[499. {502.}1 Ekapattadāyaka2]

In the city, Haṃsavatī,
I was a potter [at that time].
I saw the Buddha, Stainless One,
the Flood-Crosser, Undefiled One. (1) [5396]

I gave to [him,] the Best Buddha,
a well-fashioned bowl made of clay.
Giving [that] bowl to the Buddha,3
the Honest One,4 the Neutral One, (2) [5397]

being reborn in existence,
I’m receiving plates5 made of gold,
and flat bowls6 made of silver, gold,
and also [some] made out of gems; (3) [5398]

I’m enjoying [all these] dishes:7
that is the fruit of good8 karma.
I am [the owner of]9 bowls made
for the famous and the wealthy. (4) [5399]

As with a seed which is planted,
in a field which is bountiful:10
when it rains,11 with proper support,12
fruit pleases the cultivator;
so too is this bowl-donation,
[well-]planted in the Buddha-field:
when it rains the joy-bringing [rain,]13
the fruit will be pleasing to me. (5-6) [5400-5401]

As far as [merit-]fields exist —
even the Assemblies14 and groups15 —
the Buddha-field has no equal,16
giving [great] happiness17 to all.18 (7) [5402]

Praise to you, O Well-Bred Person!19
Praise to you, Ultimate Person!
After giving a single bowl,
I’ve attained the unshaking state. (8) [5403]

In the ninety-one aeons since
I gave [him] that bowl at that time,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of Buddha-pūjā. (9) [5404]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (10) [5405]

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! (11) [5406]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (12) [5407]

Thus indeed Venerable Ekapattadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Ekapattadāyaka 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. “One Bowl Donor”↩

  3. lit., “the Blessed One”↩

  4. ujubhūtassa↩

  5. °thāle↩

  6. taṭṭake, bowls for eating food, flat bowls, porringers, salvers↩

  7. pātiyo, fr. pātī, the f. of patta (Skt. pātra, pātrī)↩

  8. lit., “meritorious”↩

  9. following BJTS Sinh. gloss: pātra (himi) vuyem vemi↩

  10. bhaddake, or “lucky” “fortunate” etc↩

  11. PTS pavecchchante, BJTS pavacchchante (cf. pavecchchante, the reading in [5004] below, cf. also pavacchchante as PTS alt. there [v, 5 of #499, Ekapattadāyaka]; RD = “give, bestow,” PSI “[rainwater] falls down”)↩

  12. sammādhāre (loc. abs. construction)↩

  13. both PTS and BJTS read pītidhāre pavassante↩

  14. saṅghāpi↩

  15. gaṇāpi; gaṇa is an early structure in Assembly organization, also used interchangeably in Apadāna with “guild,” an important form of lay social organization for group merit-making activities↩

  16. buddhakhettasamo n’atthi, lit., “there is not an equal to the Buddha-field”↩

  17. reading sukhado sabbapāṇinaṃ with BJTS for PTS sukhadānattha pāṇinaŋ (“place of giving happiness [in the voc.?] to beings”)↩

  18. lit., “to all living beings” “to all that breathe”↩

  19. purisājañña, RD “steed of man,” in the voc. Contracted form of ājāniya/ājānīya, “almost exclusively used to donate a thoroughbred horse”↩