185. Isimuggadāyaka (THA-AP187)

Like the rising hundred-rayed sun,
like the sun when it had risen,
shining like royal ornaments,
the Lord was Padumuttara.

Grinding up some sage’s mung beans
in bee’s honey devoid of bees,
being established in pleasure,
I gave them to the World’s Kinsman.

Eight hundred thousand followers
of the Buddha were with him then.
Filling the bowls of all of them,
I provided a huge amount.

Because of that mental pleasure,
incited by those happy roots,
for one hundred thousand aeons
I was not born in a bad state.

In the forty-thousandth aeon
ago, they numbered thirty-eight,
those wheel-turning kings with great strength,
whose names were Mahisamanta.

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
I have done what the Buddha taught!

Thus indeed Venerable Isimuggadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Isimuggadāyaka Thera is finished.

Translated by Jonathan S. Walters.

Whitman College, 2017

Legends of the Buddhist Saints (Apadāna) is released under the Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike license.

This is the first-ever complete translation of Apadāna into a Western language.

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