[479. {482.}[1] Buddhasaññaka[2]]
In [reading] marks[3] and history,[4]
with glosses[5] [and] ritual law,
[I was] learned, mantra-knowing,[6]
a master of the three Vedas. (1) [5039]
[Many] students came to me then,
resembling a river stream.
I am teaching mantras to them,
night and day, [I am] not lazy. (2) [5040]
The Sambuddha named Siddhattha
arose in the world at that time.
Having driven out the darkness,
he displayed the light of knowledge. (3) [5041]
A certain one of my students
conversed with[7] my [other] students;
having heard the fact [he discussed],
they then announced [the fact] to me: (4) [5042]
“A Buddha’s risen in the world,
an Omniscient One, World-Leader.
The people are turning to him;
we’re not going to get [anything].”[8] (5) [5043]
“Buddhas are Born Spontaneously,[9]
[those] Eyeful Ones, Greatly Famed Ones.
Why then don’t I also [go] see
the Best Buddha, the World-Leader?”[10] (6) [5044]
Having taken my deer-leather,
[my] robes of bark, [and] water-pot,[11]
departing from [my] hermitage,
I advised [my] students [like this]: (7) [5045]
“Like a glomerous fig tree bloom,[12]
[and] like the rabbit in the moon,[13]
[and] like the [mother’s] milk of crows,[14]
a World-Leader’s hard to obtain. (8) [5046]
A Buddha’s risen in the world!
Even human birth’s hard to get,
and hearing’s[15] very hard to get,
when both of them occur [at once]. (9) [5047]
A Buddha’s risen in the world!
We’ll get to see [him in] our lives.[16]
Come, we will [now] all go into
the Sammāsambuddha’s presence.” (10) [5048]
They all were holding water-pots,
[and] dressed in rough [bark and] deer-hide.
They,[17] bearing weights of matted hair,[18]
then departed from the forest. (11) [5049]
Looking but a plough’s length ahead,[19]
searching for ultimate meaning,
coming like baby elephants,
[they were] without fear, like lions. (12) [5050]
Free of cares and unwavering,[20]
clever and living peacefully,
wandering about for gleaning,[21]
they approached the Best of Buddhas. (13) [5051]
When a league and a half was left[22]
[to go], illness arose in me.
Remembering the Best Buddha,
I passed away [right] on the spot. (14) [5052]
In the ninety-four aeons since
I obtained that perception then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit of perceiving Buddhas. (15) [5053]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (16) [5054]
Being in Best Buddha’s presence
was a very good thing for me.
The three knowledges are attained;
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (17) [5055]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (18) [5056]
Thus indeed Venerable Buddhasaññaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Buddhasaññaka 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. ↩︎
“Buddha Perceiver” ↩︎
lakkhaṇe ↩︎
itihāse ↩︎
sa-nighaṇḍu ↩︎
lit., “mantra-bearer” ↩︎
lit., “to” ↩︎
lābho amhaŋ na hessati, lit., “there will not be receiving for us” ↩︎
pronounce as spontan’yasly (4 syllable) to keep the meter ↩︎
this verse is presumably thought by the protagonist upon hearing the worries of his students. ↩︎
like the deer-leather (ajina) and bark-robes (vākacchīraŋ), the water-pot (kamaṇḍalu, a long-spouted jar for carrying water) is a distinctive possession, and signifier of non-Buddhist ascetics ↩︎
odumbarakapupphaŋ va. Odumbaraka (BJTS odumbarika) means “related to the udumbara tree, which is Ficus Gomerata, Sinh. dimbul. ↩︎
cchandamhi sasakaŋ yathā ↩︎
cty (p. 488) explains, “”as milk is hard to obtain for (or of) crows due to their being oppressed by [having] little, day and night” ↩︎
i.e., hearing the Buddha, “a listening” (savanaŋ) ↩︎
lit., “we will receive eyes/vision our life”. BJTS gloss is weak here: ↩︎
PTS Je is obviously a typographical mistake for Te (BJTS’ reading) ↩︎
jaṭābhārabharitā (PTS), jaṭābhārena bharitā (BJTS) ↩︎
yugamattañ pekkhamānā, lit., “looking ahead the extent of a plough,” i.e., just a little, keeping their eyes on the ground in front of them ↩︎
reading appakiccchchā aloluppā with BJTS for PTS appabhāsā alīlatā, “saying little and having no playfulness (or very serious),” a possible but unusual reading; both terms of the BJTS reading, unlike those of the PTS reading, have solid witness in other texts. ↩︎
uñcchhāya ccharamānā ↩︎
diyaḍḍhayojane sese, lit., “when a half less than two leagues remained,” following BJTS Sinhala gloss ↩︎