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Khema
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Khema (Pali: Khemā; Sanskrit: Kṣemā) was a Buddhist bhikkhuni, or nun, who was one of the top female disciples of the Buddha.[3][4] She is considered the first of the Buddha's two chief female disciples, along with Uppalavanna.[5][6] Khema was born into the royal family of the ancient Kingdom of Madra, and was the wife of King Bimbisara of the ancient Indian kingdom of Magadha. Khema was convinced to visit the Buddha by her husband, who hired poets to sing about the beauty of the monastery he was staying at to her. She attained enlightenment as a laywoman while listening to one of the Buddha's sermons, considered a rare feat in Buddhist texts. Following her attainment, Khema entered the monastic life under the Buddha as a bhikkhuni. According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha declared her his female disciple foremost in wisdom. Her male counterpart was Sariputta.
Background
[edit]In Buddhist belief, when a fully enlightened Buddha appears in the world, he always has a set of chief disciples.[7] For the current Buddha, Gautama, his chief male disciples were Sariputta and Moggallana, while his chief female disciples were Khema and Uppalavanna.[8]
According to Theravada commentaries, in a previous life Khema was born a woman in the time of Padumattara Buddha and encountered Padumattara Buddha's chief male disciple foremost in wisdom. The woman then makes an offering to the monk and makes a resolution to have wisdom like his under a future Buddha. Ānandajoti Bhikkhu notes that this commentary story stands out compared to stories of other nuns because she makes the wish after seeing a chief male disciple rather than a chief female disciple. However, in the Apadāna texts the woman is described as having made the resolution after seeing Padumattara Buddha appoint a nun his chief female disciple. This wish came true in the time of Gautama Buddha, when she was reborn as Khema.[9]
Biography
[edit]Early life and marriage
[edit]According to Buddhist tradition, Khema was born in the city of Sagala as the daughter of the king of the Madra Kingdom, located in modern day Sialkot in Punjab, Pakistan.[10][11][12][13] Her name means "security" and is sometimes used as a synonym for Nirvana.[14] Khema was described as being immensely beautiful and having a radiant golden complexion.[15][9] When she came of age she married King Bimbisara of the kingdom of Magadha and became one of his chief royal consorts.[14]
Meeting the Buddha
[edit]As a chief consort of the king, Khema developed a strong attachment to her beauty and became very vain. As a devout Buddhist himself, King Bimbisara tried multiple times to get his wife to visit the Buddha but Khema always refused. Khema had a strong attachment to her looks and knew the Buddha found fault with physical beauty. Knowing Khema loved beautiful things, King Bimbisara hired poets to recite poems in front of Khema describing the beauty of the monastery the Buddha was staying at in order to entice her to visit.[16][14][9] Hearing about the beauty of the monastery, Khema became curious and went to visit the monastery.[16] In order to ensure that Khema encounter the Buddha, King Bimbisara ordered the guards accompanying her to guide the Queen to the Buddha.[9]
As Khema toured the monastery and approached the main hall the Buddha was staying in, the Buddha read her mind and used psychic powers to conjure up an image of a woman even more beautiful than her to appear fanning him.[9][14] Stunned by the beautiful woman, Khema thought she was mistaken about the Buddha disparaging beauty.[14] As Khema fixated on the image of the beautiful woman, the Buddha aged the image before her eyes, from youth, middle age, old age and then death. Seeing the image of the beautiful woman age and die, Khema realized she too must share the same fate.[17][9] The Buddha then preached to her about the impermanence of beauty until she attained stream-entry, a level of enlightenment. The Buddha then continued to preach to her about the problems of attachment to worldly desires until she attained arahantship.[14] Following the attainment she joined the Buddha's monastic community and became a bhikkhuni.[16][14][note 1] Buddhist writer Susan Murcott notes that the story of Khema's enlightenment is a rare case of a laywoman attaining enlightenment before becoming a monastic.[19]
Chief disciple
