silence, Mara

Lyrics

The Story

Our character is on the final part of his journey. He is on a "boat" sailing to the other shore of understanding and enlightenment. Mara is a mythological king who tried to prevent Buddha from attaining enlightenment by presenting him with temptations. Mara is often referred as the representation of death, desire and the world of illusion. The world we live in before the "ego death". Mara tries to tempt the character by singing to him, "Don't ever change your mind." This temptation takes our character back to when he was younger and saw that those around him just accepted what they were told and never questioned the reality around them; never ventured beyond to expand their understanding. Complacency was a common way of life for them. He saw many people suffering but never change their ways. He saw them living without discipline and always falling into the same problems. He remembers times in his own life when he felt that it would be so much easier to not care and just fall into the same complacency but he chose differently. He hears another voice respond: "Actually everything is in your mind." And eventually, the character responds, "Carry me away." He has accepted the final stage of his spiritual journey and is ready to lay the old self to rest. He has silenced Mara for good. and is ready to sail across to the other shore (as referenced in The Hear Sutra).

The Music

This song is a 16 bar chord progression in F minor that just repeats over and over again. The arpeggiated synth figure that begins the song is bubbly and perpetual like water. The phrase :"Don't ever change your mind" contains a D natural which is not in the key of F minor and sounds slightly our of place. This symbolizes that there is no place for Mara's temptation in the mind of our character at this point in his spiritual journey. He is on his way to the other shore.