[132. Sudassana1]

On the Vitattha2 River’s bank,
[there] was a fig tree3 bearing fruit.
While I was searching for that tree
I saw the Leader of the World. (1) [1879]

Seeing a pandanus4 in bloom,
after having cut off a stalk,
I gifted [it] to the Buddha,
Sikhi, the Kinsman of the World. (2) [1880]

“Whatever knowledge you’ve attained
of the eternal, deathless, state,
I sing that knowledge’s praises,
O Best Buddha, O Sage so Great.” (3) [1881]

Doing pūjā [thus] for knowledge,
I [then] saw the [fruiting] fig tree;
I have obtained that perception:
that’s the fruit of knowledge-pūjā. (4) [1882]

In the thirty-one aeons since
I offered that flower [to him,]
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of knowledge-pūjā. (5) [1883]

In the thirteenth aeon ago
there were twelve [named] Phaluggata,5
wheel-turning kings with great power,
possessors of the seven gems. (6) [1884]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (7) [1885]

Thus indeed Venerable Sudassana Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Sudassana Thera is finished.

  1. “Good to Look At”↩

  2. PTS reads vitthatāya nadītire, “on a wide river bank”. I follow BJTS in the spelling of the proper name.↩

  3. lit., “pilakkha [tree]” (Sinh. pulila), the wave-leaved fig tree.↩

  4. ketaka or ketakī (Sinhala väṭakē or väṭakeyiyā)↩

  5. “Fruit Risen Up.” This is the BJTS spelling; PTS gives Khaluggata, “Surely RIsen Up.”↩