[123. Pāyāsadāyaka[1]]

[I saw] the Golden Sambuddha,
Bearing the Thirty-two Great Marks
Honored by the monks’ Assembly,
who was leaving the forest [then]. (1) [1791]

Overjoyed I [then] arranged for
milk-rice [served] in a bowl of bronze.
Wishing to offer sacrifice
I presented [this] offering.[2] (2) [1792]

The Buddha[3] [living] at that time,
the World’s Best One, the Bull of Men,
had well-ascended[4] a walkway
in the wind’s path up in the sky. (3) [1793]

And having seen that miracle,
marvel making hair stand on end,
placing down that bowl made of bronze,
I worshipped Vipassi [right then]. (4) [1794]

“You are the God, Omniscient One,
over the gods as well as men.
Having taken pity on me,
[please] accept [this food,] O Great Sage.” (5) [1795]

Discerning what I was thinking,
the Teacher, Great Sage in the World,
the Blessed One, Omniscient One,
the World-Leader, accepted [it]. (6) [1796]

In the ninety-one aeons since
I gave [him] that alms-food back then,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that is the fruit of [some] milk-rice. (7) [1797]

In the forty-first aeon hence
I was a ruler[5] named Buddha,[6]
a wheel-turner with great power,
possessor of the seven gems. (8) [1798]

The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
[I have] done what the Buddha taught! (9) [1799]

Thus indeed Venerable Pāyāsadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Pāyāsadāyaka Thera is finished.

  1. “Milk-rice Donor” ↩︎

  2. reading upanesiṃ (BJTS) for agamāsi (“I went,” PTS). ↩︎

  3. lit., “the Blessed One” ↩︎

  4. the cty explains the prefixes that intensify the participle as meaning that he had ascended with some distinction (visesana) ↩︎

  5. lit., “kṣatriyan”. ↩︎

  6. “Awoken” ↩︎

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