Showing posts with label mara devaputra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mara devaputra. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The Lesbian Subversives of Iran (video)

Wisdom Quarterly (ANALYSIS)
() Sundance Audience Award winner "Circumstance" -- a wealthy Iranian family struggles to contain a teenager's growing sexual rebellion and her brother's dangerous obsession.

Homosexual acting out is common in religions/cultures that strictly segregate boys and girls. The very desire for purity leads to guilt, shame, and makes one wonder if that is not the point. Christianity (Catholicism), so vehemently opposed to gays, seems most famous for this. And Pres. Ahmadinejad seems as in denial about what is going on as an American mom.


() Meet the Artists: Maryam Keshavarz on her [Iranian lesbian]
film "Circumstance" premiering at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

But Buddhism where monasticism is prodded or where monastics deny and prevent the natural affinity of young people to commingle is not immune to this phenomenon. Macho Iran, Afghanistan, and enclaves like the US military and American prisons and seminaries and Republican caucuses (and other segregated environments) are havens for homosexual acting out.


Do Iranians make funny clips of American leaders' hypocrisy?

Hypocrisy comes with high morals.

And we are all in denial, hoodwinked by the hyper-masculinity and poorly veiled misogyny. Maybe eroticizing the issue focusing on Muslim lesbians (surely an oxymoron in Islam as it would be in fundamentalist Christianity) will bring the issue to light. Let gays be gay, but it might be nice to spare non-gays the guilt and shame of youthful indiscretions because they are given precious few alternatives just when their hormones are raging.

American Bacha Bazi (NAMBLA-style B4U-ACT)
[Bacha bazi is the Middle Eastern custom of what in the West is regarded as child molestation and pederasty.] Along with venerable child advocate Dr. Judith Reisman, I attended a conference hosted by the American pro-pedophile group B4U-ACT. Conference highlights: Pedophiles are “unfairly... demonized,” “Children are not inherently unable to consent” to sex with an adult, “in Western culture sex is taken too seriously,” “Anglo-American standard on age of consent is new [and ‘Puritanical’]. In Europe it was always set at 10 or 12. Ages of consent beyond that are relatively new and very strange, especially for boys. They’ve always been able to have sex at any age.” And an adult’s desire to have sex with children is “normative.”

American Bucha Bazi: Warden David Wise (6:35) would not want to work in a prison without vices that keep the prisoners busy and make control easier for authorities.
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Friday, September 9, 2011

Mara: Buddhism's Super Devil, Cupid, Lucifer

Ananda W.P. Guruge (U. West, UNESCO, Sri Lankan ambassador) Wisdom Quarterly
Mara Devaputra, or the Super Devil, is more dangerous than the other maras.
The Buddha's Encounters with Mara the Tempter
Their Representation in Literature and Art
The Dictionary of Pali Proper Names (Prof. G.P. Malalasekera) introduces Mara (a Buddhist "super devil" as:
  • "the personification of Death"
  • "the Evil One"
  • "the Tempter"
  • "(the Buddhist counterpart of the Devil or Principle of Destruction)."
It continues: "The legends concerning Mara are, in the books, very involved and defy any attempts at unraveling them."[1]

Analyzing a series of allusions to Mara in the commentarial literature, Prof. Malalasekera further elaborates on his definition with the following observations:

  1. "In the latest accounts, mention is made of five maras -- Khandha-mara, Kilesa-mara, Abhisankhara-mara, Maccu-mara, and Devaputta-mara. Elsewhere Mara is spoken of as one, three, or four."[2]
  2. "The term Mara, in the older books, is applied to the whole of the worldly existence, the Five Aggregates, or the realm of rebirth, as opposed to nirvana."[3]
  3. Commentaries speaking of three maras specify them as Devaputta-mara, Maccu-mara, and Kilesa-mara. When four maras are referred to, they appear to be the five maras mentioned above minus Mara Devaputta.

Prof. Malalasekera proceeds to attempt "a theory of Mara in Buddhism," which he formulates in the following manner:

"The commonest use of the word was evidently in the sense of Death. From this it was extended to mean 'the world under the sway of death' (also called Mara-dheyya, e.g. AN IV 228) and the beings therein.

"Thence, the kilesas (defilements) also came to be called Mara in that they were instruments of Death, the causes enabling Death to hold sway over the world. All temptations brought about by the kilesas were likewise regarded as the work of Death.

"There was also evidently a legend of a devaputta [a "son of the gods," one born among the celestial devas] of the Vasavatti world called Mara, who considered himself the head of the Kamavacara-world [the sense sphere] and who recognized any attempt to curb the enjoyment of sensual pleasures as a direct challenge to himself and to his authority.

