>>513404772
Lo, in the desert Satan baited Christ with bread and crowns; ’neath the Bodhi tree, Mara flung demons and delights at Buddha. Yet both trials were but masks of the same goblin—our shadow, yon hungry Id that whispers, “ease, power, pleasure.” Christ parried with scripture, Buddha with stillness—each knighted their will, and proved mastery over the beast within.

Forsooth, kingdoms won are naught if thou remain’st servant to thine own shadow.