{"collection":"Samyutta Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_sn4.17/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_sn4.17","id":"suttacentral_sn4.17","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/sn4.17/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Samyutta Nikaya"],"text":"At one time the Buddha was staying near Ves\u0101l\u012b, at the Great Wood, in the hall with the peaked roof. Now at that time the Buddha was educating, encouraging, firing up, and inspiring the mendicants with a Dhamma talk on the topic of the six fields of contact. And those mendicants were paying attention, applying the mind, concentrating wholeheartedly, and actively listening. Then M\u0101ra thought, \u201cThis ascetic Gotama is educating, encouraging, firing up, and inspiring the mendicants with a Dhamma talk on the topic of the six fields of contact. And those mendicants are paying attention, applying the mind, concentrating wholeheartedly, and actively listening. Why don\u2019t I go and pull the wool over their eyes?\u201d Then M\u0101ra the Wicked went up to the Buddha and made a terrifyingly loud noise close by him. It seemed as if the earth were shattering, so that one of the mendicants said to another, \u201cMendicant, mendicant, it seems like the earth is shattering!\u201d When this was said, the Buddha said to that mendicant, \u201cMendicant, that\u2019s not the earth shattering. That\u2019s M\u0101ra the Wicked come to pull the wool over your eyes!\u201d Then the Buddha, knowing that this was M\u0101ra the Wicked, addressed him in verse: \u201cSights, sounds, tastes, smells, touches, and ideas, the lot of them\u2014 this is the terrible bait that the world\u2019s infatuated by. But a mindful disciple of the Buddha has transcended all that. Having slipped free of M\u0101ra\u2019s dominion, they dazzle like the sun.\u201d Then M\u0101ra \u2026 vanished right there.","title":"The Six Fields of Contact","tradition":"Samyutta Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":250}