Bhikkhunīsaṁyutta 8

Linked Discourses 5.8

1. Nuns

1 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 approve of?”

“I don’t approve anyone’s creed, sir.”

2 “In whose name did you shave your head?

You look like an ascetic,

but you don’t approve any creed.

Why do you wander as if lost?”

3 “Followers of other creeds

are confident in their views.

But I don’t approve their teaching,

for they’re no experts in the Dhamma.

4 But there is one born in the Sakyan clan,

the unrivaled Buddha,

vanquisher of all, dispeller of Māra,

everywhere undefeated,

5 everywhere freed, and unattached,

the Clear-eyed One sees all.

He has attained the end of all deeds,

freed with the ending of attachments.

That Blessed One is my Teacher,

and I approve his instruction.”

6 Then Māra the Wicked, thinking, “The nun Sīsupacālā knows me!” miserable and sad, vanished right there.