Kuṭajapupphiya Chapter, the Nineteenth
[181. Kuṭajapupphiya1]
[I saw] the golden Sambuddha,
like the risen hundred-rayed [sun],
surveying [all] the directions,
while he traveled [up] in the sky. (1) [2152]
Noticing some winter cherry,
well spread out2 and blossoming [there],
plucking [a flower] from that tree,
I [then] offered [it] to Phussa. (2) [2153]
In the ninety-two aeons since
I offered [that] flower [to him,]
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (3) [2154]
In the seventeenth aeon hence
there were three [men named] Pupphita,3
wheel-turning kings with great power,
possessors of the seven gems. (4) [2155]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (5) [2156]
Thus indeed Venerable Kuṭajapupphiya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Kuṭajapupphiya Thera is finished.
“Arctic-Snow-Flower-er”. Sinhala keḷinda, aka Arctic Snow, Winter Cherry, nerium antidysenterica, as its name implies used for dysentery. See below, #514 {517} for a different apadāna ascribed to a monk of the same name.↩
the compound vitthatasamotthaṭa means “spread out and spread over;” I try to capture the reduplication with the qualifier “well”. The point is that it was a large, expansive vine↩
“Flowering”.↩