In Buddhism who is The evil one?

Question

Thank you RandyG for giving me an actuial answer.

And Zen Highway.
I just looked up Mara.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/evil/hod/hod10.htm

Racer X- Check out the link. There is an "Evil one" in Buddhism.

Answer 1

Mara. He tempted Siddhartha (before Siddhartha became the Buddha) by promising all kinds of power and riches (which Siddhartha would have inherited from his father), threated him with a bow and arrow and an army of demons, and tried to seduce him with visions of beautiful women (who symbolized desire, lust, and aversion). He is a tempter and distracts humans from practicing a spiritual life, leading them to spiritual death. He is the ruler of desire and death, the two evils that chain humankind to the Wheel of Samsara. He is the lord of all men who are bound by sense desires. He is the deceiver and can even appear in the form of Gautama Buddha. He can, at times, achieve small victory by clouding the minds of disciples. Although he has a spirit form, he is endowed with the five senses. But his existence symbolizes the possiblity for any sentient being to overcome ignorance and desire and be liberated, just as the Buddha has done.

There are traditionally four senses of the word "mara" given:

klesa-mara (unskilled emotion)
mrtyu-mara (death)
skandha-mara (conditioned existence)
devaputra-mara (the being)

Answer 2

It depends on the culture. In Laos, China and Vietnam it was a green guy that they called The Lord of Hell.

There seemed to be other demons too, judging by their art.

In Laos & Thailand the native Buddhists also seemed to believe in water spirits called Naga (a cross between a snake & a dragon). They could be either good or evil. They had a story in Laos about Buddha casting out a bad Naga from a river that was drowing people.

Answer 3

There is no "evil one" in Buddhism since Buddhists do not believe in the Devil which is a purely Christian invention. Instead, Buddhism is based on overcoming the ego self to reach the Devine Self. The self is the adversary, not a fictional character made-up to scare the crap out of everyone.

Answer 4

All beings, kammassaka - have their own individual kamma, good and bad actions as their own personal property. Such actions may be mental or verbal or physical, thoughts, words and deeds, done by themselves." This has been accordingly taught by the Buddha.

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Buddha and Mara were a couple of friends who need each other—like day and night, like flowers and garbage. This is a very deep teaching of Buddhism.....You may compare Buddha with the flowers, very fresh, very beautiful. And you may compare Mara with the garbage. It doesn't smell good. There are a lot of flies who like to come to the garbage. It's not pleasant to touch, to hold in your hand, to smell the garbage.
Yet all flowers become garbage. That is the meaning of impermanence: all flowers have to become garbage. If you practice Buddhist meditation, you find out about very interesting things—like about the garbage. Although garbage stinks, although garbage is not pleasant to hold in your hand, if you know how to take care of the garbage, you will transform it back into flowers. You know gardeners don't throw away garbage. They preserve the garbage and take care of the garbage, and in just a few months the garbage becomes compost. They can use that compost to grow lettuce, tomatoes, and flowers. We have to say that organic gardeners are capable of seeing flowers in garbage, seeing cucumbers in garbage. That is what the Buddha described as the non-dualistic way of looking at things.
If you see things like that, you will understand that the garbage is capable of becoming a flower, and the flower can become garbage. Thanks to the flowers there is garbage, because if you keep flowers for three weeks they become garbage, and thanks to the garbage there will be flowers. You now have an idea of the relationship between Buddha and Mara. Mara is not very pleasant, but if you know how to help Mara, to transform Mara, Mara will become Buddha. If you don't know how to take care of the Buddha, Buddha will become Mara.
As an old saying goes, all forms of existence are inherently endowed with both merits and demerits. That is to say, in goodness there exists evil and in evil one finds goodness- By Thich Nhat Hanh

Answer 5

I don't think there is an evil...entity or whatever in Buddhism. It teaches enlightenment from within. I could be wrong though, but from what I understand, there isn't even a "god" per se. Just the fat dude that they...admire, I guess would be the right word.

Answer 6

The human condition of suffering is the evil that must be purged. Ignorance causes suffering in the eyes of a true Buddhist. Wisdom is the true path of enlightenment and the path to end suffering.

Answer 7

I think it evil to teach that kind of crap. Wish more people would find some kind of enlightenment. Christians, Jews and Muslims are the ones bombing the s*it out each other right now.Don't see any Buddhist all steamed up and bloody thirsty, fighting for land and power.
You already know the evil one. "I have met the enemy, and he is me". The evil is in us all, how we resist it is up to us.

Answer 8

the mcdonalds corporation

Answer 9

Ourselves. We must fight our urges, our lust, our desire, our greed. It's a struggle from within.

Answer 10

you