At one time the Buddha was staying near Vesālī, at the Great Wood, in the hall with the peaked roof. Now at that time the Buddha was educating, encouraging, firing up, and inspiring the mendicants with a Dhamma talk on the topic of the six fields of contact. And those mendicants were paying attention, focusing, concentrating wholeheartedly, and listening well.

Then Māra thought: “This ascetic Gotama is educating, encouraging, firing up, and inspiring the mendicants with a Dhamma talk on the topic of the six fields of contact. And those mendicants are paying attention, focusing, concentrating wholeheartedly, and listening well. Why don’t I go and pull the wool over their eyes?” Then Māra the Wicked went up to the Buddha and made a terrifyingly loud noise close by him. It seemed as if the earth were shattering. Then one of the mendicants said to another: “Mendicant, mendicant, it seems like the earth is shattering!” When this was said, the Buddha said to that mendicant: “Mendicant, that’s not the earth shattering. 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, sounds, tastes, smells,
touches, and thoughts, the lot of them—
this is the dreadful bait
that the world’s stupefied by.

But a mindful disciple of the Buddha
has transcended all that.
Having gone beyond Māra’s domain,
they shine like the sun.”

Then Māra … vanished right there.