I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Rajagaha at the Maddakucchi Deer Reserve. Now at that time his foot had been pierced by a stone sliver. Excruciating were the bodily feelings that developed within him — painful, fierce, sharp, wracking, repellent, disagreeable — but he endured them mindful, alert, & unperturbed. Having had his outer robe folded in four and laid out, he lay down on his right side in the lion's posture — with one foot placed on top of the other — mindful & alert.

Then Mara the Evil One went to the Blessed One and recited this verse in his presence:

Are you lying there in a stupor,
or drunk on poetry?
Are your goals so very few?
All alone in a secluded lodging,
what is this dreamer, this sleepy-face?

I lie here,
	not in a stupor,
	nor drunk on poetry.
My goal attained,
	I am sorrow-free.
All alone in a secluded lodging,
I lie down with sympathy
	for all beings.

Even those pierced in the chest
with an arrow,
their hearts rapidly,
	rapidly
	beating:
even they with their arrows
are able to sleep.
	So why shouldn't I,
	with my arrow		removed?

I'm not awake with worry,
nor afraid to sleep.
Days & nights
don't oppress me.
I see no threat of decline
in any world at all.
That's why I sleep
	with sympathy
	for all beings.

Then Mara the Evil One — sad & dejected at realizing, "The Blessed One knows me; the One Well-Gone knows me" — vanished right there.