[523. {526.}1 Daṇḍadāyaka2]
Plunged into the forest, the woods,
I cut down [some] bamboo back then.
Having taken a walking stick,3
I gave it to the Assembly.4 (1) [5573]
Due to the pleasure in [my] heart,
honored with, “happiness to you!,”
having given that walking stick,
I departed, facing the north. (2) [5574]
In the ninety-four aeons since
I gave [the monks] that stick back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of giving a stick. (3) [5575]
My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (4) [5576]
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! (5) [5577]
The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (6) [5578]
Thus indeed Venerable Daṇḍadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.
The legend of Daṇḍadāyaka Thera is finished.
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.↩
“Stick Donor.” This same apadāna (save for the elision of the first two verses of the standard three-verse concluding refrain, which are included here) is presented above, with the same title, as #352 {355}↩
ālambana or ālamba, lit., “hang onto,” is anything to hang onto or which provides support. I understand it as a cane for walking, a typical accoutrement of peripatetic Buddhist monks.↩
saṅghassa, i.e., the Assembly of monks↩