Bhikkhunīsaṁyutta 6

Linked Discourses 5.6

1. Nuns

With Cālā

1 At Sāvatthī.

Then the nun Cālā 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 Cālā and said to her, “Nun, what don’t you approve of?”

“I don’t approve of rebirth, sir.”

2 “Why don’t you approve of rebirth?

When you’re born, you get to enjoy sensual pleasures.

Who put this idea in your head:

‘Nun, don’t approve of rebirth’?”

3 “Death comes to those who are born,

when you’re born you undergo sufferings—

killing, caging, misery—

that’s why you shouldn’t approve of rebirth.

4 The Buddha taught me the Dhamma

for transcending rebirth,

for giving up all suffering;

he settled me in the truth.

5 There are beings in the realm of luminous form,

and others stuck in the formless.

Not understanding cessation,

they return in future lives.”

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