349. {352.} Yavakalāpiya (THA-AP354)

In Aruṇavatī City,
I was a barley grower then.
Seeing the Buddha on the road,
I spread out a sheaf of barley.

Sikhi, Chief Leader of the World,
Merciful, Compassionate One,
discerning what I was thinking,
sat down on that sheaf of barley.

Seeing the seated Spotless One,
the Great Meditator, Leader,
and generating great delight,
I passed away right on the spot.

In the thirty-one aeons since
I did that good karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit in spreading out barley.

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

Thus indeed Venerable Yavakalāpiya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Yavakalāpiya Thera is finished.

Translated by Jonathan S. Walters.

Whitman College, 2017

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