Buddha and Mara are figurative ways of portraying a fundamental opposition within human natures. While “Buddha” stands for a capacity for awareness, openness, and freedom, “Mara” represents a capacity for confusion, closure, and restriction. To live with the devil is to live with the perpetual conflict between one’s Buddha-nature and one’s Mara-nature. When Buddha-nature prevails, fixations ease and the world brightens, revealing itself as empty, contingent, and fluid.

-Stephen Batchelor, “Living With The Devil”

( I recently bought, ‘Living With the Devil’ by Stephen Batchelor. I have not put the book  in my ‘To Be Read’ (TBR)  stack yet. Soon though, soon! ~ Debra )