Sisupacala Sutta

Sisupacala

Translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu Bodhi

For free distribution only,
by arrangement with the Buddhist Publication Society

From Discourses of the Ancient Nuns (BL 143), translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu Bodhi (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1997).

Setting at Savatthi. Then, in the morning, the bhikkhuni Sisupacala dressed ... she sat down at the foot of a tree for the day's abiding.

Then Mara the Evil One approached the bhikkhuni Sisupacala and said to her: "Whose creed do you approve of, bhikkhuni?"

"I don't approve of anyone's creed, friend."

"Under whom have you shaved your head?
You do appear to be a recluse,
Yet you don't approve of any creed,
So why wander as if bewildered?"

"Outside here the followers of creeds
Place their confidence in views.
I don't approve of their teachings;
They are not skilled in the Dhamma. [134]
But there is a scion of the Sakyan clan,
The Enlightened One, without an equal,
Conqueror of all, Mara's subduer,
Who everywhere is undefeated.
Everywhere freed and unattached,
The One with Vision who sees all,
Who attained the end of all kamma,
Released in the extinction of acquisitions:
That Blessed One is my Teacher;
His is the teaching I approve."

Then Mara the Evil One, realizing, "The bhikkhuni Sisupacala knows me," sad and disappointed, disappeared right there.

Revised: 10 November 1999

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/sn5-8b.html