[39. Ambapālī[1]]
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] eaten[7] 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
“Mango-Guarded”, an historical nun, see DPPN I: 155-156 ↩︎
raŋsiphusitāvelo, playing on/explaining the name “Phussa” (= speckled, cf. °phusita°) ↩︎
or “ago,” or “hence,” as elsewhere: ito ↩︎
jinasāsanadūsikā, lit., “defiling the Victor’s dispensation” ↩︎
lit., “among humans” ↩︎
tapassinī, lit., “a female practitioner of austerities” ↩︎
bhuttā…yathā; BJTS reads bhutvā ↩︎
kassape jinasāsane, lit., “in the dispensation of the Victor, Kassapa [Buddha]” ↩︎
reading °brahmacchariyam with BJTS for PTS °brahmaccheram, lit., “the Brahma-life” “the holy life” “celibacy” ↩︎
i.e., the thirty-three gods. ↩︎
ahosiŋ opapātikā ↩︎
it. “I went forth in the Victor’s dispensation” ↩︎
reading mahāmune with BJTS (and PTS alt.) for PTS mahāmuni, Great Sage. ↩︎