LIVING WITH THE DEVIL: A Meditation on Good and Evil By Stephen Batchelor

BOOK REVIEW; The devil you don't know
1665 words
20 January 2007
Bangkok Post
O3
English
(c) 2007

Mara, the Evil One, may have as much to teach us as Buddha does, according to a book by Stephen Batchelor, which is now available in Thai

PHRA PAISAN VISALO

The Devil comes in myriad shapes and forms. The Tripitaka contains numerous accounts about the Evil One, aka Mara, disguising himself variously as an elephant king, a serpent, a Brahmin priest and a maiden. Sometimes the Devil appears as a farmer or an old man with a hunched back. Sometimes, he even conjures up earthquakes. All these acts are done with an aim of getting his "targets" - Buddha, monks (both male and female) and lay people - to feel fear, doubt, despondency, frustration and, perhaps, to abandon their efforts to propagate dharma (Buddha's teachings) and thus liberate people from the cycle of samsara.

Living with the Devil: A Meditation on Good and Evil shows how Mara dwells both outside and inside our hearts. Diverse are his manifestations - as clinging and attachment, yearning for security and certainty, fear, doubts, self-forgetfulness and wickedness. All these have one thing in common: They oppress or hinder our capacity to realise truth and freedom.

But if that's all there is to Mara how was it that Buddha, who had realised the utmost freedom, continued to be bothered by him? Hadn't the Awakened One freed himself completely from the Devil's clutches? Here, Stephen Batchelor offers one possible explanation: Buddha was still a human being, and Mara was nothing else than "Gautama's own conflicted humanity".

For Buddhists who worship the Teacher as if he were almost superhuman, this interpretation may be hard to swallow. But we cannot deny the existence of stories about Buddha's doubts. For example, shortly after he attained enlightenment, Buddha noted that he was hesitant to teach dharma to others, seeing it as too difficult for most people to grasp. On another occasion, he harboured doubts about being able to reign over a temporal kingdom without causing harm to himself and others. (Certainly, the Devil had pleaded with him to assume the throne.) These incidents show that the state of Buddhahood did not mean freedom from doubt. Therefore, Buddha could not escape from Mara. The latter may have failed to stop Buddha's quest for enlightenment, but he continued tirelessly to interfere in Buddha's attempts to free the masses from their suffering.

Eventually, the Devil succeeded in putting a check on the Teacher. Old age and sickness prompted Buddha to contemplate the limitations of his life. And death ended all his work. Old age, sickness and death - aren't they just other names for Mara? He followed Buddha everywhere. No matter how the Buddha tried to put off or negotiate (with Mara), he was unable to extend his earthly life for ever. Finally, the Awakened One was assured that the Dharma-Vinaya (Buddhism) he had founded was firm and solid, and that the Sangha community was strong, and so he ceased all his work and entered nirvana.

If we accept that "conflicts" - which include old age, sickness and death - are experienced by every human being, then Batchelor is not mistaken when he argues that similar contradictions reside in Buddha, and that both Buddha and Mara "walk hand in hand together".

However, the close relationships between Buddha and the Devil mean far more than that. If "Mara" refers to a state of mental oppressiveness - be it in the form of craving, fear, lethargy or depression - it is at the same time the cause and conditions of the birth of Buddha. Buddha used to say that without suffering he would not have appeared in this world. As he studied the nature and causes of suffering, he discovered the path to end it, and eventually attained enlightenment by himself.

Both physical and mental oppressiveness may make us suffer. But if we keep our mind stable and aware, and look at it with mindfulness, we will see its transient, impermanent nature. We suffer because we hold on to it as "me and mine". Thus arises the "I" who suffers. When we realise this truth, we can let it go. Liberation from suffering will ensue. In the suffering lies the path to end it. In other words, Mara and Buddha have always been together. The same key is used both to close and open the door. It is the same switch that turns the light on and off. Buddhadasa Bhikkhu often said that "in samsara is nirvana".

Suffering, or the state of oppressiveness and conflicts, is the first of the Four Noble Truths. Our "duty" as prescribed by Buddha is to understand suffering; it is not to be abandoned, but to be understood. (The causes of suffering are what have to be ended.) Understanding suffering through and through will lead to awakening. To live with and be aware of suffering is to liberate ourselves from it. To live with and be aware of Mara is to not let Mara overpower us.

