429. {432.} Ekasaṅkhiya (THA-AP434)

There was a large festival for
Vipassi Buddha’s Bodhi tree.
The populace came together,
worshipping that superb Bodhi.

“Surely he’s no inferior,
the one whose Bodhi tree this is;
this will be a Best of Buddhas;”
the Teacher’s tree should be worshipped.”

After that, taking a conch shell,
I attended that Bodhi tree.
Blowing that conch shell every day,
I worshipped the supreme Bodhi.

Doing that karma when near death,
I attained the world of the gods.
When my human body fell down,
I delighted in the gods’ world.

Thrilled, happy, overjoyed, playing
sixty thousand instruments they
give service to me all the time:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā,

I was seventy one kings named
Sudassana in this aeon,
lords of the grove of rose-apples,
victorious on all four sides.

The hundred types of instruments
are waiting on me all the time.
I’m enjoying my own karma:
that is the fruit of attendance.

In whichever womb I’m reborn,
whether it’s human or divine,
drums are always sounding for me,
even while in my mother’s womb.

After serving the Sambuddha,
after enjoying all that bliss,
now I’ve attained the deathless state,
auspicious, peaceful, unshaking.

In the ninety-one aeons since
I did that karma at that time,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā.

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

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!

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

Thus indeed Venerable Ekasaṅkhiya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Ekasaṅkhiya Thera is finished.

Translated by Jonathan S. Walters.

Whitman College, 2017

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