[499. {502.}[1] Ekapattadāyaka[2]]
In the city, Haṃsavatī,
I was a potter [at that time].
I saw the Buddha, Stainless One,
the Flood-Crosser, Undefiled One. (1) [5396]
I gave to [him,] the Best Buddha,
a well-fashioned bowl made of clay.
Giving [that] bowl to the Buddha,[3]
the Honest One,[4] the Neutral One, (2) [5397]
being reborn in existence,
I’m receiving plates[5] made of gold,
and flat bowls[6] made of silver, gold,
and also [some] made out of gems; (3) [5398]
I’m enjoying [all these] dishes:[7]
that is the fruit of good[8] karma.
I am [the owner of][9] bowls made
for the famous and the wealthy. (4) [5399]
As with a seed which is planted,
in a field which is bountiful:[10]
when it rains,[11] with proper support,[12]
fruit pleases the cultivator;
so too is this bowl-donation,
[well-]planted in the Buddha-field:
when it rains the joy-bringing [rain,][13]
the fruit will be pleasing to me. (5-6) [5400-5401]
As far as [merit-]fields exist —
even the Assemblies[14] and groups[15] —
the Buddha-field has no equal,[16]
giving [great] happiness[17] to all.[18] (7) [5402]
Praise to you, O Well-Bred Person![19]
Praise to you, Ultimate Person!
After giving a single bowl,
I’ve attained the unshaking state. (8) [5403]
In the ninety-one aeons since
I gave [him] that bowl at that time,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (9) [5404]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (10) [5405]
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! (11) [5406]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (12) [5407]
Thus indeed Venerable Ekapattadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Ekapattadāyaka 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. ↩︎
“One Bowl Donor” ↩︎
lit., “the Blessed One” ↩︎
ujubhūtassa ↩︎
°thāle ↩︎
taṭṭake, bowls for eating food, flat bowls, porringers, salvers ↩︎
pātiyo, fr. pātī, the f. of patta (Skt. pātra, pātrī) ↩︎
lit., “meritorious” ↩︎
following BJTS Sinh. gloss: pātra (himi) vuyem vemi ↩︎
bhaddake, or “lucky” “fortunate” etc ↩︎
PTS pavecchchante, BJTS pavacchchante (cf. pavecchchante, the reading in [5004] below, cf. also pavacchchante as PTS alt. there [v, 5 of #499, Ekapattadāyaka]; RD = “give, bestow,” PSI “[rainwater] falls down”) ↩︎
sammādhāre (loc. abs. construction) ↩︎
both PTS and BJTS read pītidhāre pavassante ↩︎
saṅghāpi ↩︎
gaṇāpi; gaṇa is an early structure in Assembly organization, also used interchangeably in Apadāna with “guild," an important form of lay social organization for group merit-making activities ↩︎
buddhakhettasamo n’atthi, lit., “there is not an equal to the Buddha-field” ↩︎
reading sukhado sabbapāṇinaṃ with BJTS for PTS sukhadānattha pāṇinaŋ (“place of giving happiness [in the voc.?] to beings”) ↩︎
lit., “to all living beings” “to all that breathe” ↩︎
purisājañña, RD “steed of man,” in the voc. Contracted form of ājāniya/ājānīya, “almost exclusively used to donate a thoroughbred horse” ↩︎