The Related Suttas Collection 4.16

2. Rule

The Alms Bowls

At Sāvatthī.

Now at that time the Buddha was educating, encouraging, firing up, and inspiring the bhikkhus with a Dhamma talk on the topic of the five grasping aggregates. And those bhikkhus were paying attention, applying the mind, concentrating wholeheartedly, and actively listening.

Then Māra thought, “This ascetic Gotama is educating, encouraging, firing up, and inspiring the bhikkhus with a Dhamma talk on the topic of the five grasping aggregates. And the bhikkhus are paying attention, applying the mind, concentrating wholeheartedly, and actively listening. Why don’t I go and pull the wool over their eyes?”

At that time several alms bowls were placed in the open air. Then Māra the Wicked manifested in the form of an ox and approached those bowls.

One of the bhikkhus said to another, “Bhikkhu, bhikkhu, that ox will break the bowls.”

When this was said, the Buddha said to that bhikkhu, “Bhikkhu, that’s no ox. That’s Māra the Wicked come to pull the wool over your eyes!”

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

“Sights, feeling, and perception, consciousness and what is chosen: ‘I am not this’ and ‘this is not mine’; that’s how to be free of desire for them.

When you’re detached, secure, all fetters transcended, though Māra and his army chase everywhere they never find you.”

Then Māra … vanished right there.