[379. {382.}1 Labujaphaladāyaka2]

In the city, Bandhumatī,
I worked in a hermitage then.3
I saw the Buddha, Spotless One,
[who] was traveling through the sky. (1) [3284]

Taking fruit of a breadfruit4 [tree]
I gave [it] to the Best Buddha.
Standing in the sky, the Calm One,
the Great Famed One accepted [it]. (2) [3285]

Having given Buddha that fruit,
with a mind that was very clear,
productive of delight for me,
bringing happiness in this world,
I then came to possess great joy
and vast, ultimate happiness.
A gem5 was truly produced for
[me,] being reborn here and there.6 (3-4) [3286-3287]7

In the ninety-one aeons since
I gave [the Buddha] fruit back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of giving fruit. (5) [3288]

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! (6) [3289]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (7) [3290]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (8) [3291]

Thus indeed Venerable Labujaphaladāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Labujaphaladāyaka Thera is finished.

  1. Apadāna numbers provided in {fancy brackets} correspond to the BJTS edition, which contains more individual poems than does the PTS edition dictating the main numbering of this translation.↩

  2. “Breadfruit Fruit Donor.” BJTS omits phala from the name.↩

  3. ārāmika, lit., “hermitage attendant” or “hermitage dweller”↩

  4. Artocarpus lacucha or incisa; Sinh. del. The fruit of the tree is cooked and eaten as a starchy vegetable.↩

  5. perhaps implying a wish-fulfilling gem, or else a gem of great value that could fund all needs (effectively, the same thing)↩

  6. lit., “from where to there” (yahiŋ tahiŋ, PTS) or “from there to there” (tahiṃ tahiṃ, BJTS and PTS alt.)↩

  7. PTS treats these as two verses of six feet each; BJTS treats them as three typical four-footed verses. BJTS is presumably correct, since the parallel apadāna,↩