[39. Ambapālī¹]

The Great Sage was Phussa [Buddha,]
[like] a garland of speckled rays.²
I was [that Buddha’s own] sister,
born in [Buddha’s] kṣatriyan clan. (1) [1307]

Having listened to his Teaching,
with a mind that was very clear,
giving [him] a large alms-giving
I aspired to achieve beauty. (2) [1308]

Thirty-one aeons in the past,³
Sikhi, Chief Leader of the World,
arose, the [Bright] Lamp of the World,
the Three Worlds’ Refuge, the Victor. (3) [1309]

I’m then born in a brahmin clan,
in lovely Āruṇa City.
Angered [about something,] I cursed
a nun with liberated mind. (4) [1310]

Misbehaved like a prostitute,
I dirtied the dispensation.⁴
Having thus cursed [the nun] like that,
because of that evil karma,
I went to a horrific hell,
full of terrible suffering.
Fallen from there, [again] reborn
human,⁵ I was an ascetic.⁶ (5-6) [1311-1312]

For ten thousand [different] lifetimes,
I was fixed in prostitution;
thus I was not freed from evil,
as though [I’d] eaten⁷ strong poison. (7) [1313]

In Kassapa’s dispensation,⁸
I practiced celibate [nunhood]⁹.
Due to that karma, I was born
in the city of the thirty.¹⁰ (8) [1314]

When [my] last rebirth was attained,
come to be spontaneously,¹¹
I was born amidst mango boughs;
therefore I was “Mango-Guarded.” (9) [1315]

Along with ten million beings,
gone forth in the dispensation,¹²
I attained the unshaking state,
Buddha’s legitimate daughter. (10) [1316]

I’ve mastered the superpowers
[like] the “divine ear” element.
I’m also a master, Great Sage,¹³
of the knowledge in others’ hearts. (11) [1317]

I remember [my] former lives;
[my] “divine eye” is purified.
All the defilements are destroyed;
[I] will not be reborn again. (12) [1318]

In meaning and in the Teaching,
etymology and preaching,
[this] knowledge of mine was produced
in your presence, O Great Hero. (13) [1319]

My defilements are [now] burnt up;
all [new] existence is destroyed.
Like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint. (14) [1320]

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! (15) [1321]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (16) [1322]

Thus indeed the bhikkhunī Ambapālī spoke these verses.

The legend of the bhikkhunī Ambapālī is finished