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SN 5.2PTS (1st ed) SN 1.1291 min read

With Somā

Somāsutta

When meditating in the Dark Wood, the nun Somā is taunted by Māra, who claims that a mere woman can never see the subtle truth. She rejects him, stating that gender does not matter when one is perceiving deep truths, and telling Māra to go see those still attached to gender.

Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral

  • 0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 5.2Linked Discourses 5.2
  • 0.21. Bhikkhunīvagga1. Nuns

0.3SomāsuttaWith Somā

1.1Sāvatthinidānaṁ.At Sāvatthī.

1.2Atha kho somā bhikkhunī pubbaṇhasamayaṁ nivāsetvā pattacīvaramādāya sāvatthiṁ piṇḍāya pāvisi.Then the nun Somā robed up in the morning and, taking her bowl and robe, entered Sāvatthī for alms.11.3Sāvatthiyaṁ piṇḍāya caritvā pacchābhattaṁ piṇḍapātapaṭikkantā yena andhavanaṁ tenupasaṅkami divāvihārāya.She wandered for alms in Sāvatthī. After the meal, on her return from almsround, she went to the Dark Forest for the day’s meditation,1.4Andhavanaṁ ajjhogāhetvā aññatarasmiṁ rukkhamūle divāvihāraṁ nisīdi.plunged deep into it, and sat at the root of a tree to meditate.

1.5Atha kho māro pāpimā somāya bhikkhuniyā bhayaṁ chambhitattaṁ lomahaṁsaṁ uppādetukāmo samādhimhā cāvetukāmo yena somā bhikkhunī tenupasaṅkami; upasaṅkamitvā somaṁ bhikkhuniṁ gāthāya ajjhabhāsi:Then Māra the Wicked, wanting to make the nun Somā feel fear, terror, and goosebumps, wanting to make her fall away from immersion, went up to her and addressed her in verse:

2.1“Yaṁ taṁ isīhi pattabbaṁ,“That state’s very challenging;2.2ṭhānaṁ durabhisambhavaṁ;it’s for the sages to attain.2.3Na taṁ dvaṅgulapaññāya,With her two-inch wisdom,22.4sakkā pappotumitthiyā”ti.it’s not possible for a woman.”3

3.1Atha kho somāya bhikkhuniyā etadahosi:Then the nun Somā thought,3.2“ko nu khvāyaṁ manusso vā amanusso vā gāthaṁ bhāsatī”ti?“Who’s speaking this verse, a human or a non-human?”

3.3Atha kho somāya bhikkhuniyā etadahosi:Then she thought,3.4“māro kho ayaṁ pāpimā mama bhayaṁ chambhitattaṁ lomahaṁsaṁ uppādetukāmo samādhimhā cāvetukāmo gāthaṁ bhāsatī”ti.“This is Māra the Wicked, wanting to make me feel fear, terror, and goosebumps, wanting to make me fall away from immersion!”

3.5Atha kho somā bhikkhunī “māro ayaṁ pāpimā” iti viditvā māraṁ pāpimantaṁ gāthāhi paccabhāsi:Then Somā, knowing that this was Māra the Wicked, replied to him in verse:

4.1“Itthibhāvo kiṁ kayirā,“What difference does womanhood make4.2cittamhi susamāhite;when the mind is serene,4.3Ñāṇamhi vattamānamhi,and knowledge is present4.4sammā dhammaṁ vipassato.as you rightly discern the Dhamma.4

5.1Yassa nūna siyā evaṁ,Surely someone who might think:55.2Itthāhaṁ purisoti vā;‘I am woman’, or ‘I am man’,5.3Kiñci vā pana aññasmi,or ‘I am’ anything at all,65.4Taṁ māro vattumarahatī”ti.is fit for Māra to address.”

6.1Atha kho māro pāpimā “jānāti maṁ somā bhikkhunī”ti dukkhī dummano tatthevantaradhāyīti.Then Māra the Wicked, thinking, “The nun Somā knows me!” miserable and sad, vanished right there.

Translator’s notes

  1. For Pasenadi’s wife of the same name, see MN 90:3.1 and note.

    ↩ sn5.2:1.2

  2. “Two-inch wisdom” (dvaṅgulapaññā) is literally “two finger(-breadth’s) wisdom”. It is explained by the commentary as limited wisdom; or because women hold thread between two fingers. The subcommentary and the commentary to the Therīgāthā say it is because women test whether rice is cooked by pressing a grain between two fingers. Normally, aṅgula with a number is a unit of length equal to the width of the middle finger. For example, the time past noon is measured when the sun’s shadow moves two inches (Kd 22:1.10.16), which is the same distance the shadow moves each month (Arthaśāstra 2.20.42). Thus the first commentarial explanation is the most plausible: “two-inch wisdom” means “limited wisdom”.

    ↩ sn5.2:2.3

  3. It is Māra, not the Buddha, who doubts women’s capacity. It is interesting to see who adopts Māra’s view. In Mahāvastu 3.391, a brahmin ascetic urges a female competitor to throw a debating match with him, lest people say that he was beaten by “a mere woman’s two-inch wisdom”. In Vv 18:8.4, a former serving woman celebrates how she as a woman attained the Dhamma, but the commentary says this was “despite her two-inch thick intelligence”. In the late literary text Bṛhatkathāślokasaṁgraha the idiom is employed by a woman to dismiss women’s wit (22.35)—as so often, a woman makes the best misogynist—or by a man who muses that perhaps men like him are the real fools since they allow women to entice them (22.302–3).

    ↩ sn5.2:2.4

  4. Gender categories apply in a limited sense to the realm of bodily conduct, but are entirely irrelevant when it comes to meditative immersion and wisdom.

    ↩ sn5.2:4.4

  5. Somā’s verses at Thig 3.8 lack this verse.

    ↩ sn5.2:5.1

  6. Read asmīti. Somā rejects not just the limited categories of binary gender, but any form of self-identification.

    ↩ sn5.2:5.3