[401]
Alas! though I have gone forth
from home into homelessness,
these impudent thoughts from the Dark One (Kaṇha, i.e. Māra) assail me.
Even if a thousand sons of nobles — mighty archers,
trained men, wielders of stout bows,
who never flee — should surround me on every side;
and even if women more numerous than these should come,
they shall never make me tremble,
for I stand firmly established in the Dhamma.
For as a witness I heard this
from the Buddha, Kinsman of the Sun:
the path (magga) that goes to Nibbāna —
there my mind (citta) delights.
If you approach me, Evil One,
while I am dwelling thus,
I shall act so, O Death,
that you shall not even see my path.
Abandoning discontent and delight,
and thought connected with the household life entirely,
one should form no thicket of craving toward anything;
he who is without the thicket, without leanings — he indeed is a bhikkhu.
Whatever here, on earth or in the sky,
possessed of form, is comprised in the world —
it all decays, all is impermanent;
having penetrated this, the liberated ones live on.
People are greedily bound to acquisitions (upadhi),
to what is seen and heard, to sense-impact and what is sensed;
dispel desire for these, unstirred:
he who is not smeared therein — him they call a sage.
Then there are thoughts leaning on the sixty,
unrighteous, settled in the manyfolk;
but one who drifts nowhere into the round,
nor is a speaker of corrupt speech — he is a bhikkhu.
Capable, long concentrated,
undeceitful, judicious, free of longing,
the sage has attained the state of peace;
depending on which, fully quenched, he awaits his time.
Abandon conceit, O Gotama!
Abandon the pathway of conceit without remainder!
Infatuated with the pathway of conceit,
you have long been filled with remorse.
Smeared by disparagement, slain by conceit,
beings fall into hell;
people grieve for a long time,
slain by conceit, arisen in hell.
For a bhikkhu never grieves —
a victor by the path, practicing rightly;
he experiences acclaim and happiness;
they call him, in accordance with truth, "a seer of the Dhamma."
Therefore, free of barrenness here, resolute in striving,
having abandoned the hindrances (nīvaraṇa), purified,
and having abandoned conceit without remainder,
be a maker of the end by true knowledge (vijjā), one stilled.
I am burning with sensual lust (kāmarāga);
my mind is all aflame.
Out of compassion, O Gotama,
tell me, pray, the way to quench it.
Through inversion of perception
your mind is all aflame.
Avoid the beautiful sign (nimitta),
bound up with lust.
Develop the mind upon the unattractive,
one-pointed, well concentrated;
let your mindfulness be directed to the body;
be full of disenchantment.
Develop, too, the signless,
cast off the latent tendency to conceit;
then, by breaking through conceit,
you will live at peace.
Only such speech should one utter
by which one does not torment oneself
nor injure others:
that speech indeed is well spoken.
Only pleasant speech should one utter,
speech that is welcomed;
when one takes up nothing evil,
one speaks what is pleasant to others.
Truth indeed is deathless speech:
this is an eternal law;
in truth, in the good, and in the Dhamma —
so they say — the good stand firm.
The speech the Buddha utters,
secure, for the attainment of Nibbāna,
for the making of an end of suffering (dukkha):
that indeed is the highest of speech.
Deep in wisdom, intelligent,
skilled in what is the path and what is not the path,
Sāriputta, of great wisdom,
teaches the Dhamma to the bhikkhus.
He teaches in brief,
he speaks also in detail;
his voice like a myna bird's,
his inspired discourse wells forth.
While he is teaching it,
hearing his sweet utterance —
a voice enrapturing,
lovely to hear, melodious —
with uplifted, joyful minds
the bhikkhus incline their ears.
Today, on the fifteenth, for purity,
five hundred bhikkhus have assembled:
cutters of fetters and bonds,
untroubled seers whose renewal of existence is destroyed.
Just as a universal monarch (cakkavatti),
surrounded by his ministers,
travels all around
this ocean-bounded earth,
so do the disciples — possessed of the threefold knowledge (tevijjā),
who have left Death behind —
attend upon the victor in battle,
the caravan-leader unsurpassed.
All are sons of the Blessed One;
no chaff is found here.
I worship the Kinsman of the Sun,
destroyer of the dart of craving (taṇhā).
More than a thousand bhikkhus
attend upon the Fortunate One
as he teaches the dust-free Dhamma —
Nibbāna, where fear comes from nowhere.
They listen to the abundant Dhamma
taught by the Fully Self-Enlightened One;
truly resplendent is the Enlightened One,
revered at the head of the Saṅgha of bhikkhus.
You bear the name "Nāga," O Blessed One,
supreme seer among seers;
like a great rain-cloud
you rain down upon your disciples.
Having emerged from his daytime abiding,
out of desire to see the Teacher,
your disciple Vaṅgīsa, O great hero,
worships at your feet.
Having overcome Māra's devious path,
he wanders, having shattered the barren places.
See him, the maker of release from bonds, unattached,
analyzing (the Dhamma) part by part.
For the sake of crossing the flood
he declared the path in its manifold modes;
and in that Deathless which was declared,
the seers of the Dhamma stand immovable.
The maker of light, piercing through,
saw the transcending of all standpoints;
having known it and realized it,
he taught the foremost (Dhamma) to the five.
When the Dhamma has been so well taught,
what negligence can there be in those who understand the Dhamma?
Therefore, in that Blessed One's dispensation,
heedful, one should always train with reverence.
The elder awakened after the Buddha,
Koṇḍañña of keen exertion,
is a gainer of pleasant abidings,
of seclusions, again and again.
Whatever may be attained by a disciple
who carries out the Teacher's instruction,
all of it has been attained by him,
training with heedfulness.
