{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/sam/sn5-5.htm","path":"bud/sam/sn5-5.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/sam/sn5-5.htm","text":"Main index\nBuddhism index\nindex\nSamyutta Nikaya V.5\nUppalavanna Sutta\nSister Uppalavanna\nFor free distribution only, as a gift of Dhamma\nContext of this sutta\nAt Savatthi. Then, early in the morning, Uppalavanna 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:\nYou've come, nun,\nto this sal-tree\nwith its fine flowering crest,\nand stand alone\nat its root,\nwith no one\nto match you in beauty.\nIn your foolishness,\naren't you afraid\nof rape?\nThen the thought occurred to Uppalavanna 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:\nIf even a hundred-thousand rapists\ncame across me like this,\nI wouldn't stir a hair.\nI'd feel no terror,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and I'm not afraid of you, Mara,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 even alone like this.\nHere -- I disappear.\nI slip into your belly\nor stand between your eyebrows,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and you\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 don't see me.\nI have mastery\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 over the mind,\nhave well-developed\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the bases of power.\nI'm released from all bonds,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and not afraid of you,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 my friend.\nThen Mara the Evil One -- sad & dejected at realizing, \"Uppalavanna the nun knows me\" -- vanished right there.\nRevised: Sat 17 October 1998","title":"SN V.5: Uppalavanna Sutta","type":"page"}