Dancing With Mara

There seem to be so many pitfalls on the road of life...almost all creatures would not argue this and yet the Buddha stated that we can be free from suffering; it can be transformed. So what would be transformed? No more potholes? No more addictions? No more physical, mental and emotional pain? And finally, no more confusion? The story that we carry of life turns out to be just that...it's a story and there is one who loves the story even more than we do: Mara. He's the one that makes the story so strong by making impermanent things seem so permanent. That we grasp at a permanent existence in an impermanent vessel. Mara has 10,000 tricks and he will employ the most powerful ones in the beginning and then over time he learns that the small ones ensnare us just as much.