Of great might, possessing the threefold knowledge,
skilled in penetrating the minds of others,
Koṇḍañña, heir of the Buddha,
worships at the Teacher's feet.
Upon the sage seated on the mountain's flank,
gone beyond suffering,
disciples attend —
possessed of the threefold knowledge, leaving Death behind.
Moggallāna of great psychic power
encompasses them with his mind,
searching out their minds:
released, without acquisitions.
Thus do they attend upon Gotama,
the sage gone beyond suffering,
perfect in every respect,
endowed with manifold excellences.
As the moon in a cloudless sky,
as the stainless sun, shines forth,
so too do you, Aṅgīrasa, great sage,
outshine the whole world with your glory.
Drunk on poetry, we wandered formerly
from village to village, from town to town;
then I saw the Enlightened One,
gone beyond all things.
He, the sage gone beyond suffering,
taught me the Dhamma;
having heard the Dhamma, we gained confidence;
faith arose in us.
Having heard his word,
having come to know the aggregates (khandha),
the sense bases (āyatana), and the elements (dhātu),
I went forth into homelessness.
Truly for the good of many
do the Tathāgatas arise —
for the women and the men
who carry out their teaching.
Truly for their sake
the sage attained awakening —
for the bhikkhus and bhikkhunīs
who have reached and seen the fixed course.
Well taught by the One with Vision,
the Buddha, Kinsman of the Sun,
out of compassion for living beings,
are the four noble truths (ariyasacca):
suffering, the origination of suffering,
the overcoming of suffering,
and the noble eightfold path
leading to the stilling of suffering.
Thus these things, so declared,
have been seen by me just as they are;
my true goal has been attained;
the Buddha's teaching has been carried out.
Welcome indeed was my coming
into the presence of the Buddha;
among things well analyzed,
I came unto that which is best.
I have reached perfection in superknowledge (abhiññā);
the ear-element is purified;
I possess the threefold knowledge and have attained psychic power;
I am skilled in penetrating the minds of others.
I ask the Teacher of unsurpassed wisdom,
the cutter of doubts (vicikicchā) in this very life:
a bhikkhu has died at Aggāḷava,
well known, famous, his self quenched.
"Nigrodhakappa" was the name
you gave, Blessed One, to that brahmin;
revering you he wandered, intent on release,
with energy aroused, a seer of the firm Dhamma.
O Sakyan, we all likewise
wish to know about that disciple, O All-seeing One (samantacakkhu);
our ears stand ready to listen:
you are our Teacher, you are unsurpassed.
Cut through our doubt; tell me this;
make known to us that he is fully quenched, O one of abounding wisdom;
speak in our very midst, All-seeing One,
like thousand-eyed Sakka amid the devas.
Whatever ties there are here — pathways of delusion,
siding with unknowing, grounds of doubt —
upon reaching the Tathāgata they exist no more,
for his is the supreme eye among men.
For if no man were ever to disperse the defilements,
as the wind disperses a bank of cloud,
the whole world, enshrouded, would be sheer darkness;
even men of brilliance would not shine.
The wise are makers of light:
just so, O wise one, do I regard you.
We have come to one who knows, endowed with insight:
here in the assemblies reveal Kappa to us.
Swiftly send forth your lovely voice, O lovely one,
like a goose lifting its neck, gently honking,
with rounded tones, well modulated:
all of us, upright and attentive, shall listen to you.
Having pressed the cleansed one
who has abandoned birth and death without remainder,
I shall have him proclaim the Dhamma;
for worldlings have no power to act at will,
but the Tathāgatas act with full comprehension.
This complete exposition of yours,
of one whose wisdom is perfectly upright, is fully embraced;
this final añjali is raised in homage:
knowing, do not leave us deluded, O one of unsurpassed wisdom.
Having known the noble Dhamma from high to low,
knowing, do not leave us deluded, O one of unsurpassed energy;
as one scorched by heat in the hot season longs for water,
so do I yearn for your speech: rain down its sound.
The goal for which Kappāyana
lived the holy life — was it not in vain for him?
Was he quenched, or was he with residue remaining?
How he was liberated — let that be what we hear!
"He cut off craving here for name-and-form,"
(said the Blessed One,)
"the stream of craving long lying latent within;
he has crossed over birth and death without remainder" —
so spoke the Blessed One, the foremost of the five.
Having heard your word, O supreme seer,
I am gladdened;
not in vain, indeed, was my question:
the brahmin did not deceive me.
As he spoke, so he acted:
he was the Buddha's disciple.
He cut through the outspread, sturdy net
of Death the deceiver.
Kappiya saw, O Blessed One,
the beginning of clinging (upādāna);
Kappāyana has indeed passed beyond
the realm of Death, so hard to cross.
I worship him — a deva beyond devas —
your son, O supreme among two-footed beings:
one who took after you, the great hero,
a nāga, true-born son of the nāga.
Thus indeed did the Venerable Vaṅgīsa the Elder speak these verses.
The Great Chapter (Mahānipāta) is concluded.
In the Chapter of the Seventy, Vaṅgīsa,
gifted with inspired eloquence,
is the sole elder — there is no other;
the verses are seventy-one.
Those verses number one thousand
three hundred and sixty;
and the elders made known
are two hundred and sixty-four.
Having roared the lion's roar,
the sons of the Buddha, free of taints (āsava),
having reached the haven of security,
were quenched like masses of fire.
The Theragāthā is concluded.
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THE THERĪGĀTHĀ OF THE KHUDDAKA NIKĀYA IN THE SUTTANTA PIṬAKA
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Homage to that Blessed One, the Arahant, the Fully Self-Enlightened One.
The Chapter of the Ones (Ekanipāta) of the Therīgāthā
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.