[352. {355.}[1] Daṇḍadāyaka[2]]
Plunged into the forest, the woods,
I cut down [some] bamboo back then.
Having taken a walking stick,[3]
I gave it to the Assembly.[4] (1) [3157]
Due to the pleasure in [my] heart,
honored with, “happiness to you!,”
having given that walking stick,
I departed, facing the north. (2) [3158]
In the ninety-four aeons since
I gave [the monks] that stick back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of giving a stick. (3) [3159]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (4) [3160]
Thus indeed Venerable Daṇḍadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Daṇḍadāyaka Thera is finished.
Apadāna numbers provided in {fancy brackets} correspond to the BJTS edition, which contains more individual poems than does the PTS edition dictating the main numbering of this translation. ↩︎
“Stick Donor.” This same apadāna (save for the addition of the first two verses of the standard three-verse concluding refrain, elided here) is repeated below, with the same title, as #523 ↩︎
ālambana or ālamba, lit., “hang onto,” is anything to hang onto or which provides support. I understand it as a cane for walking, a typical accoutrement of peripatetic Buddhist monks. ↩︎
saṅghassa, i.e., the Assembly of monks ↩︎