Cala

At Savatthi. Then, in the morning, the bhikkhuni Cala dressed … she sat down at the foot of a tree for the day’s abiding.

Then Mara the Evil One approached the bhikkhuni Cala and said to her: “What don’t you approve of, bhikkhuni?”

“I don’t approve of birth, friend.”

“Why don’t you approve of birth?
Once born, one enjoys sensual pleasures.
Who now has persuaded you of this:
‘Bhikkhuni, don’t approve of birth’?”

The bhikkhuni Cala:

“For one who is born there is death;
Once born, one encounters sufferings—
Bondage, murder, affliction—
Hence one shouldn’t approve of birth.

“The Buddha has taught the Dhamma,
The transcendence of birth;
For the abandoning of all suffering
He has settled me in the truth.

“As to those beings who fare amidst form,
And those who abide in the formless—
Not having understood cessation,
They come again to renewed existence.”

Then Mara the Evil One, realizing, “The bhikkhuni Cala knows me,” sad and disappointed, disappeared right there.