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tha-ap.138 Thera Apadana

Campakapupphiya

I saw Buddha, the Morning Star,
shining like a dinner-plate tree,
sitting down within a mountain,
surveying all the directions.

There were three young brahmin men then,
well-trained in their own brahmin arts.
Taking ascetics’ provisions,
they were coming up behind me.

In a bag were seven flowers
those ascetics had laid down there.
Having picked them up I gave them
for the knowledge of Vessabhu.

In the thirty-one aeons since
I offered those flowers to it,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of knowledge-pūjā.

In the twenty-ninth aeon hence,
a king known as Vihatābha,
was a wheel-turner with great strength,
possessor of the seven gems.

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

Thus indeed Venerable Campakapupphiya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Campakapupphiya Thera is finished.

- Translator: Jonathan S. Walters

- Editor: Ayya Vimala