sn.5.8 Saṁyutta Nikāya (Linked Discourses)

Sisupacala

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 an ascetic,
Yet you don’t approve of any creed,
So why wander as if bewildered?”

The bhikkhuni Sisupacala:

“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.

“But there’s one born in 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.

“Attained to the end of all kamma,
Liberated 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.

- Translator: Bhikkhu Bodhi

- Editor: Blake Walsh

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With Sīsupacālā

At Sāvatthī.
Then the nun Sīsupacālā robed up in the morning …
and sat at the root of a tree for the day’s meditation.
Then Māra the Wicked went up to Sīsupacālā and said to her,
“Nun, whose creed do you believe in?”
“I don’t believe in anyone’s creed, sir.”
“In whose name did you shave your head?
You look like an ascetic,
but you don’t believe in any creed.
Why do you live as if lost?”
“Followers of other creeds
are confident in their views.
But I don’t believe in their teaching,
for they’re no experts in the Dhamma.
But there is one born in the Sakyan clan,
the unrivaled Buddha,
champion, dispeller of Māra,
everywhere undefeated,
everywhere freed, and unattached,
the all-seeing seer.
He has attained the end of all deeds,
freed with the ending of attachments.
That Blessed One is my Teacher,
and I believe in his instruction.”
Then Māra the Wicked, thinking, “The nun Sīsupacālā knows me!” miserable and sad, vanished right there.