Reading guide
A challenge to legitimacy, not confidence this time
Where SN 4.12's Māra questioned the Buddha's self-assured manner, here he questions something more fundamental: whether teaching others is appropriate for him at all — a challenge to role and standing rather than tone or demeanor.
A warning framed as concern, not open hostility
Māra's second line — don't get caught up in favoring and opposing — reads almost like friendly advice rather than an attack, warning the Buddha against a genuine spiritual pitfall (partiality) even while questioning his right to teach at all.
A reply naming motive before claiming freedom
The Buddha's answer does not simply deny Māra's warning is relevant; it first states the actual reason he teaches — compassion for others' welfare — before claiming he is already liberated from the specific fault Māra warned against.
Favoring and opposing named as the trap, not teaching itself
The exchange implicitly agrees on what the real danger would be: not instruction as such, but partiality within it — Māra warns against falling into it, and the Buddha claims to have already transcended it, rather than denying it as a genuine concern.
A second instance of a repeating pattern, worth comparing
Read against SN 4.12, this discourse shows the ‘Māra calculates, then challenges a public teaching’ pattern applied to a different target — role instead of confidence — demonstrating the pattern's flexibility across this vagga's middle discourses.
Key terms
The text
§1At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Kosalans near the brahmin village of Ekasālā. Now, at that time the Buddha was teaching Dhamma, surrounded by a large assembly of laypeople.
§2Then Māra thought, “The ascetic Gotama is teaching Dhamma, surrounded by a large assembly of laypeople. Why don’t I go and pull the wool over their eyes?” Then Māra the Wicked went up to the Buddha and addressed him in verse:
§3“It’s not appropriate for you to instruct others. As you engage in this, don’t get caught up in favoring and opposing.”
§4“The Buddha instructs others out of compassion for their welfare. The Realized One is liberated from favoring and opposing.”
§5Then Māra the Wicked, thinking, “The Buddha knows me! The Holy One knows me!” miserable and sad, vanished right there.
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