The Samyutta Nikaya
The Grouped Discourses
Samyutta Nikaya IV.13
Sakalika Sutta
The Stone Sliver
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was
staying near Rajagaha at the Maddakucchi
Deer Reserve. Now at that time his foot had been pierced by a stone
sliver. Excruciating were the bodily feelings that developed within him --
painful, fierce, sharp, wracking, repellent, disagreeable -- but he
endured them mindful, alert, & unperturbed. Having had his outer robe
folded in four and laid out, he lay down on his right side in the lion's
posture -- with one foot placed on top of the other -- mindful &
alert.
Then Mara the Evil One went to the Blessed One and
recited this verse in his presence:
"Are you lying there in a stupor,
or drunk on poetry?
Are your goals so very few?
All alone in a secluded lodging,
what is this dreamer, this sleepy-face?"
The Buddha:
"I lie here,
not in a stupor,
nor drunk on poetry.
My goal attained,
I am sorrow-free.
All alone in a secluded lodging,
I lie down with sympathy
for all beings.
Even those pierced in the chest
with an arrow,
their hearts rapidly,
rapidly
beating:
even they with their arrows
are able to sleep.
So why shouldn't I,
with my arrow
removed?
I'm not awake with worry,
nor afraid to sleep.
Days & nights
don't oppress me.
I see no threat of decline
in any world at all.
That's why I sleep
with sympathy
for all beings."
Then Mara the Evil One -- sad & dejected at
realizing, "The Blessed One knows me; the One Well-Gone knows
me" -- vanished right there.
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