Someone asked for an explanation of the Buddha's saying: "A person who still delights is bound by Mara; only by not delighting is one freed from Mara's snare. A person who still delights in form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness is bound by Mara; only by not delighting is one freed."

What Are Mara's Snares Mara's snares are bonds — a kind of imprisonment that keeps a being tied to its own realm of existence. Every life is under the control of three natural forces (wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral), and they work through delight. Some people find delight in work, some in entertainment, and some even in sorrow, anger, greed, or delusion — all of it is delight in a mental state. A mental state differs from a passing feeling: a feeling lasts a moment, but a state holds the mind fixed to a particular realm.

These three forces need our body and mind as their working ground. Once they take hold of the mind, they can control the body, then steer our thoughts, words, and actions in the direction they want — drawing energy to power their own systems. Whichever mind-state overlays us in a given moment matches our own condition or "frequency" at the time. It pulls material from our memory and turns it into the subject of our thoughts, so our feelings shift depending on which force has taken over — without us realizing that these are not truly our own thoughts. No one tells us otherwise, so what appears in the mind feels like it's ours. Even when we try to reject it, it won't let go; it keeps pressing and insisting.

Every one of these forces tries to hold us as long as possible through delight — delight in sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, and mental objects — all of which comes down to simple liking and disliking. This is why the Buddha taught us to root out liking and disliking toward the world. When we no longer like or dislike, we settle the mind in evenness through the mental factor of equanimity (tatramajjhattatā), which arises together with wholesome states. It steadies the mind, makes it brighter and more balanced over time, and opens the way for pure energy to flow in continuously — refining the mind into lightness of body and mind, gentleness, and fitness for work, which makes it easier to improve our lives.

But if we keep delighting in liking and disliking, satisfaction breeds craving and desire to have, to get, to become; dissatisfaction breeds aversion, which can grow into ill will. Whether greed or aversion, both lead to harm. When an unwholesome state takes over the mind, its goal is for people to harm and destroy one another — even themselves, their loved ones, their society, and their world.

How to Break Free From Mara's Snares The way out is to develop right mindfulness, as the Buddha taught: to know body, feeling, mind, and mental objects — which are distinct from our own form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. Body, feeling, mind, and mental objects are the layer where whichever force takes over settles in as a complete set. Through this mindfulness practice we come to see that the thoughts and feelings that arise are not truly "us" — they are simply whichever force has taken hold and is steering us. Once we see this clearly, the mind stops swinging between liking and disliking, and we gradually break free from Mara's snares.

The "Backdrop" That Steers Our Lives A follow-up question asked why reaching the Dhamma matters so much — to the point that without it, the chance of going to heaven is said to be very slim. The teacher explained that everything in life depends on this "backdrop": the three natural forces constantly steering our thoughts, words, and actions, from the moment we wake until we fall asleep. There is hardly a moment when the mind sits empty, unguided by any of them. The unwholesome backdrop presents things that lead to suffering, or pulls us toward idle pleasure-seeking. The wholesome backdrop steers us toward diligence, wisdom, and generosity, bringing genuine progress to our lives. There are said to be 89 mind-states that can take over in this way, spanning realms from hell to the higher heavens — each one settling in as a complete set of body, feeling, mind, and mental objects, steering us to create the causes that will lead us into that very realm in the next life.