{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/sam/sn5-9.htm","path":"bud/sam/sn5-9.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/sam/sn5-9.htm","text":"Main index\nBuddhism index\nindex\nSamyutta Nikaya V.9\nSela Sutta\nSister Sela\nFor free distribution only, as a gift of Dhamma\nContext of this sutta\nAt Savatthi. Then, early in the morning, Sela 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:\nBy whom \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 was this doll created?\nWhere \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 is the doll's maker?\nWhere \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 has the doll originated?\nWhere \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 does it cease?\nThen the thought occurred to Sela 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:\nThis doll isn't self-made,\nnor is this misery made by another.[1]\nIn dependence on a cause\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 it comes into play.\nWith the dissolution of the cause\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 it ceases.\nJust as a seed grows\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 -- when planted in a field -- \nbecause of the soil's savor\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 together with moisture;\nin the same way, these\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 aggregates,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 properties,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 sense media\n-- in dependence on a cause -- \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 come into play.\nWith the dissolution of the cause\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 they cease.\nThen Mara the Evil One -- sad & dejected at realizing, \"Sela the nun knows me\" -- vanished right there.\nNote\n1. Alternative reading:\nThis doll, this misery,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 isn't created.\n[Go back]\nRevised: Sat 17 October 1998","title":"SN V.9: Sela Sutta","type":"page"}