Devils
- redirect[Devil]
Devils are creatures from the Hell. They stand ten feet tall and resemble a winged reptile with sharp fangs, long horns, and leathery, bat-like wings. They have a red colored body, which is covered by scales. Their eyes glow with a yellow light. Each demon will have different and unique features, however, all of them radiate an aura of fear, and mortal creatures who are able to sense their presence will flee in terror. They can attack with their sharp claw or use magic of awesome power.
In Buddhism Mara is the devil that tempted Gautama Buddha trying to seduce him with the vision of beautiful women. In Buddhist cosmology, Mara is personified as the embodiment of unskilfulness, the "death" of the spiritual life. He is a tempter, distracting us from practising the spiritual life by making the mundane alluring or the negative seem positive. The early Buddhists, however, rather than seeing Mara as a demonic, virtually all-powerful Lord of Evil, regarded him as more of a nuisance. Many episodes concerning his interactions with the Buddha have a decidedly humorous air to them. In traditional Buddhism four senses of the word "mara" are given. Firstly, there is klesa-mara, or Mara as the embodiment of all unskilful emotions. Secondly, mrtyu-mara, or Mara as death, in the sense of the ceaseless round of birth and death. Thirdly, skandha-mara, or Mara as metaphor for the entirety of conditioned existence. Lastly, devaputra-mara, or Mara the son of a god, that is, Mara as an objectively existent being rather than as a metaphor. Early Buddhism acknowledged both a literal and "psychological" interpretation of Mara. Whichever way we ourselves understand the term, Mara has power only to the extent that we give it to him.
