383. {386.} Valliphaladāyaka (THA-AP388)

All the people, come together,
went into the forest back then.
Searching for fruit growing wild there,
they obtained such fruit at that time.

I saw him there, the Sambuddha,
the Self-Become, Unconquered One.
Happy, with pleasure in my heart,
I gave some valli fruit to him.

In the thirty-one aeons since
I gave Buddha that fruit back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of giving fruit.

Being in Best Buddha’s presence
was a very good thing for me.
The three knowledges are attained;
I have done what the Buddha taught!

My defilements are now burnt up;
all new existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint.

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

Thus indeed Venerable Valliphaladāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Valliphaladāyaka Thera is finished.

Translated by Jonathan S. Walters.

Whitman College, 2017

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