Saṃyutta Nikāya
I. Sagatha Vagga
5. Bhikkhuni Saṃyutta
Sutta 6
Cala Sutta
Sister Cala
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Provenance, terms and conditons
Then, early in the morning, Cala the nun put on her robes and, taking her bowl and outer robe, went into Sāvatthi for alms. When she had gone for alms in Sāvatthi 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 Māra the Evil One, wanting to arouse fear, horripilation, and terror in her, wanting to make her fall away from concentration, approached her and said, "What is it that you don't approve of, nun?"
"I don't approve of birth, my friend."
[Māra:]
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
and those with a share in the formless,
if they don't discern cessation,
return to becoming-again.
Then Māra the Evil One — sad and dejected at realizing, "Cala the nun knows me" — vanished right there.
