พระอาจารย์อธิบายผ่านโอวาทของหลวงปู่ว่า พญามารบังคับใจเราได้เพราะตัวไม่ยินดีสละกิเลส ไม่เป็นใหญ่ในตัวเอง และไม่รู้จักที่สุดของตัว การจะเป็นใหญ่ในตัวเองได้ต้องอาศัยศีล อินทรีย์ 5 และการขจัดนิวรณ์อย่างต่อเนื่องDrawing on a teaching from his own preceptor, the teacher explains that Mara can command us because we haven't learned to let go of defilements, haven't become master of ourselves, and don't yet know our own deepest nature — and that mastery comes through precepts, the five faculties, and steadily clearing away the mental hindrances.
A lay follower asked, in essence: why is it that sometimes we know full well that a thought, word, or action is wrong, yet we simply cannot stop ourselves from going through with it?
A Teaching From the Teacher's Own Preceptor
The teacher began with a teaching from his own revered preceptor, who overcame Mara: "Mara commands and uses us as his servants and slaves. He can make us curse, strike, kill, or wound others, start wars — he can command all of it. He can make us as base, vile, and destitute as he pleases, trapped and blocked in everything — all because we are unwilling to let go of what's within us, because we are not master of ourselves, and because we do not know our own deepest nature."
Why Mara Can Command Our Minds
Behind the life of every being lies unwholesomeness — Mara — who seizes the chance to become the "occupant" of our heart, layering the mind and s of the lower states over our own, so that his thinking appears as a voice in our own mind, as if it were our own thought. Whenever greed, aversion, delusion, lust, envy, or malice arises in us — even when we clearly know it isn't right — and yet we cannot stop ourselves, that is the sign Mara is exerting control.
We can notice this by observing body, feeling, mind, and mental objects. When the body behaves coarsely — driven by aversion, lust, or greed — it is because a lower-realm body (of a hell being, a hungry ghost, an asura, or an animal) has been layered over us, matching whatever level our mind has sunk to in that moment. If this happens repeatedly, it draws in more unwholesomeness, building a completed unwholesome blueprint stored within spheres of demerit and .
Those who practice well see these images and sounds clearly, as if watching a video. Those who practice only sometimes see mere still images. Those who never practice hear only the voice and the compelling feeling. And those whose minds have grown so coarse that they are fully enslaved hear no voice at all — the action becomes fully automatic: told to strike, they strike; told to curse, they curse.
How to Become Master of Yourself
The teacher pointed to unwillingness to let go of defilement — greed, aversion, delusion, and the mental hindrances. Craving and aversion give rise to greed when we're pleased and anger when we're not. Letting go of these requires precepts as armor, protecting us from becoming slaves to unwholesomeness. Not being master of oneself is remedied through the five spiritual faculties — , faith, wisdom, effort, and concentration — which free the mind from and establish true self-mastery.
Not knowing one's own deepest nature is remedied through wisdom, and wisdom arises by turning to those who know — whether an outer teacher or the wisdom within. If we haven't yet reached the inner knowing, we can rely on an outer teacher first, studying and training until self-mastery grows steadily stronger — built on the foundation of precepts, moving from the five precepts to the eight, restraining body and speech more and more, until we are free from craving and aversion. Practicing () that develops into () is the wisdom that finally leads us to know the deepest truth of ourselves.