Mara the Archenemy

魔王マーラ
マーラは釈迦が悟りを開く禅定に入った時に 、瞑想を妨げるために現れたとされる魔神。 魔王マーラ・パーピーヤス,,天魔波旬、魔羅㠀å¤©é­”、悪魔などの漢訳がある,,。 マーラの語義は「殺すもの」であるとも、「 死」の人称形とも言われる。パーピーヤスは 「より以上悪いもの」の意。 しかし、仏伝には天,,deva、神,,ã§ã‚ã‚‹ã¨ã®è¨˜è ¿°ãŒã‚ã‚Šã€ã€Œå¤©ã€é­”ã¨å‘¼ã°ã‚Œã‚‹ã®ã¯ã€ã“ã“ã«ç ”±æ¥ã™ã‚‹ã®ã ã‚ã†ã€‚ そのためウガリット神話の死神モートを起源 とするという説もある。
日本においてはマーラが釈迦の修行の邪魔を した故事から修行僧により煩悩の象徴として の男根の隠語として用いられるようになり、 今では一般にも男根の隠語としての「マラ」 が知られるようになっている。
Mara (king of demon)
In Buddhism, Mara is the demon who tempted Gautama Buddha by trying to seduce him with the vision of beautiful women who, in various legends, are often said to be his daughters. In Buddhist cosmology, Mara personifies unskillfulness, the "death" of the spiritual life. He is a tempter, distracting humans from practicing the spiritual life by making the mundane alluring or the negative seem positive.
The early Buddhists, however, rather than seeing Mara as a demonic, virtually all-powerful Lord of Evil, regarded him as more of a nuisance. Many episodes concerning his interactions with the Buddha have a decidedly humorous air to them.
In traditional Buddhism four senses of the word "mara" are given.
Klesa-mara, or Mara as the embodiment of all unskilful emotions.
Mrtyu-mara, or Mara as death, in the sense of the ceaseless round of birth and death.
Skandha-mara, or Mara as metaphor for the entirety of conditioned existence.
Devaputra-mara, or Mara the son of a deva (god), that is, Mara as an objectively existent being rather than as a metaphor.
Early Buddhism acknowledged both a literal and "psychological" interpretation of Mara. Mara is described both as an entity having a literal existence, just as the various deities of the Vedic pantheon are shown existing around the Buddha, and also is described as a primarily psychological force - a metaphor for various processes of doubt and temptation that obstruct religious practice.
"Buddha defying Mara" is a common pose of Buddha sculptures. The Buddha is shown with his left hand in his lap, palm facing upwards and his right hand on his right knee. The fingers of his right hand touch the earth, to call the earth as his witness for defying Mara and achieving enlightenment. This posture is also referred to as the 'earth-touching' mudra.