-N.1.31618]                     Monks and tree-spirits                                  19

The place was so unpleasant for us that we decided we must leave it.
Therefore we have abandoned it and have returned to you." "Monks,
to that very place you ought to return." "We cannot do so. Reverend
Sir." "Monks, when you went there the first time, you went without
a weapon. Now you must take a weapon with you when you go."
"What kind of weapon. Reverend Sir?"

Said the Teacher, "I will give you a weapon, and the weapon which
I give you you are to take with you when you go." Then he recited
the entire Metta Sutta, beginning as follows, "This must he do who
is skilled to seek his own spiritual good, once he has attained the
Region of Tranquillity: he must be honest and upright and meek and
mild and free from vaingloriousness." Having recited this Sutta, he
said, "Monks, recite this Sutta from the forest-grove, without the
hermitage, and then you may enter within the hermitage." With
these instructions he dismissed them.

They paid obeisance to the Teacher, started out, and in due course
arrived at that forest-grove. Reciting the Sutta in unison without
the hermitage, they entered the forest-grove. Thereupon the spirits
residing throughout the forest-grove conceived friendly feelings in
their hearts for the monks, came forth to meet them, asked the monks
to let them take their bowls and robes, [316] offered to rub their hands
and feet, posted strong guards on all sides, and sat down together with
them. Not a demon's voice was heard. The hearts of those monks
became tranquil. Sitting in their night-quarters and day-quarters
they strove to attain Insight. Fixing in their minds the thought of
the decay and death inherent in their bodies and reflecting upon the
thought, "By reason of its fragile and unstable nature this body is
like a potter's vessel," they developed Spiritual Insight.

The Supremely Enlightened, even as he sat in the Perfumed
Chamber, knowing that those monks had begun to develop Spiritual
Insight, addressed them, "It is even so, monks. This body, by reason
of its fragile and unstable nature, is precisely like a potter's vessel."
So saying, he sent forth a luminous image of himself, and although a
hundred leagues away, appearing to be seated face to face with them,
present in visible form, diffusing six-colored rays of light, pronounced
the following Stanza,

40. Realizing that this body is fragile as a jar, establishing these thoughts as firm as
a city,
One should attack Mara with the weapon of wisdom; one should stand guard over
Mara when he is defeated; one should never rest.