SN4_13: Sakalika Sutta

Sakalika Sutta - translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

“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?”

The Buddha:

“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.”

Origin URL: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/SN/SN4_13.html