Beautiful

Linked Discourses 4.3

1. Lifespan

Beautiful

So I have heard.

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.

Now at that time the Buddha was meditating in the open during the dark of night, while a gentle rain drizzled down.

Then Māra the Wicked, wanting to make the Buddha feel fear, terror, and goosebumps, approached him, and while not far away, displayed a rainbow of bright colors, both beautiful and ugly.

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

“Transmigrating for such a long time,

you’ve made forms beautiful and ugly.

Enough of this, Wicked One!

You’re beaten, terminator.

Those who are well restrained

in body, speech, and mind

don’t fall under Māra’s sway,

nor are they your footmen.”

Then Māra … vanished right there.