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### Samyutta Nikaya IV.13

# Sakalika Sutta

# The Stone Sliver

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.

Note: See the introductory note to SN I.38.

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.

See also: SN I.38; SN XXXVI.6; AN V.129.

Revised: Wed 16 May 2001