The Samyutta Nikaya
The Grouped Discourses
Samyutta Nikaya V.6
Cala Sutta
Sister Cala
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
At Savatthi. Then, early in the
morning, Cala the nun put on her robes and, taking her bowl & outer
robe, went into Savatthi for alms. When she had gone for alms in Savatthi
and had returned from her alms round, after her meal she went to the Grove
of the Blind to spend the day. Having gone deep into the Grove of the
Blind, she sat down at the foot of a tree for the day's abiding.
Then Mara the Evil One, wanting to
arouse fear, horripilation, & terror in her, wanting to make her fall
from solitude, approached her & said, "What is it that you don't
approve of, nun?"
"I don't approve of birth, my friend."
[Mara:]
Why don't you approve of birth?
One who is born
enjoys sensual pleasures.
Who on earth
ever persuaded you:
'Nun, don't approve of birth'?
[Sister Cala:]
For one who is born
there's death.
One who is born
sees pain.
It's a binding, a flogging, a torment.
That's why one shouldn't approve
of birth.
The Awakened One taught me the Dhamma
-- the overcoming of birth --
for the abandoning of all pain,
he established me in
the truth.
But beings who have come to form
& those with a share in the formless,
if they don't discern cessation,
return to becoming-again.
Then Mara the Evil One -- sad & dejected at
realizing, "Cala the nun knows me" -- vanished right there.
Read an alternate translation by
Bhikkhu Bodhi
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