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tha-ap.422 Thera Apadana

Mañcadāyaka

When Siddhattha reached nirvana,
Compassionate One, World-Leader,
and spread throughout the entire world,
gods and men were honoring him,

I was a low-born person there,
a maker of long-chairs and stools.
I earn my living through that work,
and through it I feed my children.

Having made a well-made long-chair,
feeling well-pleased by my own hands,
approaching by myself, I then
gave it to the monks’ Assembly.

Due to that karma done very well,
with intention and firm resolve,
discarding my human body,
I went to Tāvatiṁsa then.

Being gone to the world of gods,
I joy in the group of thirty.
Very expensive beds come to
be, according to my wishes.

Fifty times the lord of the gods,
I exercised divine rule there.
And eighty times I was a king,
a king who turns the wheel of law.

There was also much local rule,
innumerable by counting.
I’m always happy and famous:
that’s the fruit of giving a bed.

If, falling from the world of gods,
I come into the human state,
very costly, excellent beds
come to be for me by themselves.

This is the final time for me;
my last rebirth is proceeding.
Even now, when it’s time to lie
down, a bed is waiting for me.

In the ninety-four aeons since
I gave him that gift at that time,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of giving a bed.

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 Mañcadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Mañcadāyaka Thera is finished.

The Summary:

Bhaddāli and Ekacchatta,
Tiṇasūla and Maṁsada.
Nāgapalllavika, Dīpi,
Ucchaṅgī, Yāgudāyaka,
Patthodanī, Mañcadada:
the verses that are counted here
number two hundred verses and
one verse more than those two hundred.

The Bhaddāli Chapter, the Forty-Second

- Translator: Jonathan S. Walters

- Editor: Ayya Vimala