Patrul Rinpoche: Victory Over The Maras

During the same Summer of 2007 that Ringu Tulku taught Patrul Rinpoche’s “9 Ways To Help Senient Beings” at Kagyu Samye Ling in Scotland:

Patrul Rinpoche: 9 Ways to help sentient beings

Ringu Tulku continued to teach from the Collected Works of Patrul Rinpoche with:

“An Instruction on Victory Over The Maras

or Examining Daemons & Maras and How To Get Rid of Them“

These 16 recordings are split into: Ringu Tulku explaining Patrul Rinpoche’s instructions; and Q&A sessions.

Rinpoche starts by encouraging us to examine the causes of maras or obstructions, obscurations & hindrances.

The historical Buddha Shakyamuni overcame many different kinds of maras (including desire and fear) to achieve Full Enlightenment.

Unless one has attained enlightenment, there are 2 main types of General and Particular/Specific maras:

Rinpoche lists 4 General maras:

1. Mara of Kleishas (afflictive emotions such as ignorance/confusion; aversion; attachment; jealousy; & pride) -our main obstacle for happiness;
2. Mara of Aggregates (self-clinging to the continuum of a body, feelings and mind as “me”; too much self-cherishing);
3. Mara of the Lord of Death (Impermanence without time of certainty);
4. Mara of Devas (risking us becoming complacent, self-satisfied and proud);

There are some secondary maras:

• Mara of Conflict (the instinct to clash and disagree with others causing conflict);
• Mara of Distraction (the desire to accumulate things that distract our minds, and laziness when it comes to prioritising useful things like study and meditation);
• Mara of Great Desire (the feeling of never having enough; accumulating excessively; collecting on+ on +on)
• Mara of Great Attachment (when we feel as if we are sacrificing our own flesh, when even just showing a little generosity)
• Mara of Turning your mind to distraction and away from your path (something comes up in the mind, that then distracts us)

In this way, maras can come in the form of: things; beings; thoughts & emotions; & incidents.

Rinpoche then describes classes of Negative Spirit Beings who wish to obstruct people in a variety of ways: from conventionally unfavourable things (illness and death); to superficially nice things (that can subsequently bring avarice, clinging, attachment, distraction or fear. In essence: worldly successes and distractions that waste our time and undermine genuine spiritual progress).

There are 8 classes of spirit beings including:

• Gyalpos རྒྱལ་པོ་ (which Patrul Rinpoche categorizes as being in the preta class of sentient beings)
• Tsen  བཙན་  red spirits riding red horses that live in the atmosphere, believed to shoot arrows at humans who disturb them; subsequently causing illness and death;
• Patrul Rinpoche also mentions spirits such as the shindré, jungpo, mamo, and teurang in The Words of my Perfect Teacher (p 72-75)
  

Even a vision of the Buddha or a yidam may be a mara, if it then brings about pride and arrogance in a practioner’s mind and leads to them losing their Bodhicitta.

Patrul Rinpoche advises students who believe they have had visions, to ask:

1. Q.What kind of feeling do you have? If you have an uneasy, disturbed or disquiet feeling; you have not met a Buddha. However if a vision brings a peaceful state of mind, it can be taken as a positive vision.
2. Q.What kind of smell (if any) did you sense? If you detect a smell like rotten garlic; it is not a positive vision. If one detects a smell like fragrant sandalwood then one has encountered a real Bodhisattva!

Rinpoche then talks about WHY obstacles or maras come to those on the Path of Liberation. It is akin to a slave revolting against slavery; the slave master will try to prevent it. Whereas in our case, when we are trying to free ourselves from delusion, the more positive we become, the more that obstacles can become stronger. So we should be prepared for problems and to face obstacles.

Rinpoche then quotes a Sutra teaching, where Manjushri advises that “the maras of Bodhisattvas come from their diligence: as if there’s no diligence, there won’t be any obstacles, as they won’t be resisting any maras”.

Guru Rinpoche taught that that maras can seemingly come from outside, but whether they are obstacles or not, depends on how we are inside.

However the darker the age, the stronger Padmasambhava’s power to assist.

In the Afternoon session of 20/6/07 Ringu Tulku describes 3 classes of  Specific Maras:

1. Outer
2. Inner
3. Secret

1.The Outer Maras include:

1.  The Mara of Aversion and Attachment
2. The Mara of Evil Spirits. Here Ringu Tulku emphasizes that the BEST PROTECTION IS COMPASSION. Everything is interdependent with our mind’s projections: “the gyalpo is thinking you have a gyalpo”
3. Your Teacher or Spiritual Friend taken by the Maras. Always examine if a teacher is compassionate or samsaric.
4. The Mara of Distraction by Success. One may be materially successful or wealthy; creating distractions so that your diligence in your practice suffers. The antidote is not to get too much involved in too many activities. Distance yourself from too many sources of distraction. Develop stability.
5. The Mara of too much preparation; you can prepare all your life and never do anything! Be content with simple things. You don’t need too much preparation!
6. The Mara of too much learning and education. Here one may know much, with much skill and accomplishment leading to busyness, preventing practice and meditation. Until we achieve stability of mind, we are encouraged to be discrete or we risk becoming “the servant of everyone”.

