Theragatha
Chapter XVI — The Twenties
255
Angulimala
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.
[Angulimala:]
"While walking, contemplative,
you say, 'I have stopped.'
But when I have stopped
you say I haven't.
I ask you the meaning of this:
How have you stopped?
How haven't I?"
[The Buddha:]
"I have stopped, Angulimala,
once and for all,
having cast off violence
toward all living beings.
You, though,
are unrestrained toward beings.
That's how I've stopped
and you haven't."
[Angulimala:]
"At long last a greatly revered great seer
for my sake
has come to the great forest.
Having heard your verse
in line with the Dhamma,
I will go about
having abandoned evil."
So saying, the bandit
hurled his sword and weapons
over a cliff
into a chasm,
a pit.
Then the bandit paid homage
to the feet of the One Well-gone,
and right there requested the Going-forth.
The Awakened One,
the compassionate great seer,
the teacher of the world, along with its devas,
said to him then:
"Come, bhikkhu."
That in itself
was bhikkhuhood for him.
§
Who once was heedless,[1]
but later is not,
brightens the world
like the moon set free from a cloud.
His evil-done deed[2]
is replaced with skillfulness:
he brightens the world
like the moon set free from a cloud.
Whatever young monk
devotes himself
to the Buddha's bidding:
he brightens the world
like the moon set free from a cloud.
May even my enemies
hear talk of the Dhamma.
May even my enemies
devote themselves
to the Buddha's bidding.
May even my enemies
associate with those people
who — peaceful, good —
get others to accept the Dhamma.
May even my enemies
hear the Dhamma time and again
from those who advise endurance,
forbearance,
who praise non-opposition,
and may they follow it.
For surely he wouldn't harm me,
or anyone else;
he would attain the foremost peace,
would protect the feeble and firm.
Irrigators guide the water.[3]
Fletchers shape the arrow shaft.
Carpenters shape the wood.
The wise control
themselves.
Some tame with a blunt stick,
with hooks, and with whipsv
But without blunt or bladed weapons
I was tamed by the one who is Such.
"Doer of No Harm" is my name,
but I used to be a doer of harm.
Today I am true to my name,
for I harm no one at all.
A bandit
I used to be,
renowned as Angulimala.
Swept along by a great flood,
I went to the Buddha as refuge.
Bloody-handed
I used to be,
renowned as Angulimala.
See my going for refuge!
Uprooted is [craving],
the guide to becoming.
Having done the type of kamma
that would lead to many
bad destinations,
touched by the fruit of [that] kamma,
unindebted, I eat my food.[4]
They're addicted to heedlessness[5]
— dullards, fools —
while one who is wise
cherishes heedfulness
as his highest wealth.
Don't give way to heedlessness[6]
or to intimacy
with sensual delight —
for a heedful person,
absorbed in jhāna,
attains an abundant bliss.
This[7] has come well and not gone away,
it was not badly thought through for me.
From among well-analyzed qualities,
I have obtained
the best.
This has come well and not gone away,
it was not badly thought through for me.
The three knowledges
have been attained;
the Awakened One's bidding,
done.[8]
Where once I stayed here and there
with shuddering mind —
in the wilderness,
at the foot of a tree,
in mountains, caves —
with ease I now lie down, I stand,
with ease I live my life.
O, the Teacher has shown me sympathy!
Before, I was of brahman stock,
on either side high-born.
Today I'm the son
of the One Well-gone,
the Dhamma-king,
the Teacher.
Rid of craving, devoid of clinging,
sense-doors guarded, well-restrained,
having killed the root of evil,
I've reached effluents' end.
The Teacher has been served by me;
the Awakened One's bidding,
done;
the guide to becoming, uprooted;
the heavy load, laid down.
[4] This verse illustrates the principle explained in AN 3.99: that one's experience of the results of past kamma is tempered by one's present state of mind.
[7] "This" apparently refers to the abundant bliss mentioned in the previous verse.
