M Makyo (An Unbalanced Mental Condition That An Ascetic Of Zen Sect Of Buddhism Can Fall Into During (魔境)
"Makyo" refers to an unbalanced mental condition of ego-swelling that results from excessive self-consciousness, into which an ascetic of the Zen Sect of Buddhism tends to fall when halfway awakened. Some people point out that this mental condition is what they call 'spiritual inflation' in Jungian psychology.
Nichiren taught his followers that they should pierce the illusional images of Buddhas or Tathagatas with an imaginary spear when these images appear in their meditation. When an ascetic has a sense of unity with a man of divinity in his meditation, he tends to be obsessed with the idea that he himself is great, and this swells his ego -- in other words, he falls into makyo -- and the above-mentioned teaching of Nichiren is said to have aimed to prevent his followers from falling into makyo.