The Samyutta Nikaya
The Grouped Discourses
Samyutta Nikaya V.10
Vajira Sutta
Sister Vajira
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Translator's note: This discourse dramatizes a
problem that often arises in meditation practice -- a speculative question
arises that, if followed, pulls one out of concentration. Sister Vajira
shows how to deal with the situation: recognize that the terms in which
the question is expressed are just that -- terms -- and that whatever
reality there is in the issue raised by the question can be reduced to
phenomena observable in the immediate present. In ultimate terms, this
comes down to the arising and passing away of stress, which should be
observed and comprehended to the point where one can see through to that
which neither arises nor passes away.
At Savatthi. Then, early in the
morning, Vajira 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
away from concentration, approached her & addressed her in verse:
By whom was this living being
created?
Where is the living being's maker?
Where has the living being originated?
Where does the living being
cease?
Then the thought occurred to Vajira the nun: "Now
who has recited this verse -- a human being or a non-human one?" Then
it occurred to her: "This is Mara the Evil One, who has recited this
verse wanting to arouse fear, horripilation, & terror in me, wanting
to make me fall away from concentration."
Then, having understood that "This is Mara the
Evil One," she replied to him in verses:
What? Do you assume a 'living being,' Mara?
Do you take a position?
This is purely a pile of fabrications.
Here no living being
can be pinned down.
Just as when, with an assemblage of parts,
there's the word,
chariot,
even so when aggregates are present,
there's the convention of
living being.
For only stress is what comes
to be;
stress, what remains & falls away.
Nothing but stress comes to be.
Nothing ceases but stress.
Then Mara the Evil One -- sad & dejected at
realizing, "Vajira the nun knows me" -- vanished right there.
Read an alternate translation by
Bhikkhu Bodhi
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