MARA

Mara

Mara, in Buddhism, is the demon that tempted Gautama Buddha by trying to seduce him with the vision of beautiful women who, in various legends, are often said to be Mara's daughters. In Buddhist cosmology, Mara personifies unwholesome impulses, unskillfulness, the "death" of the spiritual life. He is a tempter, distracting humans from practicing the spiritual life by making mundane things alluring, or the negative seem positive.

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mara

Noun

  1. A nightmare; a spectre or wraith-like creature in Germanic and particularly Scandinavian folklore; a female demon who torments people in sleep by crouching on their chests or stomachs, or by causing terrifying visions.

Noun (etymology 2)

  1. A malicious or evil spirit.

Noun (etymology 3)

  1. A caviid rodent, genus , common in the Patagonian steppes of Argentina.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: mara
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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