445. {448.} Pādapīṭhiya (THA-AP450)

The Sambuddha named Sumedha,
the Chief, Compassionate, the Sage,
causing many beings to cross,
then reached nirvana, Great-Famed One.

Happy, with pleasure in my heart,
I had a stool for the feet made
close to the lion-throne of him,
of Sumedha, the Sage So Great.

Doing that wholesome karma which
bears fruit and leads to happiness,
conforming to my good karma,
I then went to Tāvatiṁsa.

When I was living in that world,
being endowed with good karma,
when lifting up my feet a gold
footstool then comes to be for me.

The gain for them is well-received,
who are getting a listening;
serving Buddha in nirvana,
they’re receiving huge happiness.

My karma too was so well done,
carefully employing merchants.
After having a footstool made,
I’m receiving a chair of gold.

Whichever direction I go,
for any reason at all, I’m
stepping on a stool of gold:
that is the fruit of good karma.

In the thirty thousand aeons
since I did that karma back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of a footstool.

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 Pādapīṭhiya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Pādapīṭhiya Thera is finished.

Translated by Jonathan S. Walters.

Whitman College, 2017

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