Ten Kinds of Practice, Ten Kinds of Māra
Ten kinds of practice move from revering good, wise friends to abiding in the boundless dharma-realm with a purified body. Ten kinds of māra follow, an unusually expansive list that names not only the aggregates, affliction, karma, and death as māra, but also wholesome roots, samādhi, good friends, and even the wisdom-dharma of awakening itself, whenever any of these is clung to.
When Wisdom Itself Becomes Māra
The tenth kind of māra is the most striking: the wisdom-dharma of awakening becomes māra the moment one is unwilling to relinquish it. Paired with wholesome roots, samādhi, and even a good spiritual friend appearing earlier in the same list, this entry treats attachment itself, not the object attached to, as what makes something an obstruction.
佛子！菩薩摩訶薩有十種修行法。何等為十？所謂：恭敬尊重諸善知識修行法；常為諸天之所覺悟修行法；於諸佛所常懷慚愧修行法；哀愍眾生不捨生死修行法；事必究竟心無變動修行法；專念隨逐發大乘心諸菩薩眾精勤修學修行法；遠離邪見勤求正道修行法；摧破眾魔及煩惱業修行法；知諸眾生根性勝劣而為說法令住佛地修行法；安住無邊廣大法界除滅煩惱令身清淨修行法。是為十。若諸菩薩安住其中，則得如來無上修行法。
"Son of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva has ten kinds of practice. What are these ten? Namely: the practice of revering and honoring every good, wise friend; the practice of constantly being awakened by the devas; the practice of constantly holding a sense of shame and conscientiousness in the presence of every buddha; the practice of having compassion for sentient beings and never abandoning birth-and-death; the practice of bringing every undertaking to its ultimate completion, the mind never wavering; the practice of single-mindedly following and diligently studying alongside the assemblies of bodhisattvas who have given rise to the mind of the great vehicle; the practice of staying far from wrong views and diligently seeking the right path; the practice of destroying every māra and the karma of affliction; the practice of knowing the superior and inferior nature of every sentient being's own faculties and teaching the dharma accordingly, causing them to abide in the buddha's own ground; and the practice of abiding in the boundless, vast dharma-realm, extinguishing affliction, and making the body pure. These are the ten. If bodhisattvas abide within these, they attain the tathāgata's own unsurpassed practice.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩有十種魔。何等為十？所謂：蘊魔，生諸取故；煩惱魔，恒雜染故；業魔，能障礙故；心魔，起高慢故；死魔，捨生處故；天魔，自憍縱故；善根魔，恒執取故；三昧魔，久耽味故；善知識魔，起著心故；菩提法智魔，不願捨離故。是為十。菩薩摩訶薩應作方便，速求遠離。
Son of the Buddha! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva has ten kinds of māra. What are these ten? Namely: the māra of the aggregates, because it gives rise to every kind of grasping; the māra of affliction, because it is constantly defiled; the māra of karma, because it is able to obstruct; the māra of the mind, because it gives rise to arrogance and conceit; the māra of death, because it abandons the place of birth; the māra of the heavens, because it is self-indulgent and unrestrained; the māra of wholesome roots, because it constantly clings and grasps; the māra of samādhi, because it lingers long, savoring its flavor; the māra of a good spiritual friend, because it gives rise to an attached mind; and the māra of the wisdom-dharma of awakening, because one is unwilling to relinquish it. These are the ten. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva should employ skillful means to swiftly seek to leave them all behind.
菩提法智魔，不願捨離故 — the māra of the wisdom-dharma of awakening, because one is unwilling to relinquish it. This list extends the familiar four māras of the aggregates, affliction, death, and the heavens into territory that a practitioner might otherwise assume is safe: wholesome roots, samādhi, a good friend, even the dharma of awakening itself. Each becomes māra not by its own nature but by the grip of an unwilling attachment placed upon it.
Part 781 Complete
This continues chapter thirty-eight, 離世間品, in fascicle fifty-eight. Part 782 opens ten kinds of māra-deeds (魔業), beginning with forgetting the mind of awakening while still cultivating roots of goodness.