{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/sam/sn5-2.htm","path":"bud/sam/sn5-2.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/sam/sn5-2.htm","text":"Main index\nBuddhism index\nindex\nSamyutta Nikaya V.2\nSoma Sutta\nSister Soma\nFor free distribution only, as a gift of Dhamma\nContext of this sutta\nAt Savatthi. Then, early in the morning, Soma 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 concentration, approached her & addressed her in verse:\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 which is\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 to be attained by seers\n-- the place so very hard to reach -- \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 women\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 can't\n-- with their two-inch discernment -- \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 attain.\nThen the thought occurred to Soma 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 concentration.\"\nThen, having understood that \"This is Mara the Evil One,\" she replied to him in verses:\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 difference\ndoes being a woman make\nwhen the mind's well-centered,\nwhen knowledge is progressing,\nseeing clearly, rightly,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 into the Dhamma.\nAnyone who thinks\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 'I'm a woman'\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 or 'a man'\nor 'Am I anything at all?' -- \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 that's who Mara's\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 fit to address.\nThen Mara the Evil One -- sad & dejected at realizing, \"Soma the nun knows me\" -- vanished right there.\nRevised: Sat 17 October 1998","title":"SN V.2: Soma Sutta","type":"page"}