Well, I’m not sure exactly what you’re looking for, @Unbroken, but in Buddhism Mara is the personification of delusion. This is a common teaching method in Buddhism: aspects of the mind are represented as entities. Many of the positive qualities—wisdom, compassion, enlightened action, etc.—are personified as “bodhisattvas”. Mara is used the same way to represent the mental factors that obstruct enlightenment.

Yama is the form of Mara that represents death. He’s often shown clutching the Wheel of Birth and Death in his claws. Our delusions about who we are, and about the nature of reality, cause us to see death as this demonic enemy that threatens to annihilate us. Awakening, as the Buddha did, is to see that Mara is all smoke and mirrors.

Thank you @thorninmud I was reading a book very dumbed down… and it said the Yama Mara was fear of life. Or the fear to act in life or essentially being governed like you are dead because of the fear of death.
Paraphrased of course but ultimately I would like to start acting more like I am alive. And sad as this sounds… learn how to do it…

@Unbroken That’s certainly a valid interpretation. The fear of death boils down to a fear of loss of self. But you don’t have to be facing death to feel that your sense of self is threatened. The idea of self (which Buddhism teaches is an illusion) feeds on stability and familiarity. To launch into the unknown is to risk losing the familiar points of reference—our “knowns”—that support our notions of who we are. Even someone who’s pretty miserable can cling tenaciously to that familiar misery rather than risk losing track of self altogether.

Buddhism teaches that there was never any self to lose in the first place.