[edit]After going forth as a bhikkhuni, Buddhist texts state that Khema became known for her wisdom.[20] In the Khema Sutta, she famously preached to King Pasenadi on the issue of the existence of the Buddha after death, explaining that the Buddha is unfathomable and that defining him as existing or not existing after death is impossible. King Pasenadi later asks the same questions to the Buddha himself who, to the king's amazement, answers the same way Khema did.[14] Khema taught her friend Vijayā, leading her to become a nun as well, after which she soon became an arahant.[21][22] At one point after her ordination, Mara attempted to guide Khema away from the monastic life. Mara takes the form of a young man and attempts to seduce her, but in a drastic shift from her previous conceit, Khema describes her disgust for the human body and explains that she has moved beyond any attachment to the senses.[14][19] She is also associated with several figures in a variety of jataka tales and stories set in the time of the previous Buddhas, where her previous existences are often shown as being kind and wise.[12][23] In one jataka tale, she is even the wife of the bodhisattva who would become Gautama Buddha, a role in the jataka tales that is rare for figures other than Yasodhara.[23]
The Buddha designated Khema the female disciple foremost in wisdom (Pali: etadaggaṁ mahāpaññānaṁ).[24] The Buddha also praised her for her teaching and leadership skills, declaring Khema and Uppalavanna his chief female disciples that other nuns should take as their model. Uppalavanna and Khema share the title of chief disciples with their male counterparts, Maha Moggallana and Sariputta.[14]
Legacy
[edit]Khema is regarded as an accomplished disciple of the Buddha, holding the same position among the nuns as Sariputta did among the monks.[25] Supakwadee Amatayakul notes that Khema is mentioned in the Anguttara Nikaya as one of the thirteen female disciples of the Buddha and in the Therigatha as one of the seventy three bhikkhunis, each to whom a set of verses is dedicated.[20] Sanskrit and Pali scholar Gisela Krey notes that Khema spiritually surpassed her husband, King Bimbisara, who got no farther than stream-entry.[26] According to German Pali scholar Hellmuth Hecker, Khema's unusually fast attainment of arahantship was no accident, but was something she earned from the great merit that she accumulated over numerous lifetimes, as described in the jatakas.[14] Anthropologist Ranjini Obeyesekere notes that of the Buddha's two pairs of chief disciples, each pair had one disciple that was dark-skinned (Maha Moggallana and Uppalavanna) and one disciple that was light-skinned (Sariputta and Khema). Obeyesekere argues that this pairing is meant to symbolize the inclusiveness of the Buddha's teachings, that the Dhamma is meant for people of all colors and classes.[27]
Murcott argues that Khema's exchange with a powerful king such as King Pasenadi in the Khema Sutta shows how well respected she was, given that society at the time did not even allow female nuns to teach male monks.[19] Krey makes a similar argument, stating that of the scenarios involving women in Buddhist texts, the scenario where a woman is teaching a man is the most rare.[28] In the Khema Sutta, King Pasenadi's servant talks about reports spreading of Khema's great wisdom and King Pasenadi himself acknowledges Khema's superiority to him by paying respect to her.[29] Krey argues that Khema's mastery of the Dhamma as shown in teaching the Khema Sutta, as well as the acknowledgment of her wisdom by contemporary figures, provides evidence that women could reach the same level of spiritual development as men.[30]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Thakur, Amarnath (1996). Buddha and Buddhist Synods in India and Abroad. Abhinav Publications. p. 81. ISBN 978-81-7017-317-5.
- ^ Buswell, Robert E. Jr.; Lopez, Donald S. Jr. (24 November 2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. p. 447. ISBN 978-0-691-15786-3.
- ^ Nyanaponika; Hecker, Hellmuth (30 January 2012). Great Disciples of the Buddha: Their Lives, Their Works, Their Legacy. Simon and Schuster. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-86171-864-1.
- ^ Thera, Ven Narada (10 June 2017). Buddha and His Teachings, The. Pariyatti. p. 275. ISBN 978-1-68172-060-9.
- ^ Emmanuel, Steven M. (22 January 2013). A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy. John Wiley & Sons. p. 458. ISBN 978-1-118-32388-5.
- ^ Asaṅga (2002). On Knowing Reality: The Tattvārtha Chapter of Asaṅga's Bodhisattvabhūmi. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. p. 64. ISBN 978-81-208-1106-5.
