[392] 8.
[The Elder Aṅgulimāla, while still a bandit, addressed the Blessed One:]
"While walking, ascetic, you say, 'I have stopped';
and to me, who have stopped, you say that I have not stopped.
I ask you, ascetic, about this matter:
how is it that you have stopped, while I have not stopped?"
[The Blessed One:]
"I have stopped, Aṅgulimāla, forever,
having laid aside the rod towards all beings;
but you are unrestrained towards living creatures:
therefore I have stopped, and you have not stopped."
[The bandit Aṅgulimāla:]
"At long last, indeed, for my sake an ascetic,
a great seer whom I honor, has come to this great forest.
Having heard your verse, yoked to the Dhamma,
I shall renounce my thousandfold evil."
[The redactors:]
Even as he spoke thus, the bandit hurled his sword and weapons
into a pit, a precipice, a chasm;
the bandit venerated the feet of the Well-Farer (sugata),
and right there he asked the Buddha for the going forth (pabbajjā).
And the Buddha, the compassionate great seer,
who is Teacher of the world with its devas,
then said to him, "Come, bhikkhu" —
and that itself was for him the state of a bhikkhu.
[The Elder Aṅgulimāla:]
One who was heedless before
but afterwards is heedless no more
illuminates this world
like the moon freed from cloud.
One whose evil deed, once done,
is closed off by what is wholesome
illuminates this world
like the moon freed from cloud.
Indeed, the young bhikkhu
who devotes himself to the Buddha's teaching
illuminates this world
like the moon freed from cloud.
Let even my enemies hear a talk on the Dhamma;
let even my enemies devote themselves to the Buddha's teaching;
let even my enemies associate with those people,
the good, who lead others to take up the Dhamma alone.
Let my enemies hear the Dhamma from time to time
from those who speak of patience (khanti),
who praise non-opposition,
and let them practice in conformity with it.
For such a one would surely never harm me,
nor any other whomsoever;
having reached the supreme peace,
he would protect beings frail and firm (tasathāvara).
Irrigators guide the water;
fletchers bend the arrow-shaft;
carpenters bend the wood;
the wise tame themselves.
Some tame with the rod,
with goads and with whips;
but I have been tamed by the One who is Such (tādī),
without rod, without weapon.
"Harmless" (Ahiṃsaka) was my name,
though formerly I was one who harmed;
today my name is true:
I harm no one at all.
Formerly I was a bandit,
renowned as Aṅgulimāla;
swept along by the great flood,
I went to the Buddha for refuge.
Formerly I was bloody-handed,
renowned as Aṅgulimāla;
behold the going for refuge:
the conduit to existence (bhavanetti) has been uprooted.
Having done abundant kamma of the kind
that leads to a bad destination,
touched by the ripening of that kamma,
free of debt I eat my food.
Fools, people of poor intelligence,
devote themselves to heedlessness;
but the wise man guards heedfulness
as his finest treasure.
Do not devote yourselves to heedlessness,
nor to intimacy with delight in sensual pleasures;
for the heedful one, meditating,
attains supreme happiness.
Welcome it was, not amiss;
nor was this ill-counselled on my part:
among the well-apportioned dhammas,
I have come to that which is best.
Welcome it was, not amiss;
nor was this ill-counselled on my part:
the three true knowledges (tisso vijjā) have been attained;
the Buddha's teaching has been done.
In the forest, at the root of a tree,
in mountains or in caves —
wherever it was, I stood at that time
with a mind full of dread.
Happily I lie down, happily I stand;
happily I pass my life,
beyond the reach of Māra's hand —
ah, I have been shown compassion by the Teacher!
Formerly I was of brahmin birth,
of high lineage on both sides;
today I am a son of the Well-Farer,
the Teacher, the King of the Dhamma.
Rid of craving (taṇhā), without grasping,
with the doors guarded, well restrained,
having slain the root of misery,
I have attained the destruction of the taints (āsava).
The Teacher has been served by me,
the Buddha's teaching has been done;
the heavy burden has been laid down,
the conduit to existence has been uprooted.
The Elder Aṅgulimāla.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.