The Samyutta Nikaya
The Grouped Discourses
Samyutta Nikaya V.10
Vajira Sutta
Vajira
Translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu Bodhi.
Setting at Savatthi. Then, in the morning, the
bhikkhuni Vajira dressed and, taking bowl and robe, entered Savatthi for
alms. When she had walked for alms in Savatthi [135] and had returned from
her alms round, after her meal she went to the Blind Men's Grove for the
day's abiding. Having plunged into the Blind Men's Grove, she sat down at
the foot of a tree for the day's abiding.
Then Mara the Evil One, desiring to arouse fear,
trepidation, and terror in the bhikkhuni Vajira, desiring to make her fall
away from concentration, approached her and addressed her in verse:
"By whom has this being been created?
Where is the maker of the being?
Where has the being arisen?
Where does the being cease?"
Then it occurred to the bhikkhuni Vajira: "Now who
is this that recited the verse -- a human being or a non-human
being?" Then it occurred to her: "This is Mara the Evil One, who
has recited the verse desiring to arouse fear, trepidation, and terror in
me, desiring to make me fall away from concentration."
Then the bhikkhuni Vajira, having understood,
"This is Mara the Evil One," replied to him in verses:
"Why now do you assume 'a being'?
Mara, have you grasped a view?
This is a heap of sheer constructions:
Here no being is found.
Just as, with an assemblage of parts,
The word 'chariot' is used,
So, when the aggregates are present,
There's the convention 'a being.'
It's only suffering that comes to be,
Suffering that stands and falls away.
Nothing but suffering comes to be,
Nothing but suffering ceases."
Then Mara the Evil One, realizing, "The bhikkhuni
Vajira knows me," sad and disappointed, disappeared right there.
Read an alternate translation by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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