Ummāpupphiya Chapter, the Thirty-Third
[321. Ummāpupphiya1]
I saw the Ultimate Person,
Siddhattha, the Unconquered One,
Attentive One, He Who Attained,
sitting down2 in meditation. (1) [2825]
Having gathered [blue] flax3 flowers,
I offered [them] to the Buddha.
All the flowers faced the same way,
stems turned upward, heads turned downward. (2) [2826]
Like pretty pictures they remained,
floral canopy in the sky.
Because of that mental pleasure,
I was reborn in Tusitā. (3) [2827]
In the ninety-four aeons since
I did pūjā [with] that flower,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (4) [2828]
In the fifty-fifth aeon hence
there was one [man], lord of the earth,
known as Samantacchchadana,4
a wheel-turning king with great strength. (5) [2829]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (6) [2830]
Thus indeed Venerable Ummāpupphiya Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Ummāpupphiya Thera is finished.
“[Blue] Flax-Flower-er.” cf. #145.↩
samādhinā upaviṭṭham fr upavisati (reading BJTS for PTS upāviṭṭham)↩
ummāpuppha (Skt. umāpuṣpa), Linum usitatissimum, Linseed. The small flowers of this fiber-bearing plant are distinctively and deeply blue in color, and the seeds, as the English name implies, bear a useful oil.↩
“Covered on all Sides”↩