BlissQuest: Murdering Mara or Dealing Death to Delusion

A blank journal that I'll start using today;
this is my 30th journal since I became so
dedicated to the practice. Yum, round numbers!

Listening to: I've wanted her to get into music since I heard her sing in the movie Elf.

Today's Bliss Formula: Those blank pages. The large format of the journal itself. The purple ribbon. The possibility that resides between the pen and the page.

What is it that holds us back from knowing our bliss? What is it that makes us deny -- to ourselves and others -- that we even have a clue as to where our bliss resides?

In Buddhism and in Hinduism, the answer would be similar -- delusion.

Mara was the demon who tempted the Buddha to abandon his quest for enlightenment. Mara tempted the Buddha with many beautiful women -- symbolic, I think, of worldly success. (And this sounds suddenly familiar in terms of Christianity too, but we'll focus!)

Mara comes from the same Sanskrit root as murder, because when we give into Mara, we are as good as dead. We become the walking dead, the soulless; we abandon our spiritual paths or stop searching for our paths, depending where we are.

In Hinduism, they would say their equivalent is Kama, or the Lord of Desire. And let's add the word "extreme" to that -- "the Lord of Extreme Desire." (I, for one, think that a certain amount of desire is good for us.)

Kama shot five arrows at Shiva, trying to disturb his meditation, and they were meant to 1) make one ecstatic, 2) make one crave, 3) make one stupefied, 4) make one emaciated, and 5) make one dead.

Ecstasy, of course, can't be maintained. We've watered down the word's meaning, but if you think of the drug ecstasy, you'll get the idea in this context. It makes you frenetic to the point of trance. You're good for nothing.

Craving is fine, too, if not taken to extreme. But it can lead to a need for instant gratification, all the time. It can create humans who are insatiable. (Hmmmm...sounds familiar.)

Stupefied explains itself. It has that word stupid in it, after all! When someone is stupefied, they not only can't think straight, but they also can't feel correctly.

Emaciated. A person so thin becomes weak.

And finally, death.

Think about all of these on an emotional and spiritual plane. Don't take them literally.

And then take some time to really think about the things you tell yourself that aren't true. Take a long look at the things you do out of habit and not because you necessarily want to.

Really look at the delusions you maintain in your life so that you can remain comfortable and not challenge yourself to be as amazing, as powerful, as creative, as daring as you know, very deep down, that you could be.

Do this for many days; write in your journal about it; or write it on paper that you can burn. Or write it on your skin and watch it wash away bit by bit, day by day, and imagine the illusion going down the drain with the ink.

Or find another way -- find any way you can -- just get rid of it.

And then celebrate, acknowledge what you've learned. This is the part we often forget and it's most important. It's what all the great religions are talking about when they say we've awakened or we've been born again or we've been washed in the blood of the lamb -- whatever, it all means the same thing.

We are delusion free. We are no longer in our own way. We can go on living the unique bliss we were sent here to live.