196. Kisalayapūjaka (THA-AP198)

In the city, Dvāravatī,
I had a small flowering tree.
There was a well there in that place,
whose water made the trees grow tall.

Siddhattha, the Unconquered One,
made firm by his own mental strength,
showing his compassion for me,
traveled in the path of the wind.

I am looking at nothing else,
fixed on worship of the Great Sage.
Seeing an ashoka tree sprout
I threw it up into the sky.

Those shoots are going backwards
to the Buddha going in the sky.
That I, seeing that miracle,
thought, “O! The Buddha’s loftiness!”

In the ninety-four aeons since
I offered the Buddha that sprout,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā.

In the twenty-seventh aeon
ago lived one Ekassara,
a wheel-turning king with great strength,
possessor of the seven gems.

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

Thus indeed Venerable Kisalayapūjaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Kisalayapūjaka Thera is finished.

Translated by Jonathan S. Walters.

Whitman College, 2017

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