"As time went on these different conceptions of the word became confused one with the other, but this confusion is not always difficult to unravel."[4]

What follows from this statement, even though Malalasekera does not elucidate, is that the term Mara, when it occurs in Buddhist literature, could signify any one of the following four:

  1. An anthropomorphic deity ruling over a heaven in the sense sphere, namely, Paranimmita-Vasavatti. He is meant when Mara is called the king of the sensual realm. In this position, he is as important and prestigious as Sakka (King of the Devas) and Maha Brahma (the "Great Supremo") in whose company he is often mentioned in the canonical literature. This Mara, or Mara-devaputta, is not only a very powerful deity but is also bent on making life difficult for spiritual persons.
  2. The Canon also speaks of (a) maras in the plural as a class of potent deities (e.g., SN 56.11) and (b) of previous -- hence, logically future -- maras (e.g., MN 50). According to Tibetan texts, the ascetic Siddhartha could have, with the instructions given by Arada Kalama, become a Sakra, a brahma, or a mara [all of which are best understood as posts held rather than individual historical figures].[5]
  3. A personification of Death is called also the Lord of Death, the exterminator, the great king (maha raja), and the inescapable (Namuci). The preoccupation of the Buddhist quest for deliverance is consistently stressed as escaping the phenomenon of death, which presupposes rebirth. The entire range of existence falls within the realm of Mara on account of the ineluctable presence of death. (Compare with Schopenhauer's concept of "Morture."[6]) All states of existence, including the six [near-Earth] heavenly worlds of the sense sphere, are said to return to the power of Mara, which means into the power of death.[7]
  4. Mara can also be seen allegorically, with almost immediate personification, of the power of temptation, the tendency towards evil, moral conflict, and the influence of such factors as indolence, negligence, and niggardliness. Similar to Satan in Judeo-Christian and Islamic thinking and Ahriman in Avestan [Zoroastrian] thought, though in no way identical, this Mara is described as Papima (i.e., "the Evil One," or simply "the Evil")[8], "Kinsman of Dalliance" (Pamattabandhu), Calumnious or Malicious (Pisuna), and "the Black" (Kanha). Grimm calls this Mara "the prince and bestower of all worldly lust" and distinguishes him from Lucifer of the Bible on the ground that this personification "always remains apparent."[9]

In this work, where the Buddha's encounters with Mara are analyzed as they are presented in literature and art, the main concern will be with Mara as a personification of temptation (No. 4 above). But I will also briefly examine how the other concepts are sometimes subsumed under this and how the literary description or the artistic representation of Mara is conditioned by the merger of three separate concepts as well as by the general body of Indian mythology.

It has to be noted that Mara is another name for the Indian "God of Love" [Cupid], known also as "Lust" (Kama) or "Deva of Lust" (Kama-deva), "Of Five Arrows" (Pañcabana), "Tormentor of Minds" (Manmatha), Bodiless (Ananga), "Flower-Weaponed" (Kusuma-yudha), and "Dragon-Flagged" (Makara-dhvaja). More

  1. Introduction
  2. Mara Legends in Canonical Texts
  3. Temptations by Mara in Non-canonical Buddhist Literature
  4. Mara Episodes in Asian Buddhist Art
  5. Conclusion
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Thursday, September 8, 2011

"Friends with Benefits"? (video)

Amber Dorrian, CC Liu (Wisdom Quarterly)


Make love, not war. If there is "war in the" air around 9/11 commemorations and prison planet survivalism, where is the love?

"Love" can mean so many things. Sex is one of them, usually the euphemistic meaning. But there is a better Greek word, agape. Oddly, English is not lacking. English-speakers are. Buddhism speaks of metta, "loving-kindness," as one of the most important qualities to develop.

If there is light in the soul,
There will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
There will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world.
-Chinese proverb

Lust, sensual craving, thirst, greed are all less than profitable expressions of this impulse in the Sense Sphere (kama-loka). Mara Devaputra is either Cupid or Lucifer in this sense, an evil or a messenger of light... maybe both.

Can Buddhists talk about sex -- one of the worst things one can do in this society which is all about war, defense, security, and resistance? Yes, Buddhists can do anything. With greedy intentions, we make our way and our world. With loving intentions, it is immediately a different world.
The world we see outside changes instantly from changes inside. Whether the world is ever a way or ever changes, who can know? It is about what we notice, what we bring forward as evidence (or what is shoved in our face by mainstream media), what we talk about/focus on.

Love and kisses for everyone, enemies, soldiers, elderly, corporate capitalists, tea baggers, meditators... We can curse the darkness or light a candle. And what we choose is important.

Our beliefs become our thoughts.
Our thoughts become our words.
Our words become our actions.
Our actions become our habits.
Our habits become our values.
Our values become our destiny.
- Gandhi


Killer life coach James Ray on belief and RAS
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