Zen and Demons

Welcome to today’s runaway train of thought. Today, as Mel would say “I intend to misbehave”.

Words are like a vapor and meaning like the odor of that vapor. What subtle aroma shall we find in anything that is written or said?

“When you have advanced to a certain level in your cultivation, the demons will come to test you out, to see if you have any skill. The more you’re polished, the brighter you become; The brighter you get, the more you must be polished. You’ll be polished until you’re like the autumn moon, illumining all the demon hordes from space. When the demon hordes are scattered, the original Buddha manifests. Cultivators should not fear demons. Demons just come to test you to see if you have spiritual skill. Right now there are many demons coming to test all of you: heavenly demons, earthly demons, human demons, ghostly demons, and demons of sickness. They are testing you to see if you are genuine or phony. If you are phony, the demons will leave you alone. If you are genuine, the demons will be subdued and will also leave you alone. It’s only to be feared that you are partly genuine and partly phony. Then the demons will advance some and retreat some. They will get close to you, then draw away from you, then get close again, always hanging around you. Though they hang around, you need not be afraid. You can either become more genuine, or become more phony.”
                                        Buddha, The Flower Adornment Sutra

Mara, a Buddhist Asura, Asuras are Vedic demons by the way, came to stop Buddha from becoming enlightened. Why, well as a demon he just seems to be that kind of guy. After all the Buddhist Asura lived in the 33rd heaven atop mount Sumeru, the Buddhist Mount Olympus, they all Got raging drunk one night and everyone to a man was kicked off the mountain by Sakra, the Buddhist Zeus, and now are forced to live in the foothills of heaven. So Mara, not quite Satan but certainly a real prankster had an attitude about letting someone become enlightened. We all have our demons, our own personal Mara come to call. I love the idea of, become advanced and they will leave you alone, Become a phony and the will leave you alone. But waiver, try and preserve your select and favorite delusions and they will bang on the walls all night long.

“I have taught you the method of correct cultivation but you still do not know the subtle states of Mara which appear when you practice meditation When they manifest, if you fail to distinguish them and if your minds are not in a right state, you will fall into the evil ways of either the demons or your five aggregates, of the heavenly Mara’s, of ghosts and spirits, or of mischievous sprites, If you are not, clear about them, you will mistake thieves for your own sons.”
                                             Buddha, The Shurangama Sutra
      Long ago I was seeing demons when I would meditate, my teacher at the time told me to just laugh at them and they would run away. I did and they did.

      This samsara, this realm in which ordinary folks like you and me are said to wander through the countless cycles of Life & Death, bouncing between the lowest hell (Avici - the unrelenting Hell) to the highest heaven (Akanistha - the ultimate peak of Heaven) is a place of mist and shadow, and demons lurk in those dark places. But look closer and its just the threads in the carpet or the peeling paint on the wall.  All these worlds are mind, and all the demons conjured by the landlord, yourself.