8. Sisupacala Sutta Discourse Concerning Bhikkhuni Sisupacala Bhikkhuni Samyutta Sagatha Vagga Samyutta, Samyutta Nikaya, Suttanta Pitaka SOURCE: "FIVE SAMYUTTAS FROM SAGATHAVAGGA SAMYUTTA" Translated by U Tin U (Myaung), Yangon Edited by the Editorial Committee, Burma (Myanmar) Tipitaka Association, 1998

8. Sisupacala Sutta Discourse Concerning Bhikkhuni Sisupacala

169. The Bhagava was staying at Savatthi... During that time Sisupacala the bhikkhuni, on a certain morning, having re-arranged the robes on her person... p... sat at the foot of a tree to spend the day (in meditation). Then Mara the Wicked One came to Bhikkhuni Sisupacala and said to her, "Bhikkhuni, whose view¹ do you approve of?" "Friend, I approve of nobody's view."

(Then Mara said:)

"You have the appearance of a bhikkhuni. In deference to whom do you keep your head shaven? Not approving of any view, why do you conduct yourself like an ignoramus?"

(Bhikkhuni Sisupacala said:)

"The snare-like views exist outside this Teaching (of the Buddha). I do not approve of the doctrine of those who are sunk in views². They are not skilled in (the right) doctrine.

"There is the Enlightened One, who was born into the Sakyan clan, who is peerless, who has mastered all conditioned existence, who has dispelled (all forms of) Mara³ and who is unconquerable by any (adverse forces)⁴.

"He is free of all conditioned existence; he does not cling (with attachment or wrong view); he is endowed with the Eye of Wisdom; and he sees all. He has attained Arahattaphala involving the extinction of all volitional actions; he has oriented his mind towards Nibbana which is the extinction of all substrata of existence. He is the Bhagava my Teacher whose teaching is to my liking." Mara the Wicked One then realized: "Sisupacala the bhikkhuni knows me," and, feeling frustrated and miserable, he vanished thence.

End of the Sisupacala Sutta,

the eighth in this vagga.

---

1. view: This is a contextual rendering of 'pasanda' in the Pali Text. The Commentary explains this term as meaning a snare, in the form of any view, which is cast to entrap the minds of beings. The Teaching of the Buddha enables beings to escape these snares, and so it is not a view.

2. views: Any view (ditthi) is necessarily false, since the Buddha's Teaching is free of any theoretical view.

3. (all forms of) Mara: The term Mara Connotes five evil things: (1) Kilesa Mara, the Evil of Defilements, (2) Abhisankhara Mara, the Evil of Conditioned Existence; (3) Khandha Mara, the Evil of the five Physical and Mental Aggregates; (4) maccu Mara or Marana Mara, the Evil of Death; and (5) Devaputta Mara, the deva Mara was is the personified form of Evil, usually denoted as papima, the Wicked One. It is this deva Mara that is frequently mentioned in the suttas as attempting to oppose, vex and trouble the Buddha.

4. unconquerable by any (adverse forces): by all defilements such as attachment and by the forces of Mara the Wicked One.

(v) Bhikkhuni Samyutta,

Link to Alphabetical List of Suttas

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