{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/sam/sn5-1.htm","path":"bud/sam/sn5-1.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/sam/sn5-1.htm","text":"Main index\nBuddhism index\nindex\nSamyutta Nikaya V.1\nAvalika Sutta\nSister Avalika\nFor free distribution only, as a gift of Dhamma\nContext of this sutta\nAt Savatthi. Then, early in the morning, Avalika the nun put on her robes and, taking her bowl & outer robe, went into Savatthi for alms. When she had gone for alms in Savatthi 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.\nThen Mara the Evil One, wanting to arouse fear, horripilation, & terror in her, wanting to make her fall away from solitude, approached her & addressed her in verse:\nThere's no\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 escape\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in the world,\nso what are you trying to do\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with solitude?\nEnjoy sensual delights.\nDon't be someone\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 who later regrets.\nThen the thought occurred to Avalika the nun: \"Now who has recited this verse -- a human being or a non-human one?\" Then it occurred to her: \"This is Mara the Evil One, who has recited this verse wanting to arouse fear, horripilation, & terror in me, wanting to make me fall away from solitude.\"\nThen, having understood that \"This is Mara the Evil One,\" she replied to him in verses:\nThere is\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 an escape in the world,\nwell touched by me\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with discernment -- \nsomething that you,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 you Evil One,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 kinsman of the heedless,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 don't know.\nSensual pleasures\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 are like swords & spears;\nthe aggregates,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 their executioner's block.\nWhat you call sensual delight\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 is no delight for me.\nThen Mara the Evil One -- sad & dejected at realizing, \"Avalika the nun knows me\" -- vanished right there.\nRevised: Sat 17 October 1998","title":"SN V.1: Avalika Sutta","type":"page"}