The word Mara is good to learn if you haven't learned it already. M-A-R-A. It's the name, the personification of ignorance. Buddhism uses this word Mara to actually name our ignorance. It is a bit like a seesaw, one side is wisdom, ignorance is on the other. When wisdom is strong, ignorance is weak, when ignorance is strong, wisdom is weak. By actually naming our ignorance, Mara, by giving it a name in Buddhism, we are going to separate ourselves from ignorance, we are going to attach ourselves more to our wisdom side in our brain. That's who I want to be, that's who I am. I don't want to be my ignorance side. So by actually naming it that gives us a bit of a distance.
For example, let's say you are doing the walking meditation. 10, 15 minutes go by and you are doing well and the mind thinks as you get to the end of the walking track, "You are doing well, let's have a break for a little while." Mara! That's Mara. It's very tricky at that moment as it acts as your buddy, "Hey, Steve" giving a little pat on the back, "you are doing well, you can have a break now for a little while." If we name it, "Ah, Mara! These thoughts are Mara," then this helps to give us a distance, not to get caught up in desires and aversions, cravings, etc. that come to our minds in these tiny, little ways.
Mara can be internally, and it can be externally. It can be your friend before you came to the retreat. Your friend says, "What you are going to go there for? What do want to do that for, it's boring and stupid." Okay, they are Mara at that moment. So they are the ignorance, they are portraying their own ignorance which is trying to affect us. By viewing ignorance, whether it's internally or externally, as a type of being which we don't want to identify with in the sense of who I am, this helps greatly.
One thing you have to understand about Mara and your ignorance is that Mara is the trickiest, most clever, most intelligent, most crafty, most deceitful being you will ever meet in your whole life. If I could stand here, or the assistant, or whoever and if I could portray to you the ugliest being, most vicious being and have a thousand of me all together, that could be Mara. But Mara could also be a very beautiful woman or handsome man who is flirting with you. Mara can be the intelligent doctor. Mara can be anything, and is everything from time to time. So you have to expect it.
You have to expect Mara can come in all sorts of forms, so what do you have to do? You have to get very crafty, very clever, very intelligent, you have to get very wise, so that you are ready for Mara whenever Mara is ready to come. If you have to fight Kung Fu for a while, do it! If you have to outtalk them with intelligent language, do it. If you have to say "No" like with a little child, "No, stop!" then do it. You are going to have to learn all these different techniques to defeat Mara.
One thing above all else regarding Mara, respect Mara. Mara is the enemy, if you don't respect Mara, you are going to lose. Mara will trick you every time it can. When you respect Mara, then you are ready for it and you will be crafty enough in how you are going to deal with it. You have to learn the techniques to let go of your anger, to let go of your fear, and your jealousies because those are many of Mara's games. So you have to respect it, Mara is crafty, Mara is in control. Buddhism says for a hundred thousand lifetimes, let alone 30 or 40 years, it's been in control. If you respect Mara, you build the ability to defeat Mara.
When you think of an average war, armies go against each other, if the general of one army does not respect the power of the other army, it will be defeated easily. It's just a typical thing in armies. It was interesting on an airplane coming over from America, they had a movie about General Patton. It was a historical movie from America, General Patton was one the American generals that was in WW II and was instrumental in defeating the Nazis. There were bits in it that I happened to notice when they showed Patton talking about a German general, and they would show the German general talking about Patton, and they were each trying in their own way, they were respecting the leader of the other army. They were trying to outthink the other. There were showing times when he would think, "Oh, he's going to go North, he's going to go South! No, they are going to block me here." They were doing it almost like a chess game, war is often related to chess, and in that way respect is something that in battle people need and since you are in battle with Mara you need respect.