{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/pos/pos12.htm","path":"bud/pos/pos12.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/pos/pos12.htm","text":"SHE, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that rebirth, so that in her the root of good (karma) was well planted, and the requisites for emancipation were well stored up, was, in this Buddha-era, reborn at S\u0101vatth\u012b, in a certain clansman's family, and called Uttar\u0101. Come to years of discretion, she heard Pa\u1e6d\u0101c\u0101r\u0101 preach the Norm, became thereby a believer, entered the Order, and became an Arahant. And, reflecting on her attainment, she exulted thus:\nNow this Sister, one day, when under Pa\u1e6d\u0101c\u0101r\u0101 she had established herself in an exercise, went into her own dwelling, and seating herself cross-legged, thought: 'I will not break up this sitting until I have emancipated my heart from all dependence on the \u0100savas.' Thus resolving, she incited her intellectual grasp, and gradually clarifying insight as she progressed along the Paths, she attained Arahantship, together with the power of intuition and thorough grasp of the Norm. Thus contemplating nineteen subjects 289 in succession, with the consciousness that 'Now have I done what herein I had to do,' she uttered in her happiness the verses given above, and stretched her limbs. And when the dawn arose, and night brightened into day, she sought the Ther\u012b's presence, and repeated her verses.\n 287 See Ps. xlvii., xlviii.\n \n 288 Lit., consider the sankh\u0101ras as other, not as self. \n \n 289 Why 'nineteen' I am unable to explain. They may be bodhipakkhiy\u0101 dhamm\u0101\u2013e.g., the satipa\u1e6d\u1e6dh\u0101nas, the bojjhangas, and the Path=nineteen factors.\n \nShe, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in subsequent rebirths, was, in this Buddha-era, reborn in Magadha, at the village of N\u0101laka, 290 the child of Sur\u016bpas\u0101r\u012b, the Brahminee. And on her name-giving day they called her C\u0101l\u0101. 291 Her younger sister was Upac\u0101l\u0101, and the youngest S\u012bs\u016bpac\u0101l\u0101, and all three were junior to their brother S\u0101riputta, Captain of the Norm. Now, when the three heard that their brother had left the world for the Order, they said: 'This can be no ordinary system, nor ordinary renunciation, if one like our brother have followed it!' And full of desire and longing, they too renounced the world, putting aside their weeping kinsfolk and attendants. Thereupon, with striving and endeavour, they attained Arahantship, and abode in the bliss of Nibbana.\nNow, C\u0101l\u0101 Bhikkhun\u012b, after her round and her meal, entered one day the Dark Grove to take siesta. Then M\u0101ra came to stir up sensual desires in her. Is it not told in the Sutta?\nAgain, C\u0101l\u0101 Bhikkhun\u012b, after her round in S\u0101vatthi and her meal, entered one day the Pleasant Grove for siesta. And, going on down into the Dark Grove, she sat down under a tree. Then M\u0101ra came, and, wishing to upset the consistency of her religious life, asked her the questions in her Psalm. When she had expounded to him the virtues of the Master, and the guiding power of the Norm, she showed him how, by her own attained proficiency, he was exceeding his tether. Thereat M\u0101ra, dejected and melancholy, vanished. But she discoursed in exultation on what both of them had said, as follows:\n| Lo here! a Sister who the fivefold sense 292 Of higher life hath trained and, self-possessed, Herself well held in hand, hath made her way Where lies the Holy Path, where dwells the Bliss Of mastery over action, speech and thought. (182) M\u0101ra. Why now and whereto art thou seen thus garbed And shaven like a nun, yet dost not join Ascetics of some sect, and share their rites? What, futile and infatuate, is thy quest? (183) C\u0101l\u0101. 'Tis they that are without, caught in the net 293 Of the vain shibboleths on which they lean\u2013 'Tis they that have no knowledge of the Truth, 'Tis they that lack all competence therein. (184) Lo! in the princely S\u0101kiya clan is born A Buddha, peerless 'mong the sons of men: 'Tis he hath shown the saving Truth to me Which vain opinions doth overpass. (185) Even the What and Why of ILL, and how Ill comes, and how Ill may be overpassed, E'en by the Ariyan, the Eightfold Path, That leadeth to th' abating of all Ill. (186) And I who heard his blessed words abide Fain only and alway to do his will. The Threefold Wisdom have I gotten now, 294 And done the bidding of the Buddha blest. (187) On every hand the love of sense is slain. 295 And the thick gloom of ignorance is rent In twain. Know this, thou Evil One, avaunt! Here, O Destroyer! shalt thou not prevail. (188) | \n 290 Called also N\u0101la-village. S\u0101riputta seems to have continued, at times, to reside there (Sa\u014by. N., iv. 251), and it was there that he died (ibid., v. 161).\n \n 291 These three Sisters are all included in the Bhikkhun\u012b-Sa\u014byutta as having been tempted by M\u0101ra; but there C\u0101l\u0101's reply is put into S\u012bsupac\u0101l\u0101's mouth, Upac\u0101l\u0101's is given to C\u0101l\u0101, and S\u012bsupac\u0101l\u0101's is given to Upac\u0101l\u0101. See Appendix.\n \n 292 The five indriyas, replacing, in the higher life, the importance, in worldly things, of the five senses\u2013viz., faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and insight.\n \n 293 'Sectaries' are termed p\u0101sa\u1e47\u1e0d\u0101. The Commentary connects the word with p\u0101so, snare, net, but by a false etymology. The origin of the term is obscure. 'Without' (ito bahiddh\u0101)\u2013i.e., not of us.\n \n 294 Cf. Ps. xxiv. \n \n 295 Cf. Pss. xxxv., xxxvi.\n \nHer story has been told in the foregoing number. Like C\u0101l\u0101, she, too, as Arahant, exulted, after M\u0101ra had tempted her in vain, as follows:\n 296 Cf. Appendix, where this is spoken to C\u0101l\u0101.\n \n 297 =Ps. xxxv.\n \n 298 Lit., 'cutting (loss) of hand or foot,' referring generally, says the Commentary, to the thirty-two constituents of the body (read k\u0101y\u0101k\u0101r\u0101 for kammakar\u0101).","title":"Psalms of the Sisters: Canto VII. Psalms of Seven Verses","type":"page"}