When we think of this word "Mara," this name, Buddhism interprets ignorance in the mind as a kind of person. and maybe sometimes it is. Somebody else wants to encourage us to go and get drunk, well they are basically Mara. Our own thoughts, "Oh maybe I'll get drunk tonight", that's Mara, too. So that word Mara means ignorance, whether it is inside or outside.
Now, to respect Mara; if you don't respect Mara, you're never going to get very far in this practice. You have got to respect Mara. It is like this huge enemy but it's also a subtle trickster. When we think of the mind, there are two parts, wisdom and ignorance. Ignorance has been very strong, Buddhism says, ignorance has actually been in control through thousands of lifetimes. It has been the one who has basically been in control. Once you are into the Dhamma you are starting to fight, trying to change lots of conditioning that Mara enjoys.
Then Wisdom starts getting stronger and we have this seesaw effect where sometimes we win and sometimes the other. If you don't respect Mara, then Mara will trick you at every chance it can get. In the beginning of the practice, a lot of our ignorance is the big stuff, it's not so bad to work with, it's not so hard, we see it easy. The gross angers, the gross fears, all these kind of big things, they're not so hard to work with. But as you start working with wisdom and developing and getting stronger muscles, Mara gets trickier.
Mara can come to you as 10,000 armies. Mara can come to you as the naked people wanting to enjoy this or that. Mara can come as drugs and alcohol. Mara can come to you as the business executive. Mara can come to you as your mother or your brother, your sister, your friend. Mara can come in any way at all. So you have got to respect this. You have got to be on your guard that Mara will be there in the next five minutes. That you are never totally safe from Mara unless you are fully enlightened as Buddhism will explain. So you have to respect this enemy.
When you think of wars, if there is no respect for the enemy, then you may go in and you really don't know what to do, you don't know how to attack them. If any of you have read about the war in Kuwait, the United Nations told Saddam get out or he's going to have trouble. Saddam wouldn't get out, they gave him a deadline. Before the deadline they practiced, they trained their armies in the desert. A lot of the people had never worked in a desert, there aren't that many in Europe, are there? So they trained and they trained and they understood what Saddam had, and the newest chemical weapons and this and that, and actually they respected his power. So they had to prepare their army to be bigger than Saddam's, or more craftier, wiser, however we want to explain it. They had respect for what Saddam had, and yet built a bigger army and defeated him. Without respect for Saddam they might have sent in a small army and gotten defeated easily. So this is an example of respecting Mara. Be aware that Mara will come as the armies and it will come as your friend, it will come as your worker, your associate - "Hey, it's Friday afternoon, let's go!" So you have got to respect that Mara comes all the time, anywhere. In the same way, expect Dukkha at any moment.