You have to imagine Mara as the most vicious, evil enemy you can imagine on the whole planet, with four machine guns on its back. And you have to imagine Mara as the most loving, kind trickster, as a nice person who will say, "It's ok, it's all right, let's go and have a beer. You've been a good person for a whole week, you can celebrate. Let's get drunk and have fun. You earned it!" Mara comes in any form at all, Mara is your best friend, when they are pointing you the wrong way. Mara is the newspaper reporter, the TV announcer, whatever, when they are pointing you the wrong way. There's the key to whether Mara is there or not, on the outside.
The key to whether it's there on the inside: Are you going the wrong way? Now in order to know what the wrong way is, you have to know what the right way is. If you are not clear on the right way after at least three retreats as a minimum here, then you have to talk about it to us in the interviews. Are you opening your heart? Are you developing the Four Brahma Viharas - Compassion, Lovingkindness, Sympathetic Joy, Equanimity? Are you watching your speech so that you don't say things that are harmful? Are you watching your actions so they are not harmful? The right way - hopefully most of you will at least have an intellectual understanding of what it is, and you also will have a desire inside yourself wanting you to go that way, otherwise you wouldn't be here. So you have to be very clear when you are going the wrong way, and remember that Mara is the reason that you are going the wrong way, whether it is your own internal Mara, whether it is a friend, relative, whatever it is, when you are going the wrong way, that is how you recognize Mara is in control.