When the middle watch of the night had passed, Ānanda once again requested that the Buddha exchange greetings with the visiting mendicants. But the Buddha again remained silent and unmoving.

Ānanda repeated himself for a third time, when the third and final watch of the night had passed. Dawn was breaking, and the beauty of the night was a joy to behold.

At that moment, the Buddha finally emerged from his imperturbable absorption and replied thus to Ānanda:

• If you could understand, Ānanda, what has been happening, those thoughts would not have occurred to you; you wouldn’t have bothered me.
• I and these five hundred mendicants, all of us here, have been seated all night in an absorption of imperturbable stillness.

Fully understanding the matter, the Buddha then uttered this inspired utterance on that occasion:

• The one who
•      has conquered
• The thorn
•      of sensual pleasure,
• Along with abuse,
•      violence,
•      and bondage,
• That one is as still
•      and immovable
•      as a mountain,
• Amid pleasure
•      and pain,
• That mendicant
•      does not flinch.