起信論疏筆削記 19.31

19.31

Regarding the discernment of demonic events: The Sanskrit term is Māra, translated here as "the killer," meaning that it can rob the practitioner of the wealth of merit and slay the life of wisdom. As for "events": just as the Buddha takes liberating sentient beings through merit and wisdom and causing them to enter nirvāṇa as his work, Māra does not do so, but constantly takes destroying sentient beings' roots of goodness and causing them to transmigrate in saṃsāra as his work, because Māra delights in saṃsāra. The various classes of beings in the three realms all belong to Māra. Now, when a practitioner aspires to escape the three realms and further makes the vast vow to extensively liberate sentient beings, Māra fears that his retinue will decrease; therefore, he comes to harass them to make them regress and fall away. The practitioner must discern and subdue them. However, there are four different kinds: first, the kleśa-māra; second, the skandha-māra; third, the mṛtyu-māra; and fourth, the devaputra-māra (ghosts and spirits). The first three are internal and are subdued by internal cultivation; demonic ghosts are external, and thus are now distinguished and discerned here.