However, the Devil is extremely clever and it's not easy to keep up with him. In the guise of vice, Mara is not that difficult to discern. More fearsome, however, is when he appears in the cloak of virtue. As soon as we start clinging to some [notion of] goodness, we are instantly enslaved by Mara. We become self-indulgent and may hurt others under the pretext of doing good. Countless wars have been declared in the name of God, religion or ideology. Moreover, to cling to the idea of goodness is to become trapped in the cycle of samsara. Unable to let go of self, we are unable to attain enlightenment. Nor does this apply only to clinging to goodness. Even the noble thought of nirvana, as soon as we hold on to it, closes our access to the path towards liberation.

Batchelor also introduces us to another kind of Mara, one not mentioned by either Buddha or the Tripitaka: "Limited and oppressive structure of violence", a term which includes "Army of governments, religion, superpowers, and market forces" plus oppressive and centralised religious institutions and systems. Such structures hinder the culture of awakening that should guide the masses towards ultimate truth and freedom.

Unfortunately, we may have to live with this kind of Mara for a long time to come. But to let him block human potential is not the Buddhist way. To be aware of the presence of this Mara may not be enough, though. We must take steps to induce change in order to help people liberate themselves as well. Batchelor does not give any specific recommendations - readers are given the opportunity to do some exploring themselves.

Living with the Devil portrays the many facets of and depths of meaning to Mara. Readers should try to distinguish between the different meanings; otherwise some misunderstanding, or even frustration, may occur, especially when the writer talks about Mara "walking hand in hand" with Buddha. Ultimately, Batchelor makes the point that the ultimate Devil is our own perception of beings as separate and independent from one another, that each entity is permanent, which is completely against the law of transience and non-self. Even the thought of "I" is dependent on many things, some of which date back 15,000 million years! There is no need to look back so far, though. Without "you" and "others", there will be no "me".

Shadows come out of sunlight. The beautiful lotus grows out of mud. Space exists to provide room for things. Good and evil, Mara and Buddha, may seem like opposites, but they are interdependent; they cannot be separated. To understand that nothing is fixed or independent, including "me", will liberate us from attachment. The duty of Mara is to prevent us from seeing the truth. For, as soon as we can see through [his machinations], we will be freed from his power.

This book was intended more as a philosophical treatise than a religious tome. Since the readers Batchelor primarily has in mind are Westerners with a propensity for rationalisation and secularism, Living with the Devil is often full of thought-provoking passages. Sometimes, his style of writing comes across almost like an invitation to engage in debate. But this is done just to stimulate ideas, to get beyond old sets of beliefs. Many Thai readers may not be familiar with such an approach, though, and may not even understand what the author is trying to get at or where he is heading.

Translator Sodsai Khantiworaphong has done a singularly commendable job in rendering his text into beautiful but succinct Thai. Still, Living with the Devil is not the type of book to be read only once; it must be re-read several times in order to get the whole gist. But even if not everything is clear, several passages in the book are likely to spur us to deep contemplation. And perhaps, in the process, we will develop the wisdom to repel Mara - for we will become aware of the devious snares he sets - and in the nick of time, too.

This is a slightly shortened translation of the preface Phra Paisan Visalo wrote to 'Living with the Devil'. As part of the official book launch, the publisher has invited this respected monk plus two other speakers - Sulak Sivaraksa and Suwanna Satha-anant - to share their views on how we can achieve spiritual freedom despite, or because of, the evil in our hearts. Pinyo Traisuriyadhamma will act as moderator. The event will be held this Monday, from 1.30pm, at Thailand Book Tower, Sathorn Soi 12 (opposite St Louis Hospital). There is no admission fee. For more details, call 02-222-5698 or 02-622-0955 or 02-622-0966.

LIVING WITH THE DEVIL:

A Meditation on Good and Evil

By Stephen Batchelor

Translated into Thai by Sodsai Khantiworaphong as `You Kab Mara

Suan Ngern Mee Ma, 210 baht.

ISBN 978-974-88162-5-8