432. {435.} Ucchukaṇḍika (THA-AP437)

In the city, Bandhumatī,
I was a gate-keeper back then.
I saw the Buddha, Stainless One,
who was Master of Everything.

Happy, with pleasure in my heart,
bringing a stalk of sugarcane,
I gave it to him, the Best Buddha,
the Great Sage known as Vipassi.

In the ninety-one aeons since
I gave the Buddha sugar-cane,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
the fruit of a sugar-cane stalk.

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 Ucchukaṇḍika Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Ucchukaṇḍika Thera is finished.

Translated by Jonathan S. Walters.

Whitman College, 2017

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