- ^ A companion to Buddhist philosophy (PDF). Emmanuel, Steven M. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom. 22 January 2013. p. 455. ISBN 978-1-118-32391-5. OCLC 809845201. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 August 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ Mahathera, Naranda (1998). The Buddha and His Teachings (PDF). Taiwan: Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc. p. 235. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 August 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f Ānandajoti, Bhante (2017). The Stories About the Foremost Elder Nuns (PDF). Singapore. pp. 23–33. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 September 2019. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Thakur, Amarnath (1996). Buddha and Buddhist Synods in India and Abroad. Abhinav Publications. p. 81. ISBN 978-81-7017-317-5.
- ^ Jr, Robert E. Buswell; Jr, Donald S. Lopez (24 November 2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. p. 447. ISBN 978-0-691-15786-3.
- ^ a b "Dictionary of Pali Proper Names". Archived from the original on 25 February 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ Krey, Gisela (4 September 2010). "On Women as Teachers in Early Buddhism: Dhammadinnā and Khemā". Buddhist Studies Review. 27 (1): 21. doi:10.1558/bsrv.v27i1.17. ISSN 0265-2897. Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Nyanaponika; Hecker, Hellmuth (30 January 2012). Great Disciples of the Buddha: Their Lives, Their Works, Their Legacy. Simon and Schuster. pp. 263–269. ISBN 978-0-86171-864-1. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 September 2017. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ Dharmasēna; Obeyesekere, Ranjini (2001). Portraits of Buddhist women: stories from the Saddharmaratnāvaliya. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 202. ISBN 978-0-7914-5111-3. OCLC 46937658.
- ^ a b c d Bansal, Sunita Pant (2006). On the Footsteps of Buddha. Smriti Books. p. 342. ISBN 9788187967736. Archived from the original on 18 March 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ Kapur-Fic, Alexandra R. (1998). Thailand: Buddhism, Society, and Women. Abhinav Publications. p. 342. ISBN 9788170173601. Archived from the original on 18 March 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ Walters, Jonathan. "Thi ap.18". SuttaCentral. Archived from the original on 18 July 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ^ a b c Murcott, Susan (14 February 2006). First Buddhist Women: Poems and Stories of Awakening. Parallax Press. pp. 78–80. ISBN 978-1-888375-54-1. Archived from the original on 6 May 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
- ^ a b Amatayakul, Supakwadee (2023), Waithe, Mary Ellen; Boos Dykeman, Therese (eds.), "Khema of Great Wisdom from India खेमा Circa 563 BCE–483 BCE", Women Philosophers from Non-western Traditions: The First Four Thousand Years, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 103–114, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-28563-9_6, ISBN 978-3-031-28563-9, retrieved 1 November 2025
- ^ "Vijayā Therī". www.palikanon.com. Archived from the original on 25 January 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ^ Krey, Gisela (4 September 2010). "On Women as Teachers in Early Buddhism: Dhammadinnā and Khemā". Buddhist Studies Review. 27 (1): 20, footnote 12. doi:10.1558/bsrv.v27i1.17. ISSN 0265-2897. Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ^ a b Emmanuel, Steven M. (23 November 2015). A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy. John Wiley & Sons. p. 458. ISBN 978-1-119-14466-3. Archived from the original on 23 March 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
- ^ Nyanaponika; Hecker, Hellmuth (30 January 2012). Great Disciples of the Buddha: Their Lives, Their Works, Their Legacy (PDF). Simon and Schuster. p. 381. ISBN 978-0-86171-864-1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
- ^ Krey, Gisela (4 September 2010). "On Women as Teachers in Early Buddhism: Dhammadinnā and Khemā". Buddhist Studies Review. 27 (1): 19. doi:10.1558/bsrv.v27i1.17. ISSN 0265-2897. Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ^ Krey, Gisela (4 September 2010). "On Women as Teachers in Early Buddhism: Dhammadinnā and Khemā". Buddhist Studies Review. 27 (1): 17–40. doi:10.1558/bsrv.v27i1.17. ISSN 0265-2897. Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ^ Dharmasēna, Thera, active 13th century. (2001). Portraits of Buddhist women : stories from the Saddharmaratnāvaliya. Obeyesekere, Ranjini. Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. 109–110. ISBN 0-7914-5111-9. OCLC 46937658.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Krey, Gisela (4 September 2010). "On Women as Teachers in Early Buddhism: Dhammadinnā and Khemā". Buddhist Studies Review. 27 (1): 24. doi:10.1558/bsrv.v27i1.17. ISSN 0265-2897. Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ^ Krey, Gisela (4 September 2010). "On Women as Teachers in Early Buddhism: Dhammadinnā and Khemā". Buddhist Studies Review. 27 (1): 24–25, 29. doi:10.1558/bsrv.v27i1.17. ISSN 0265-2897. Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ^ Krey, Gisela (4 September 2010). "On Women as Teachers in Early Buddhism: Dhammadinnā and Khemā". Buddhist Studies Review. 27 (1): 37–38. doi:10.1558/bsrv.v27i1.17. ISSN 0265-2897. Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
External links
[edit]- Khema Sutta – The exchange between Khema and King Pasenadi on the subject of the existence of a Buddha after death.
