A key theme in the Buddha's life and this kind of archetypal story of waking up is facing

the shadow. And instead of running away in the story of the Buddha's unfolding instead

of indulging in pleasure or actually instead of pushing life away with austerity either way,

the Buddha came to rest under the Bodhi tree, came to rest, just kind of paused and dedicated

himself to facing the life that's here. So what he faced in the stories called Mara are the

God of greed and hatred and delusion and doubt. Really, Mara was none other than a reactive ego,

an ego when it's taken hold. And so as the story goes, the Buddha spent the night under the Bodhi tree

awakening his presence and being completely mindful and compassionate as the

forces of Mara swept around the forces of his shadow side. And by the end of the night, Mara had retreated

and the Buddha was free. What I most like about this story is that it wasn't a one-shot deal,

Mara came back. And I like that because it really makes it a relevant story for all of us that

we might say, okay, I faced my insecurity or okay, I faced this jealousy or this way I compare or

this anger. And then what happens is somebody criticizes us, or disagrees with us, our child

doesn't cooperate with what we're setting out, or something happens and our partner acts

disinterested when we're speaking, something. And Mara is back again in an instant. It was like

there we go again. We see this in the story of the Buddha. What would happen is the Buddha would be

about to address a large gathering and all of a sudden Ananda, his loyal, devoted

attendant, would see Mara creeping around the back of the gathering. And he'd go, oh no,

and he'd do this kind of a thing. He'd say to the Buddha, Mara is back, what are we going to do?

This is terrible. This is terrible. And the Buddha would kind of on some level say, we'll just

calm down. And he'd see Mara and he'd say, I see you, Mara. And come on in and let's have some tea.

This little vignette of Mara coming back and the Buddha responding by saying, I see you,

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