2. The Inner Maras include:

1. The Mara of Ignorance
2. The Mara of Mind Poisons
3. The Mara of too much sensitivity due to self-cherishing
4. The Mara of Laziness
5. The Mara of Doubt (two-minded uncertainty)
6. The Mara of Delusion (dualism)

These Inner Maras are our own emotions, negative karma, our wrong way of relating to things; creating obtacles on the Path.

In an evening teaching on 20/6/07 Ringu Tulku explains the difference between:

• Sur or “burnt offering” ( གསུར་ ) often prepared from a mixture of grains, medicines, the three whites (vegetarian offerings of butter, milk & cheese) , three sweets (white sugar, brown sugar, honey) and pieces of clothes then burnt on coals or in a fire. The smoke and odour generated by the offering has the power to satisfy wandering spirits and bardo beings who feed on smells;
• Sang “incense smoke offering” ( བསང་མཆོད་, sang chö)  offering fragrant incense smoke.

Rinpoche describes in detail how these practices are connected with visualisation of Chenrezig and the practice of generosity.

In the morning session of 21/6/07 Rinpoche describes:

3. The Secret Maras

1. The Mara of sectarianism
2. The Mara of pride
3. The Mara of your understanding being superficial
4. The Mara of excessive expectations (of the signs of achievement)
5. The Mara of blind faith

Rinpoche then describes some Top Secret Maras (regarding the 6 Paramitas)

1. The Mara of Giving (when we should be meditating, ie not sticking to the task in hand);
2. The Mara of Discipline (becoming too strict and ascetic; overdoing it);
3. The Mara of Patience (becoming over-tolerant; leading to pointless self-sacrifice, unnecessary martydom!);
4. The Mara of Excessive Diligence (leading to exhaustion and burnout);
5. The Mara of Over-Attachment to Meditation (too much shamatha – and not enough insight; concentrating excessively on stabilising the mind rather than liberating it);
6. The Mara of Wisdom that generates Mind Poisons (where a practitioner becomes puffed up and proud of their wisdom; generating pride; fuelling ego-cherishing. Wisdom that doesn’t result in humility, but in egotism).

So even the 6 Paramitas, if applied in the Wrong Way, can be unhelpful! For in-depth guidance on how to correctly apply the 6 Paramitas, see Ringu Tulku’s in-depth commentaries on  Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara:

Bodhicharyavatara

Any instruction is only useful if it addresses the samsaric state of mind and helps beings to reduce suffering.

Whatever harms the progress of a practitioner, and is an obstacle to liberation, is a mara.

Rinpoche then lists:

1. The Sources and Causes of Maras
2. The 22 Activities of Mara
3. 27 Signs to understand if you’ve become affected by a Mara.

In the Q&A session, Rinpoche encourages us to transform maras into accomplishment using wisdom and compassion.

In the Tibetan calendar, the 29th day before the new moon, is taught when spirits are most active; hence why Mahakala practice is done then.

In the next session on the morning of 22/6/07, Rinpoche starts by mentioning that encountering maras are often considered positive signs of achievement; whereas visions of buddhas and siddhis (seemingly desirable experiences and attainments) may, in actuality, be obstacles. How can we tell? Whatever happens, we should look at the mind and ask: is it calmer? Are our mind poisons less? Are jealousy and anger diminished? If not, we haven’t obtained realisation nor attainment; merely a mara! In essence, anything that increases aversion and attachment is a mara.

HOW TO PACIFY AND CLEAR MARAS:

THE REMEDIES.

1. Meditation on the Ultimate Nature
2. Through Bodhicitta, Loving Kindness & Compassion
3. Devotion, Mantras and Interdependent Skilful Methods

In the Q&A session Rinpoche then answers questions on:

• Yantras
• Food offerings
• Vajrakilaya (Dorje Phurba)

In the next session on 22/6/07 Rinpoche continues with the remedies to purify maras:

4. Accumulation of Merit

5. Developing Faith & Diligence

6. Transforming your Mind

In the final sesson on the morning of Saturday 23/6/07, Rinpoche emphasises the most important thing about maras is to understand them, and to skilfully use them as fuel for progress in our practice. Without obstacles, we have nothing to work on; so they should be seen as support for our path. This then enhances our diligence and brings joyful confidence to our experience and realisation; so maras can usefully be seen as emanations of Buddhas. As every Buddhist knows, from the story of Shakyamuni, enlightenment is dependent upon how we transform maras. Those yogis and yoginis who understand the ultimate nature see maras and obstacles actually as friends and support for progress.

Rinpoche ended these teachings with a Bodhisattva Vow Ceremony on 23/6/07.

Photography and notes taken contemporaneously during these teachings in 2007 at Kagyu Samye Ling by Conrad Harvey.