Buddhacarita by Ven Asvaghosa - Ancient Buddhist Texts

Buddha-carita, or Life of Buddha - 168
thinking that the heavens were smitten with a thunderbolt and were
bursting.
53. Deer and elephants uttering cries of pain ran about or lay down, –
in that night as if it were day screaming birds flew around disturbed
in all directions.
54. But amidst all these various sounds which they made, although all
living creatures were shaken, the saint trembled not nor quailed, like
Garuḍa at the noise of crows.
55. The less the saint feared the frightful hosts of that multitude, the
more did Māra, the enemy of the righteous, continue his attacks in
grief and anger.
56. Then some being of invisible shape, but of pre-eminent glory,
standing in the heavens, – beholding Māra thus malevolent against the
seer, – addressed him in a loud voice, unruffled by enmity:
57. ‘Take not on thyself, O Māra, this vain fatigue, – throw aside thy
malevolence and retire to peace; this sage cannot be shaken by thee
any more than the mighty mountain Meru by the wind.
58. ‘Even fire might lose its hot nature, water its fluidity, earth its
steadiness, but never will he abandon his resolution, who has acquired
his merit by a long course of actions through unnumbered aeons.
59. ‘Such is that purpose of his, that heroic effort, that glorious
strength, that compassion for all beings, – until he attains the highest