{"collection":"Samyutta Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_sn4.24/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_sn4.24","id":"suttacentral_sn4.24","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/sn4.24/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Samyutta Nikaya"],"text":"So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying in Uruvel\u0101 at the goatherd\u2019s banyan tree on the bank of the Nera\u00f1jar\u0101 River. Now at that time M\u0101ra the Wicked had been pursuing the Buddha for seven years hoping to find a vulnerability without success. Then M\u0101ra the Wicked went up to the Buddha and addressed him in verse: \u201cAre you swamped by sorrow <j>that you meditate in the forest? Have you lost a fortune, or do you long for one? Or perhaps you\u2019ve committed <j>some crime in the village? Why don\u2019t you get too close to people? And why does no one get close to you?\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve dug out the root of sorrow completely. I practice absorption free of guilt or sorrow. I\u2019ve cut off all greed and muttered prayer for future lives. Undefiled, I practice absorption, <j>O kinsman of the negligent!\u201d \u201cThe things they call \u2018mine\u2019, and those who say \u2018it\u2019s mine\u2019: if your mind remains there, you won\u2019t escape me, ascetic!\u201d \u201cThe things they speak of aren\u2019t mine; I\u2019m not someone who speaks like that. So know this, Wicked One: you won\u2019t even see the path I take.\u201d \u201cIf you\u2019ve discovered the path that\u2019s safe, and leads to freedom from death, go and walk that path alone\u2014 why teach it to anyone else?\u201d \u201cThose crossing to the far shore ask what\u2019s beyond the domain of Death. When I\u2019m asked, I explain to them the truth without attachments.\u201d \u201cSir, suppose there was a lotus pond not far from a town or village, and a crab lived there. Then several boys or girls would leave the town or village and go to the pond, where they\u2019d pull out the crab and put it on solid ground. Whenever that crab extended a claw, those boys or girls would snap, crack, and break it off with a stick or a stone. And when that crab\u2019s claws had all been snapped, cracked, and broken off it wouldn\u2019t be able to return down into that lotus pond. In the same way, sir, the Buddha has snapped, cracked, and broken off all my twists, ducks, and dodges. Now I\u2019m not able to approach the Buddha again in hopes of finding a vulnerability.\u201d Then M\u0101ra the Wicked recited these verses of disappointment in the Buddha\u2019s presence: \u201cA crow once circled a stone that looked like a lump of fat. \u2018Perhaps I\u2019ll find something tender,\u2019 it thought, \u2018perhaps there\u2019s something tasty.\u2019 But finding nothing tasty, the crow left that place. Like the crow that pecked the stone, I leave Gotama disappointed.\u201d","title":"Seven Years of Pursuit","tradition":"Samyutta Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":427}