Wrestling with the Maras, wrestling with Angels

In any great venture, there are often great forces that rise up to stand in the way. It is noted especially, that if you are going to accomplish some great good, things and people will seem to rise up out of no where to test your resolve. Some practitioners even feel that the greater good you are going to do, the scarier the things are that come to distract you.

In the story of the Buddha's enlightenment, the lord of illusion comes to test him by throwing fierce monsters and seductive women in his way. For the Conqueror though, these are hardly even a test.

When we have resolved to meditate, do yoga, work out, practice music, or whatever our practice is, we are actually doing a great service for all those around us. There are forces in the world that would rather that this amount of goodness never come about. These are often referred to as "Obstructive" forces in our meditation.

Many meditators can tell you that there are certain times when it comes time for you to get down to your practice, and a great tiredness will wash over you - or sometimes an emotion like anger, sadness, or desire. These feelings make it feel like meditation (yoga, dance, etc) would be the worst thing in the world to do. I have been very fortunate in my practice to have teachers that gave me practices which i was REQUIRED to complete everyday. The reason I found this so valuable is because I gained an insight that many meditators over the eons have recognized - that once you start your cultivation, those feelings of fatigue, anger, desire, etc, seem to vanish. It is as if something out there were testing you to see if you were really commited.

It wasn't until later in my studies that I learned that these feelings were believed, by some traditions, to actually be coming from external spiritual forces. Now, we may not be at the Buddha's level to warrant an actual physical manifestation of snarling demons and seductive demonesses, but it is sometimes palpable that something seems to be giving resistance to your chosen path.

What is very interesting here is the Buddhist view on where these things come from. Because in fact - although there appear to be these external forces, and in a very real sense they are there, and you have to deal with them - they are in reality arising from you. This is why in the story of the Buddha, he was ufazed by the attacks of the maras - and why in the story of Jesus, he went calmly to the cross. These Teachers knew where the obstructions were coming from - and the delusions that had allowed those things to be created in the past were so light by that point that they no longer played the game of fear and anger anymore. We can aspire to be like this.

When we learn where these things come from, we recognize a powerful truth. That many of these things that looked to us like demons were actually angels in disguise. This doesn't mean that we should go "oh, you're an Angel, I guess you know what's best for me - I'll sleep instead of getting up to do yoga". It means that we should recognize that we're being tested and act accordingly. We do not have to fear the anger that comes up, or the fatigue, or the circumstances of our lives - we just have to realize that these things are arising to be purified by the power of our practice. If we can carry on, hold our highest Goal in mind - all of these things will begin to look like our beloved Friend, pushing us onward to become just a little bit stronger and more sure.

Action items:
1. Identify your most common "maras" - obstructive forces. Emotional influences, other people, circumstances, time, etc.

2. Attempt one day to practice through the feelings or circumstances and notice what happens.

3. Imagine what it would be like to befriend these obstructive forces as training partners who are there to make you stronger.