Terms

Śrāvaka—Conze uses the term “disciples.” The term literally means listener, meaning they listened to the Buddha. However it specifically refers to those who seek their own liberation from duḥkha as arhats. The path to arhatship is called Śrāvakayāna, vehicle of the listener. This is not identical with Theravāda Buddhism, which technically refers to the doctrines and disciplines of traditions descending from a Sri Lankan form of Buddhism: though most Theravādans are Śrāvakayāna followers, this does not mean that all are or must be.

Overall Teaching

The deeds of Māra are whenever one is dissuaded from or prevented from learning PW. In particular, becoming slothful, having obstacles arise between oneself and one’s teacher, viewing the Śrāvakayāna sūtras as more valuable, or encountering people who make one doubt the PW.

Summary

1.     Various Deeds of Māra

a.     Subhūti asks what the obstacles to a practitioner might be. The Buddha enumerates these as the deeds of Māra:

i.     They may take a long time to understand PW

ii.     Will have disturbed understanding after gaining it

iii.     Will be bored

iv.     Will be unmindful

v.     Will deride others and be in discord in study

vi.     Will think they’re not predestined to know PW

vii.     Their name and clan are not in it

viii.     Having decided not to listen to it, they will take many rebirths before encountering it again, and will have to build up their efforts again. [232-3]

2.     The Perfection of Wisdom and the Sūtras of the Disciples

a.     Some may decide to look for sūtras that don’t nourish PW and may refuse to train in worldly and supra-worldly dharmas. [234] As a deed of Māra and a ‘not very intelligent’ bodhisattva:

i.     They abandon the root of comprehension and instead seek the branches.

ii.     Like a dog spurning food from his master for water from a servant, such are bodhisattvas who abandon the core of growth for Buddhahood for the other vehicles, which are branches.

iii.     Bodhisattvas train differently from śrāvakas:

1.     A śrāvaka intends to liberate themselves in nirvāṇa. [234]

2.     A bodhisattva intends to realise suchness so that they can help all other beings realise suchness and attain nirvāṇa.

3.     Bodhisattvas shouldn’t boast about their goal.

iv.     Like a blind person touching an elephant, one should not refrain from asking questions lest they misunderstand what they perceive.

v.     Like someone looking for jewels in puddles rather than the ocean, one should prefer to study PW to the other sūtras. [235]

vi.     This is also like a mason who, wanting to build a palace, would take its measure by measuring the sun or moon. [236]

vii.     Like seeing the commander of a fort as being the same as a universal monarch. [237]

viii.     Like one refusing superior for inferior and stale food. [238]

ix.     Like considering a priceless gem to be a gem of inferior value. [239]

3.     Various Deeds of Māra

a.     When studying PW Māra will make many flashes of insight bewilder and confuse.

b.     It is also not possible to write down the PW, and it is a deed of Māra to think that having written it down, PW is identical to what has been written, or that PW is in the letters, but also that PW is something not in the letters. [240]

c.     When one’s mind wonders during studying PW, these are deeds of Māra. [241-2]

d.     When difficulties and torments, or thoughts of relishing fame, when one studies or teaches PW, these are deeds of Māra. [242]

e.     Māra will suggest that the Śrāvakayāna sūtras be studied—even though they teach the signless, wishless, and emptiness, they don’t teach the bodhisattva vehicle. [242-3]

4.     Sources of Discord Between Teacher and Pupil

a.     A pupil may be zealous for PW, but the teacher is not, or vice versa.

b.     A pupil may be zealous for PW, but the teacher is not available or not knowledgeable enough about PW. [243]

c.     Pupil may be zealous about teaching PW, but the student is not available or not knowledgeable enough about PW.

d.     Teacher may be materialistic and the student is unmaterialistic, or willing to discard valuable things.

e.     Pupil may have faith, but the teacher does not have faith, is satisfied, or has no desire to teach.

f.      Pupil may have faith, but the teacher doesn’t have the sūtras or cannot understand them. [244]

g.     While a teacher may want to teach, the pupil may not be zealous to hear, be excessively slothful, or tired, or vice versa.

5.     Misdirection of Aim

a.     If someone disparages other lifeforms, saying we should leave them to their fate, this is the work of Māra. [245]

b.     Someone may praise the heavens and encourage rebirth in heaven, but as this is rebirth in suffering, this is still ill and attachment. But still bodhisattvas may be misled into desiring such a birth by Māra. [246]

6.     More Discord Between Teacher and Pupil

a.     While the teacher may be solitary, the student may be communal. [246] The teacher maybe short of food, not having disciples to give him what he values, and he actually uses this as a deterrent against attracting students so he may be alone.

b.     The teacher may stay somewhere unsafe, saying that students must be able to endure hardship: this is also a way of deterring students from coming. [247]

c.     The teacher may only see families who feed him, discouraging new prospective pupils.

d.     All these are Māra’s work and one should avoid them. [248]

7.     Mara Dissuades from Perfect wisdom

a.     Māra attempts to dissuade practitioners of PW because when people forsake defilements, he cannot gain entry (control them), which makes sorrow vex him.

b.     Māra will also appear in the guise of an ascetic and sow doubt in the hearts of practitioners regarding whether what they are practicing is PW, in order to make them forsake learning it. [249]

c.     Māra may also appear as a Buddha teaching that a bodhisattva is one who is really practicing as a śrāvaka.

d.     The response to these challenges is vigour, mindfulness, and self-possession.

8.     Antagonism Between Māra and Buddha

a.     Subhūti declares that if one becomes sluggish and lazy, refusing to function in these very sublime teachings, they are beset by Māra. [250]

b.     The Buddha points out that there are also many agencies who oppose Māra’s faults. The Buddha also sends help. [251]