Mortification (SN4.1)

Linked Discourses 4.1

1. Lifespan

Mortification

So I have heard.¹

At one time, when he was first awakened, the Buddha was staying in Uruvelā at the root of the goatherd’s banyan tree on the bank of the Nerañjarā River.²

Then as he was in private retreat this thought came to his mind,

“I am truly freed from that grueling work!³

Thank goodness I’m freed from that pointless grueling work.

Thank goodness I’m freed and have attained awakening.”⁴

And then Māra the Wicked, knowing the Buddha’s train of thought, went up to him and addressed him in verse:⁵

“You’ve left the practice of mortification⁶

by which sons of men purify themselves.

You’re impure, but think yourself pure;

you’ve strayed from the path of purity.”

Then the Buddha, knowing that this was Māra the Wicked, replied to him in verse:

“I realized that it’s pointless;

all that endless mortification⁷

is as futile

as oars and rudder on dry land.⁸

Ethics, immersion, and wisdom:

by developing this path to awakening

I attained ultimate purity.

You’re beaten, terminator!”⁹

Then Māra the Wicked, thinking, “The Buddha knows me! The Holy One knows me!” miserable and sad, vanished right there.