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tha-ap.82 Thera Apadana

Tīṇipadumiya

The Victor Padumuttara,
the One Who Surpassed Everything,
the Tame One, with Tamed Retinue,
Victor, departed the city.

I was a garland-maker then
in the city, Haṁsavatī.
I picked up three flower-blossoms
which were the foremost flowers there.

I saw Buddha, Stainless One,
on the road inside the bazaar,
and having seen the Sambuddha
I thought in this way at that time:

“What use are these flowers to me
even if gifted to a king?
I might receive a village or
maybe a thousand village fields.

Doing pūjā to the World’s Lord
the Untamed-Tamer, the Wise One,
Who Conveys Bliss to All Beings,
I will receive boundless riches.”

After reflecting in this way
I brought pleasure to my own heart.
Picking up three red-colored ones
I threw those flowers in the air.

At the height to which I’d thrown them
they were well-spread-out in the sky
and held up over Buddha’s head,
stalks pointing up, with blossoms down.

Whatever people saw them there
then kept them thrown up in the air
and the lesser gods, in the sky,
let loose their cries of “Excellent!”

“A marvel’s produced in the world
because of him, the Best Buddha;
we all will hear the Teaching now
on account of these red flowers.”

Padumuttara, World-Knower,
Sacrificial Recipient,
the Teacher, standing on the road,
spoke these verses about me then:

“I shall relate details of him
who with red-colored lotuses
did this Buddha-pūjā just now;
all of you listen to my words:

He’ll delight in the world of gods.
for thirty thousand aeons hence.
For thirty aeons king of gods
he will exercise divine rule.

He will always have a mansion
that’s called Mahāvitthārikam,
three hundred leagues raised up in height;
one hundred and fifty leagues wide.

And it will have well-fashioned doors
fully forty lakhs in number.
It will have many gabled cells
containing large and perfect beds.

One trillion celestial nymphs
skilled in dancing and singing too
and well-trained in musical arts
will always encircle him there.

In a mansion such as this one
full of companies of women
there will be a rain of flowers
always, divine red-colored ones.

Red flowers of the size of wheels
are hanging there all of the time
on wall pegs and on clothes hooks too,
on door-bolts as well as arches.

On the inside of the mansion
spreading out then wrapping up in
floral blankets made of petals
they will snuggle here all the time.

Those pure flowers, red in color,
will perfume with their divine scents
a hundred leagues on every side
of that heavenly residence.

Five hundred times he’s going to be
a king who turns the wheel of law,
and he will have much local rule
innumerable by counting.

Having enjoyed the two-fold bliss,
unharmed by illegality,
at the conclusion of that bliss
nirvana will be seen by him

Seeing Buddha was good for me;
my business was put to good use.
Doing pūjā with three flowers
I then enjoyed a three-fold bliss.

Today I’ve attained the Teaching
and I am now totally free;
blooming red flowers are carried
over the top of my own head.

When Teacher Padumuttara
was speaking of my karma then,
Dhamma-penetration occurred
for seven thousand living beings.

In the hundred thousand aeons
since I did that Buddha-pūjā,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of three lotuses.

I have burnt up my defilements;
all existence is destroyed.
All defilements are exhausted;
now there will be no more rebirth.

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

Thus indeed Venerable Tīṇipadumiya Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Tīṇipadumiya Thera is finished.

The Summary:

Samāla and Padasaññī
Susañña, Āluvadāyaka,
Ekasaññī, Tiṇidada,
Sūcī, Pāṭalipupphiya,
Ṭhitañjalī, Tipadumī:
five and seventy verses.

The Nāgasamāla Chapter, the Eighth.

- Translator: Jonathan S. Walters

- Editor: Ayya Vimala