Is this the same nun in these sutta references?
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From sutta SA 2.218:
> The renunciant Gotama is staying at Sāvatthī at the Jeta Grove in the
> Anāthapiṇḍika Park. And there is the **nun Selā** who took her robes and
> her begging bowl and entered Sāvatthī to beg for food. Having finished
> her meal, she cleaned her bowl, gathered her seat and has gone to the
> Andhavana forest. I shall disturb her!” Having thought this he changed
> into a young man, approached her and spoke a verse:
>
> “Who is it that created beings,
> by whom were they made?
> Why are they called beings,
> from where do they arise?”
>
> That time the **nun Selā**, having heard the verse thought: “Who is this?
> What a cheat! Is he a human or a non-human being?” She entered
> concentration and recognized he was King Māra. She answered with a
> verse:
>
> “Māra, you have a wrong view of ‘beings’,
> saying and believing they actually exist as substantial entities.
> Conventional, empty they are but compounded entities
> there are in fact no ‘beings.’
> Like when causes and various conditions
> converge and yield the use of a ‘chariot’.
>
From sutta SN 5.10:
> Then Māra the Wicked, wanting to make the **nun Vajirā** feel fear,
> terror, and goosebumps, wanting to make her fall away from immersion,
> went up to her and addressed her in verse:
>
> “Who created this sentient being?
> Where is its maker?
> Where has the being arisen?
> And where does it cease?”
>
> Then the nun **Vajirā** thought, “Who’s speaking this verse, a human or a
> non-human?”
>
> Then she thought, “This is Māra the Wicked, wanting to make me feel
> fear, terror, and goosebumps, wanting to make me fall away from
> immersion!”
>
> Then **Vajirā**, knowing that this was Māra the Wicked, replied to him in
> verse:
>
> “Why do you believe there’s such a thing as a ‘sentient being’?
> Māra, is this your theory?
> This is just a pile of conditions,
> you won’t find a sentient being here.
>
> When the parts are assembled
> we use the word ‘chariot’.
> So too, when the aggregates are present
> ‘sentient being’ is the convention we use.
And from Mil 3.1.1:
> Very good! Your Majesty has rightly grasped the meaning of “chariot.”
> And just even so it is on account of all those things you questioned
> me about— The thirty-two kinds of organic matter in a human body, and
> the five constituent elements of being—that I come under the generally
> understood term, the designation in common use, of “Nāgasena.” For it
> was said, Sire, by our **Sister Vajirā** in the presence of the Blessed
> One:
>
> “Just as it is by the condition precedent
> Of the co-existence of its various parts
> That the word ‘chariot’ is used,
> Just so is it that when the Skandhas
> Are there we talk of a ‘being.’”
>
> Most wonderful, Nāgasena, and most strange. Well has the puzzle put
> to you, most difficult though it was, been solved. Were the Buddha
> himself here he would approve your answer. Well done, well done,
> Nāgasena!
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Are these verses about the same nun? Is there anything more known about her?
Asked by user13375
May 6, 2021, 12:25 AM
Last activity: May 8, 2021, 08:49 AM
Last activity: May 8, 2021, 08:49 AM