Evil spirit tempting the Buddha who reigns over a heaven of pleasure and sensual delights.

from the root 'mri', meaning killing or destroying (cf. English 'murder'). Hence the Evil One, the Destroyer, who tempts men to indulge their passions and is seen as the great enemy of Buddha and of his religion.

tempter, who sent his daughters (and soldiers) to disturb the Buddha's meditation

Lord of Death and Desire, who tried to prevent Siddhartha Gautama's enlightenment.

The personification of evil. The god of death.

("bringer of death") demon who harasses the Buddha at the Bodhi Tree

The personification of evil and temptation.

The Buddhist "tempter" figure, the personification of evil and passions, of the totality of worldly existence and of death.

Death, "the Striker" or "Tempter" or "The Evil One" or "The Killer"; embodiment of the selfish attachments and temptations that bind one to the cycle of birth and death. The opposite of the Buddha nature in each person.

(Skt.): Demon. Anything which interrupts the attainment of LIBERATION or ENLIGHTENMENT. See: 4 MARAS.

Personification of the delusions that distract us from Dharma practice; what Buddhists might call the "devil"; what Shakyamuni Buddha overcame under the bodhi tree as he strove for enlightenment.

(Papiyan) literally means "the killer." As a specific being, he is often called "Mara the Evil One" or the "non-liberator" since he is the opponent of liberation. He appears in the texts both as a real being (i.e. as a deity who is lord or king of the sixth heaven in the desire realm) and as a symbol of everything that hinders the arising of wholesome roots and progress on the path of enlightenment. Actually Mara is a Bodhisattva whose job is to test living beings, especially those who are on the path to Buddhahood. He and his demon followers are emanations of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who test those engaged in self-cultivation. He appears in the texts both as a real being (i.e. as a deity who is the King of Demons of the Paranirmita Heaven, the sixth and highest heaven in the desire realm) and as a symbol of everything that hinders the arising of wholesome roots and progress on the path of enlightenment.