ཚའ་མཐའ་མད notes.116

notes.116

116. “With his own body” here means without taking on a new form in the intermediate state between death and rebirth (Tib. bar ma do, Skt. antarābhava) or new skandhas after being reborn. The AKBh explains, “Actions very grave (by intention and in scope) and complete (that is, “accumulated,” iv.12) ripen before death itself. Mara then felt a retribution in this life before feeling a retribution in hell. The text thus means that Mara was enveloped, while still alive, by the fires of hell” (Pruden 1988–90, vol. 2, 388).