At Sāvatthī, in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's monastery
Speakers
The Buddha and Māra the Wicked
Form
A single threatening claim, met by a single plain denial
Length
Under 1 minute to read
Northern parallel
A rough counterpart may exist in the Chinese Saṃyukta-āgama (T99), though this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — among the shortest discourses in this vagga, its abstraction worth sitting with
Why this discourse
This discourse offers no manifestation, no revealed calculation, no elaborate setting — just Māra's bare claim that a ‘mental snare, wandering in midair’ will bind the Buddha inescapably, and the Buddha's equally bare reply: desire for sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches, however delightful, is simply gone from him. No argument, no simile, just a direct statement of absence answering a direct claim of capture.
Reading guide
An invisible weapon, unlike this vagga's physical or visual threats
Where SN 4.11's boulders and SN 4.2's elephant offered something concrete to picture, this discourse's ‘mental snare wandering in midair’ is deliberately abstract — a threat with no describable shape, location, or mechanism, existing only as a claim.
A threat that names the target as escape itself
‘You won't escape me, ascetic’ makes explicit what several earlier confrontations implied: Māra's real claim across this vagga is one of inescapable reach, here stated as directly and simply as the pattern allows.
The five senses named exhaustively, then dismissed together
The Buddha's reply lists all five sense objects — sights, sounds, tastes, smells, touches — explicitly acknowledging their delightfulness before stating, in a single clause, that desire for all of them together is gone, rather than addressing each individually.
No simile, no elaboration: the shortest possible answer
Unlike SN 4.6's cosmic imagery or SN 4.13's extended meditation on two kinds of dart, this discourse's reply offers nothing beyond the bare claim itself — if a snare requires desire to catch its target, and desire is simply absent, there is nothing further to argue.
A minimalist counterpart to this vagga's most elaborate discourses
Read against SN 4.19's extended, escalating exchange over ownership of the six sense fields, this discourse handles the same underlying territory — the senses as Māra's domain — in the fewest possible words, showing this vagga's range between minimal and maximal treatments of a shared theme.
Key terms
manasikāra — “mental” (literally, attention or mental engagement) — qualifying the snare Māra claims, giving this discourse its title.
pāsa — “snare” — the same image already used at SN 4.4 and SN 4.5, here made explicitly abstract rather than physical.
rūpā saddā rasā gandhā phoṭṭhabbā — “sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches” — the five sense objects named exhaustively in the Buddha's reply.
chando vigato — “desire…is gone” — the reply's central and only claim, stated once, without elaboration.
antaka — “terminator” — the closing epithet shared with several other discourses in this saṃyutta.
The text
The discourse in full: Māra's bare claim and the equally bare reply. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Then Māra the Wicked went up to the Buddha and addressed him in verse:
§2“There’s a mental snare wandering in midair. I’ll bind you with it—you won’t escape me, ascetic!”
§3“Sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches so delightful: desire for these is gone from me. You’re beaten, terminator!”
§4Then Māra the Wicked, thinking, “The Buddha knows me! The Holy One knows me!” miserable and sad, vanished right there.
· · ·
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 10
What does Māra claim in this discourse?
Correct: A. A deliberately abstract threat with no describable shape or mechanism.
Question 2 of 10
How does this threat compare to SN 4.11's boulders or SN 4.2's elephant?
Correct: A. A claim with no location, shape, or mechanism, existing only as an assertion.
Question 3 of 10
What does Māra's line “you won't escape me” make explicit?
Correct: A. Stated as directly and simply as this vagga's pattern allows.
Question 4 of 10
How does the Buddha's reply address the five sense objects?
Correct: A. Acknowledging their delightfulness before stating desire for them is simply gone.
Question 5 of 10
How does this discourse's reply compare in length to SN 4.6's or SN 4.13's?
Correct: A. No cosmic imagery or extended meditation, just a direct statement of absence.
Question 6 of 10
What logic underlies the Buddha's brief answer, according to the reading guide?
Correct: A. The brevity itself reflects the completeness of the claimed absence.
Question 7 of 10
How does this discourse compare to SN 4.19's treatment of similar territory?
Correct: A. Showing this vagga's range between minimal and maximal treatments of a shared theme.
Question 8 of 10
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: A. The same location as several other discourses in this vagga.
Question 9 of 10
What closing epithet does the Buddha use for Māra?
Correct: A. Shared with several other discourses across this saṃyutta.
Question 10 of 10
How does Māra react at the end of this discourse?
Correct: A. The stock reaction established across this saṃyutta's discourses.
