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tha-ap.436 Thera Apadana

Ñāṇathavika

I saw the Ultimate Biped,
shining like a dinner-plate tree,
blazing forth like a tree of lamps,
glittering as though made of gold.

Putting aside my water-pot,
my robes of bark and my ewer,
placing deer-hide on one shoulder,
I then praised him, the Best Buddha:

“Great Sage, shedding the knowledge-light,
which dispels confusion-darkness
produced by the delusion-web,
you’re the One who has Crossed Over.

O Unexcelled One, you lift up
this world in its entirety;
there is not in its whole extent
a simile for your knowledge.

Due to that knowledge, the Buddha
is known as “the Omniscient One.”
Great Hero, I’m worshipping him,
the Unobstructed, All-Knower.”

In the hundred thousand aeons
since I praised the Best of Buddhas,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of praising knowledge.

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 Ñāṇathavika Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Ñāṇathavika Thera is finished.

- Translator: Jonathan S. Walters

- Editor: Ayya Vimala