allowing God's love to inform all you do.


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The Buddhist scholar and philosopher Alan Watts, translator of many Buddhist texts into English, spoke of the concept that God, being the Only Being in the Universe, is constantly playing hide-and-seek with Himself. This is how all our consciousnesses, our lives, arise.


We are all God, looking for ourselves.


Alan Watts writes: “God also likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside God, he has no one but himself to play with. But he gets over this difficulty by pretending that he is not himself. This is his way of hiding from himself. He pretends that he is you and I and all the people in the world, all the animals, all the plants, all the rocks, and all the stars. In this way he has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when he wakes up they will disappear.


“Now when God plays hide and pretends that he is you and I, he does it so well that it takes him a long time to remember where and how he hid himself. But that's the whole fun of it—just what he wanted to do.


“He doesn't want to find himself too quickly, for that would spoil the game. That is why it is so difficult for you and me to find out that we are God in disguise, pretending not to be himself. But when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self—the God who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever.


“Of course, you must remember that God isn't shaped like a person. People have skins and there is always something outside our skins. If there weren't, we wouldn't know the difference between what is inside and outside our bodies. But God has no skin and no shape because there isn't any outside to him.


“The inside and the outside of God are the same. And though I have been talking about God as 'he' and not 'she,' God isn't a man or a woman. I didn't say 'it' because we usually say 'it' for things that aren't alive. "God is the Self of the world, but you can't see God for the same reason that, without a mirror, you can't see your own eyes, and you certainly can't bite your own teeth or look inside your head. Your self is that cleverly hidden because it is God hiding.


“You may ask why God sometimes hides in the form of horrible people, or pretends to be people who suffer great disease and pain. Remember, first, that he isn't really doing this to anyone but himself. Remember, too, that in almost all the stories you enjoy there have to be bad people as well as good people, for the thrill of the tale is to find out how the good people will get the better of the bad. It's the same as when we play cards. At the beginning of the game we shuffle them all into a mess, which is like the bad things in the world, but the point of the game is to put the mess into good order, and the one who does it best is the winner. Then we shuffle the cards once more and play again, and so it goes with the world.


This Idea of God is more common in the East than the West.


Yet, it informs the Story of God's covenant with His People over the centuries and millennia.


God came into the world in the Person of Jesus Christ.


Jesus Christ said God was His Father, and He brought the Love and Forgiveness of Mother Earth into His Father, forgiving people's sins against the Law and against one another.


This is how God “played” the “character” of Jesus Christ, when He was here on earth.


He played against what He had been before, in order to show us more of what He could be!


And, as we realize our connection with Him, with our Mother Earth in our bodies, bring our Devilish selves to heel, under the power of the Christ we become—we can “play” the “game” of life to win!


Play to win for God enlightenment—and win for ourselves the same!


And in this, Mara, the part of God that is dissatisfied—that God cast out of Himself—the part that lives in each of us, as we fail to appreciate God's Universe—the bitter Mara can be transformed into pure, cool water. (Ex. 15:25)


The water of life.


A tree, symbol of the unity of God and Goddess, appears again in this passage—that which God shewed Moses, and told him to cast into the waters.


The reality of the world—the fact of our bodies—combined with obedience to the Spirit—symbolically makes the bitterness of Mara's world sweet.


And thus, by being enlightened, by combining our enlightenment with the love of God in our own Christ—we win Mara to Its enlightenment!


We no longer fight life—but embrace it!


And then the pain of life, experienced by God and by us, passes into peace.