Māra changes into beautiful and ugly people (SA-2.32)

Thus have I heard, once, the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha on Gijjhakūṭa Mountain. At that time the Buddha was extolling the teaching of Nirvāṇa for the monks. King Māra thought: “The Buddha is staying near Rājagaha extolling the teaching of Nirvāṇa for the monks. I should go and disturb them.” Having thought this, he changed into a hundred people, of whom fifty were extremely beautiful and fifty extremely ugly. At that time the monks were all surprised and astonished. “What is happening now? Such beauty, and again, such ugliness?” The Buddha knew that Māra had come to disturb the gathering. At that time the World-honored One addressed the Bad one:

‘In the long night of saṁsāric birth and rebirth,
you assume all these forms, beautiful and ugly.

How now do you attain deliverance from the shore of suffering?
What is the use of all these shape-changes?

If someone is attached to the characteristics of a man or woman,
you might with benefitchange into these forms.

I, however, do not give significance to the characteristics of a man or woman.
What use is it changing into these shapes?’

When the Buddha had finished, the monks, having listened to what he had said, were happy and practiced accordingly.

Translation by Marcus Bingenheimer, 2005–8 (minor revisions 2009). First version published in Buddhist Studies Review vol. 23.1 (2006). The translations used here were revised by the translator and published in his Studies in Āgama Literature—with Special Reference to the Shorter Chinese Saṁyuktāgama, Dharma Drum Buddhist College, 2010.

Translated from the Taishō text of the CBETA-Database (Version Feb. 2006). All sutta titles added by the translator.

This series of translations were part of the project “A Digital Comparative Edition of the Bieyi za ahan jing” conducted at the Chung-hwa Institute for Buddhist Studies (中華佛學研究所) and the Dharma Drum Buddhist College (法鼓佛教研修學院), funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (蔣經國國際學術交流基金會). The full project, including parallel Chinese, Pali, and Sanskrit texts, is available online here.

Used with kind permission of the translator.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.