Khema
View on GrokipediaEarly Life
Birth and Origins
Khema was born in the 6th century BCE in the city of Sagala, the capital of the ancient Madra Kingdom located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent.[2] This city, now identified with modern-day Sialkot in Pakistan's Punjab province, served as a prosperous urban center during the period of the Mahajanapadas, the sixteen great kingdoms of ancient India.[4] As a daughter of the Madra king, Khema was raised in a royal household that emphasized luxury and refinement, which contributed to her renowned beauty and a sense of vanity that would later play a role in her spiritual journey.[2] Her name, meaning "security" or "well-being" in Pali, reflected the auspicious circumstances of her noble birth.[3] The Madra Kingdom, one of the prominent Mahajanapadas, occupied a strategic position along trade routes in the Punjab region, fostering economic prosperity through agriculture, commerce, and interactions with neighboring realms.[5] Ruled by a monarchical lineage, it maintained diplomatic ties with eastern powers, including the rising kingdom of Magadha, through matrimonial alliances that helped stabilize regional politics amid the competitive landscape of the era.[6] Khema's upbringing in this environment of wealth and privilege highlighted the cultural values of the time, where physical beauty was highly prized among the aristocracy, shaping her early worldview before her eventual path to renunciation. This royal background positioned Khema for a significant alliance when she married King Bimbisara of Magadha, linking the western Madra Kingdom more closely with the expanding eastern power.[6]Marriage and Life as Queen
Khema, born into the royal family of the ancient Kingdom of Madra in northwestern India, was married to King Bimbisāra of Magadha as part of a political alliance designed to secure relations between the two kingdoms and bolster Magadha's influence in the western regions.[6][1] This union, typical of ancient Indian royal diplomacy, elevated her status to that of chief consort upon her arrival in Rājagaha, the capital of Magadha (modern-day Rajgir), where she resided in the opulent royal palace.[2][7] As queen, Khema enjoyed a life of unparalleled luxury and indulgence, surrounded by attendants and adorned in fine silks and sandalwood perfumes, which underscored her exceptional beauty—often described as radiant with a golden hue from her previous good karma.[2][1] This attachment to impermanent beauty reflected her immersion in worldly pleasures, delaying any inclination toward ascetic teachings.[2]Path to Enlightenment
Initial Encounter with the Buddha
Khema, renowned for her exceptional beauty as one of King Bimbisāra's chief queens in the kingdom of Magadha, initially resisted encountering the Buddha due to her attachment to sensual pleasures and vanity regarding her appearance.[2] To overcome this reluctance, King Bimbisāra, a devoted supporter of the Buddha, devised a plan to draw her to the Veḷuvana (Bamboo Grove) monastery near Rājagaha, where the Buddha was residing.[1] He commissioned poets to compose and sing verses extolling the serene beauty and tranquility of the Bamboo Grove within Khema's hearing, piquing her interest in the site without mentioning the Buddha directly.[2] Intrigued by these descriptions, Khema agreed to visit the monastery, under the condition that she would not have to meet the Buddha, as she feared his teachings might challenge her pride in her physical allure.[1] Upon arriving at the Bamboo Grove, Khema toured the grounds and entered the main assembly hall, believing the Buddha to be absent.[2] Seated in his chamber, the Buddha, aware of her mindset through his psychic insight, employed skillful means to address her vanity by creating a supernatural illusion.[1] He manifested a vision of a strikingly beautiful celestial maiden fanning him, whose form captivated Khema's attention and mirrored her own ideals of beauty.[2] As Khema watched in fascination, the Buddha caused the illusory figure to age rapidly before her eyes: her skin wrinkled and sagged, her hair turned gray and fell out, her teeth decayed, and her body stooped into decrepitude, ultimately collapsing into a decayed corpse to emphasize the inevitability of decay.[1] This vivid demonstration shattered Khema's attachment, leading her to recognize the impermanence (anicca) inherent in all conditioned phenomena, particularly the fleeting nature of physical beauty.[2] The Buddha then delivered a discourse on impermanence, drawing from the illusion to illustrate how all forms, including her own, are subject to arising, change, and dissolution, leading to her profound realization of the truths of impermanence, suffering, and non-self, culminating in arahantship.[1]Attainment as a Laywoman
