Malleable Mara by Michael D. Nichols

Author:Michael D. Nichols [Nichols, Michael D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2019-02-14T06:00:00+00:00

The Blurring of Both Worlds: Māra and the Śūraṃgamasamādhi Sūtra

The Śūraṃgamasamādhi Sūtra (abbreviated as “Śgs” hereafter) is closely related to the Vimalakītri Sūtra, both in time period and focus on the doctrines of emptiness and non-duality. As a result, it re-imagines the role of Māra in a similarly dramatic fashion. Like the Vimalakīrti Sūtra’s “inconceivable liberation” and the Aṣṭa’s “perfection of wisdom,” the Śgs argues for its particular, titular practice, the “concentration of heroic progress.” One of the earliest references to Māra in this work occurs in reference to the efficacy of the “concentration of heroic progress.” According to the text, this practice allows bodhisattvas to “possess the supreme power of all Māras, but abstain from the works of all cruel Māras.”67 The last term is given as “mārakarman,” and the phrasing brings us back to Mäll’s point about the Aṣṭa: Is it possible this primarily refers to a subjection of negative psychological states and perceptions?

Yet, in a long passage starring the Evil One, a number of implications implicit in the above statement come to light. The passage in question opens with Śāriputra asking why Māra had not yet appeared to obstruct the teaching of the concentration of heroic progress (Śgs). Like the opening lines of the Māravijaya episode given in the Lalitavistara, the Buddha emits a “ray of light from the circle of hair between his two eyebrows,” summoning a vision of Māra physically bound by the power of the Śgs.68 Śāriputra then asks if it would not be better simply to prevent Māra from hearing the Śgs altogether, but the Buddha reacts strongly against this suggestion, for if Māra “hears the name of the Śgs being uttered, he will succeed in transcending the works of Māra.”69 In a very short space, then, a few key ideas have been turned in on themselves. First, as we saw previously, earlier Pāli Buddhism is replete with phrases warning practitioners against the snares and bonds of Māra. Now, the binder and ensnarer is now himself bound and ensnared by the Mahāyāna teaching of the Śgs. Second, if Māra will overcome the works of Māra, this leads to some mind-bending questions, such as whether he would be Māra at that point, or if the works of Māra would change, or both. In fact, much as we saw in the above discussion regarding the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, the paradox points to an intentional rhetorical move in light of the doctrines of non-duality and emptiness.

The full extent of that movement will become more apparent at the end of the episode, but in the meantime, after Śāriputra’s questions, a bodhisattva named “Māragocarānupalipta” (“undefiled by the domain of Māra”) gets permission from the Buddha to establish Māra himself in the Śgs. When he travels to Māra’s realm to do so, he is first greeted by the devakanyās, the daughters of Māra, whom we have seen previously in the Māravijaya and the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. They garland the bodhisattva and, unlike the behavior of such characters in other narratives, immediately ask for help in escaping Māra’s dominion.

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