334. {337.} Tiṇakuṭidāyaka (THA-AP339)

In the city, Bandumatī,
I was one who worked for others.
Though bound in service to others,
I looked not for another’s rice.

Gone off alone and sitting down,
I thought it out in this way:
“The Buddha’s risen in the world
and I’ve provided no service.

It is time to clean up my life;
the moment is prepared for me.
Suffering is a taste of hell
for creatures devoid of merit.

Having thought it out in this way,
I approached the labor foreman.
After begging him for some work,
I entered into the forest.

Having gathered at that time some
grass and sticks and also some vines,
and having put three poles in place,
I constructed a grass hut there.

After I dedicated that
hut for the Assembly of monks,
I came back on that very day
and approached the labor foreman.

Due to that karma done very well,
I then went to Tāvatiṁsa.
My mansion there, very well made,
was created by a grass hut.

The mansion that appeared for me,
a mil-kaṇḍa cent-bheṇḍu large,
made of gold, covered in flags,
contained a hundred thousand doors.

In whichever womb I’m reborn,
whether it’s human or divine,
recognizing what I’m thinking,
a palace comes to be for me.

I do not experience fear,
get stupefied, horripilate;
I do not know those things in me:
that’s the fruit of grass-hut-giving.

Lions and tigers and leopards,
bears and wolves, kara bānā bears—
all of them stay away from me:
that’s the fruit of grass-hut-giving.

Vipers and ghosts, cobras as well,
kumbhaṇḍa, rakkhasa-demons;
they too are all avoiding me:
that’s the fruit of grass-hut-giving.

I do not remember seeing
my dreams when they are of evil.
Mindfulness arises for me:
that’s the fruit of grass-hut-giving.

Just because of that grass-hut-gift,
I have experienced success.
I have witnessed the Teaching of
Gotama Buddha, Blessed One.

In the ninety-one aeons since
I did that good karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of grass-hut-giving.

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

Thus indeed Venerable Tiṇakuṭidāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Tiṇakuṭidāyaka 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.

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