Mara
Buddhist
The unawakened among us move in a world controlled by the opposing forces of lust for life and fear of death, what Arthur Cotterell calls "the tasty bait and the keen hook"; in other words, the principles of Kama and Mara. Mara beguils us with illusion and holds us in the thrall of birth, lust, and death. Through yana -- the vehicle of enlightenment -- the Buddha frees us.
While Buddha meditated beneath the Bo Tree, Mara came to tempt him: the Enlightened One simply touched the earth with his finger: all of existence screamed against Mara and the Evil One was defeated.
Mara still waits, however, on the fringes of our "reality", snatching the wicked and unwary ghosts of the newly dead.
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