During her audience with the Buddha at Veḷuvana in Rājagaha, Khema, still a laywoman and queen consort to King Bimbisāra, listened to a sermon emphasizing the impermanence of beauty and physical form. The Buddha illustrated this truth by conjuring the vision of a radiant celestial maiden who aged, decayed, and perished before her eyes, revealing the inevitable dissolution of all conditioned phenomena. This teaching prompted Khema to reflect deeply on the transient nature of the body and sensory pleasures she had once prized.[8] Through contemplation of the sermon's core message, Khema penetrated the Three Marks of Existence—impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anattā)—recognizing that attachment to form engenders delusion and pain, as all aggregates are devoid of inherent essence and destined for change. Her insight dismantled the illusion of permanence in beauty and the self, leading to her attainment of arahantship, the final stage of awakening, with the four analytical knowledges, praised by the Buddha as a mark of her exceptional discernment.[9][10] The Buddha concluded the discourse with verse 347 from the Dhammapada, upon hearing which Khema attained arahantship.[10] Emotionally stirred by this profound realization, Khema experienced a surge of faith and detachment from worldly ties, immediately requesting ordination to pursue the path further under the Buddha's guidance. The Buddha commended her rapid comprehension, affirming that her wisdom had pierced the veils of ignorance in a single discourse.[8]Monastic Life
Ordination and Attainment of Arahantship
Following her initial insight into impermanence as a laywoman, Khema sought ordination as a bhikkhuni under the Buddha's direct guidance at Veḷuvana monastery in Rājagaha. With the permission of King Bimbisāra, her husband, she formally entered the Order through the double ordination procedure established for nuns, becoming part of the burgeoning bhikkhuni sangha led by Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī.[1] In the Apadāna tradition, Khema's ordination marked the beginning of her intensive monastic training, during which she adhered strictly to the Vinaya rules specific to bhikkhunis, including the 311 precepts governing conduct, meditation, and communal living. Her daily routine involved meditation on the impermanent nature of the body, alms rounds, and study of the Dhamma, fostering deep concentration and insight within the supportive environment of the nuns' community. Khema attained full arahantship, complete liberation from the cycle of rebirths, shortly after her ordination, within weeks—a remarkably swift progression attributed to the profound merit accumulated across numerous past lives through acts of generosity and devotion to previous Buddhas. This enlightenment encompassed the destruction of all fetters and the realization of the four noble truths, solidifying her as an exemplar of rapid spiritual maturity in the monastic path.[1]Role as Chief Disciple
Khema was designated by the Buddha as the foremost bhikkhuni in wisdom (mahāpaññā), a distinction that positioned her as one of the two chief female disciples alongside Uppalavaṇṇā, who excelled in supernormal powers. This recognition, recorded in the Aṅguttara Nikāya, highlighted her profound insight into the Dhamma, establishing her as a leading figure in the early Buddhist community.[11] Among the male disciples, Khema's counterpart in wisdom was Sāriputta, the Buddha's chief monk disciple, underscoring the parallel structure of leadership in the monastic sangha. Her attainment of arahantship as the foundation for this role enabled her to embody and transmit the Buddha's teachings with exceptional clarity. As chief disciple, she assumed an advisory position, counseling other nuns on matters of practice and doctrine, and actively contributing to discussions that strengthened communal understanding of the path.[12] Khema's wisdom manifested in her ability to resolve doctrinal queries within the sangha, offering precise explanations of subtle teachings such as the impermanence of the aggregates and the limitations of metaphysical speculation. For instance, she guided inquirers through analogies like the vastness of the ocean to illustrate the unconditioned nature of the Tathāgata, ensuring alignment with the Buddha's instructions and fostering deeper realization among nuns and lay supporters. Her interventions promoted harmony and insight, reinforcing her status as a pivotal influence in the bhikkhuni order.[1]Teachings and Key Events
