{"collection":"Samyutta Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_sn4.1/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_sn4.1","id":"suttacentral_sn4.1","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/sn4.1/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Samyutta Nikaya"],"text":"So I have heard. At one time, when he was first awakened, the Buddha was staying in Uruvel\u0101 at the root of the goatherd\u2019s banyan tree on the bank of the Nera\u00f1jar\u0101 River. Then as he was in private retreat this thought came to his mind, \u201cI am truly freed from that grueling work! Thank goodness I\u2019m freed from that pointless grueling work. Thank goodness I\u2019m freed and have attained awakening.\u201d And then M\u0101ra the Wicked, knowing the Buddha\u2019s train of thought, went up to him and addressed him in verse: \u201cYou\u2019ve left the practice of mortification by which sons of men purify themselves. You\u2019re impure, but think yourself pure; you\u2019ve strayed from the path of purity.\u201d Then the Buddha, knowing that this was M\u0101ra the Wicked, replied to him in verse: \u201cI realized that it\u2019s pointless; all that endless mortification is as futile as oars and rudder on dry land. Ethics, immersion, and wisdom: by developing this path to awakening I attained ultimate purity. You\u2019re beaten, terminator!\u201d Then M\u0101ra the Wicked, thinking, \u201cThe Buddha knows me! The Holy One knows me!\u201d miserable and sad, vanished right there.","title":"Mortification","tradition":"Samyutta Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":188}