SN 4.13 - Sakalika Sutta: The Stone Sliver
Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn04/sn04.013.than.html
License: CC-BY-NC-4.0
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Copyright: ©1999 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
License notice: The text of this page ("Sakalika Sutta: The Stone Sliver", by Thanissaro Bhikkhu) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of the license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions.
Attribution: ©1999 Thanissaro Bhikkhu. The text of this page ("Sakalika Sutta: The Stone Sliver", by Thanissaro Bhikkhu) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of the license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions. Transcribed from a file provided by the translator. Last revised for Access to Insight on 30 November 2013. How to cite this document (a suggested style): "Sakalika Sutta: The Stone Sliver" (SN 4.13), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013, https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn04/sn04.013.than.html .
Changes: Presentation only: original HTML markup reflowed into plain text; wording, numbering and source repetitions retained. No repetitions expanded.
Completeness: ABBREVIATED. Every source-unit character is preserved, including introductions, notes and verse structure. Thanissaro's collection-level note explicitly states that repetitions were cut: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/about.html. This is evidence about the translation method, not an assertion that every individual unit contains an omission; no repetitions reconstructed.

Translator's note: See the introductory note to SN 1.38.

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 1.38; SN 36.6; AN 5.129.