Sermons and Dialogues
Khema is prominently featured in the Khemāsutta (SN 44.1), where she engages in a profound dialogue with King Pasenadi of Kosala during her sojourn in Toraṇavatthu. The king, seeking counsel from a spiritual teacher, poses four classic questions about the state of a Tathāgata after death: whether the enlightened one exists, does not exist, both exists and does not exist, or neither exists nor does not exist. Khema responds that the Buddha has left each of these undeclared, as they fail to capture the ineffable nature of liberation. She elucidates this by likening the Tathāgata to the great ocean—profound, boundless, and unfathomable—freed from the aggregates of form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness, thus transcending all categories of being or non-being.[13] This discourse exemplifies Khema's role in guiding lay rulers toward deeper insight into the limitations of metaphysical speculation and the essence of enlightenment, emphasizing practical understanding over unresolvable queries. Her explanation aligns with the Buddha's own teachings on undeclared questions, underscoring how such inquiries do not conduce to the holy life or dispassion.[13] In another key exchange, recorded in the Khemasutta (AN 6.49), Khema converses with the Buddha alongside the monk Sumana, demonstrating her grasp of the arahant's freedom from conceit. Addressing the Buddha directly, she defines a perfected one as one who has destroyed the āsavas (taints), completed the task, laid down the burden, achieved the true goal, uprooted the fetter of rebirth, and is fully released through right knowledge—questioning whether such a being is entirely without conceit. The Buddha affirms this, explaining that the arahant perceives no "I" or "mine" in the five aggregates, having eradicated all bases for self-conception. This interaction highlights Khema's instructional capacity among monastics, affirming the ethical and insightful dimensions of liberation as the absence of ego-driven views.[14] Through these and similar dialogues, Khema instructed both lay rulers like Pasenadi on the boundaries of conceptual thought and fellow monastics on the ethical purity and meditative insight required for awakening, consistently drawing from her status as the foremost among nuns in wisdom.Resistance to Mara
Shortly after her ordination as a bhikkhuni, Khema encountered Mara, the personification of temptation and death, who sought to disrupt her meditative practice by creating illusions of sensual pleasures to lure her away from the path of renunciation.[15] Appearing in the guise of a handsome young man, Mara addressed her seductively, saying, "You are young, of good form, and so am I; come, Khema, let us two enjoy ourselves making music in the bamboo grove."[16] This attempt occurred in the early stages of her monastic life, testing her resolve amid her recent transition from queenly luxury to ascetic discipline. Khema, drawing upon her profound insight into the nature of existence, decisively rebuked Mara through verses preserved in the Therigatha (Thig 6.3), emphasizing the impermanence, foulness, and ultimate emptiness of physical forms and sensory desires. In her response, she declared:This foul body, sick, so easily broken,
vexes and shames me. My craving for sex
has been rooted out. The pleasures of sex
are like swords and stakes. The body, senses,
and the mind just the chopping block
on which they cut.[16]
Your mind is disturbed, mine is not.These lines reveal Khema's direct realization of the body's deceptive allure and the futility of attachment, transforming Mara's seductive ploy into an opportunity to affirm her detachment from the cycle of craving and rebirth. The encounter culminated in Mara's defeat and departure, unable to sway her unshakeable wisdom, which had already led to her attainment of arahantship.[15] This episode, detailed in the Pali Commentaries to the Therigatha, exemplifies Khema's mastery over defilements and stands as a paradigmatic narrative in early Buddhist literature for nuns and practitioners confronting internal and external temptations.
You are impure, I am not.
My mind is free wherever I am.
Why do you keep me from my way?[16]