Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The idea about Devil (chúa quỷ) probably exists in all cultures. The Devil is usually known as a very bad and powerful guy (or gal?) whose only job is to destroy, hurt and kill humans.

In Buddism, it is Maara (ma vương), the demon that tempted Buddha away from his path of enlightenment.

In the Christian Bibble, the Devil has many names, including the more familiar names of Lucifer and Satan. In Matthew 4:1-3 the Devil is called “the tempter” who works with God to tempt and test Jesus: “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit [of God] into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’”

In Job 1, Satan (Devil) also gets God’s persmission to do all kinds of miseries to Job, to test whether Job “is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

So, it seems Satan (Devil) works as God’s assistant, testing and tempting God’s people so that they can prove their righteousness.

It is clear that the Devil (Satan or Maara) can only tempt you and test you. He cannot kill or hit you on the head with a hammer. So, probably you don’t need a sorcerer or a shaman or a witch to control or kill the Devil. They can’t kill the Devil anyway, because the Devil is much more powerful than these earthlings.

So, it seems there is a universal agreement that the Devil is the tempter and tester, tempting you and testing you, but he cannot kill you.

Why?

Because the tempter is you – your weakness, your greed, your arrogance, you bad side, which always tempt you to do what you know you should not do but always feel wanting to do, such as:

“I need to keep my weigh down, but this plate full of ice cream looks so good, man. Just one plate once in a white. No harm. Just try it, just taste it a bit to see how good that tastes, buddy.” Or, “I know I should love everyone. But this guy is a jerk. He harms everyone, including me. I should give him a lesson, giving him 20 practice punches, so that other people will not fall into his trap anymore. Good for the world. Yes, I will punch him into mushy pulp.” Or, “They give me an envelop full of 500K đồng bills. At least 100MM here. If I don’t take it, they will just give it to someone else, right in my office. I can’t change anything other than staying poor and hungry for life. So, I’d better take it to keep everyone happy.”

Well, if you’re honest to yourself, probably you have already known that the Devil, the tempter, is you yourself.

So, the Devil is yourself – the half of you, whose only job is to tempt you into doing things that you know are stupid, bad, harmful to yourself and to the world.

So, you problably can kill him by “calling the Devil by his name.” Every time he tempts you, you tell him to his face: “You, the Devil, who is me. Stop it. You can’t tempt me. I am your boss.”

Be your own sorcerer.

Wish we all defeat the Devil in us.

With compassion,

Hoành

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Trần Đình Hoành
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