Bv 27The History of the Buddha Gotama

– BUDDHAVAṀSA

27. The History of the Buddha Gotama:

Inda-bh 1Having striven with great effort, I attained the supreme state of Perfect Enlightenment, becoming the Perfectly Enlightened Gotama in the present age and the glory of the Sākya clan.

Inda-bh 2Requested by the Brahmā, I set in motion the Wheel of the Dhamma. There was the first penetration by eighteen koṭis (one hundred and eighty million) of beings.

Inda-bh 3Thereafter, on another occasion, while teaching in an assembly of humans and devas, there was a second penetration that cannot be expressed by counting.

Inda-bh 4In the present age, I instructed my own son right here; there was a third penetration that cannot be expressed by counting.

Inda-bh 5I had one assembly consisting of great sage disciples. There was a gathering of one thousand two hundred and fifty bhikkhus.

Inda-bh 6Radiant and unsullied in the midst of the assembly of bhikkhus, I bestowed all that was longed for, like a maṇi-jewel granting every wish.

Inda-bh 7Out of compassion for beings, I expounded the four Truths to those seeking the abandonment of the desire for rebirth and aspiring for the (noble) Fruit.

Inda-bh 8There was a penetration of the Dhamma by tens of thousands, by twenty thousands. The penetrations of one or two individuals are impossible to reckon by calculation.

Inda-bh 9Here, my teaching—of me, the Sage of the Sākya lineage—is well purified, widespread among many people, fruitful, abundant, and has blossomed into flower.

Inda-bh 10Hundreds of bhikkhus, free from the taints, rid of craving, with minds serene and composed, always gather around me.

Inda-bh 11Now in the present age, those who have relinquished rebirth in the human realm yet whose minds have not reached fulfillment,² being still Trainees, those bhikkhus are censured by the wise.

Inda-bh 12Those who praise the path of the Noble Ones, who ever delight in the Dhamma and are mindful—those ones shall be enlightened even while still carried along by the stream of saṁsāra.

Inda-bh 13My city is Kapilavatthu; my father is King Suddhodana; she who gave birth to me is known as "Queen Māyā."

Inda-bh 14I lived the household life for twenty-nine years. There were three magnificent palaces: Ramma, Suramma, and Subhaka.

Inda-bh 15There were forty thousand adorned women. That woman, my wife, was named Bhaddakaccānā. My son was named Rāhula.

Inda-bh 16Having seen the four signs, I went forth by means of a horse and for six years practiced the striving that is difficult to perform.

Inda-bh 17I, the Perfectly Enlightened Gotama, the Conqueror, set in motion the Wheel of the Dhamma at Isipatana in Bārāṇasī, and I am the refuge of all beings.

Inda-bh 18The two bhikkhus Kolita and Upatissa are the foremost pair of disciples. The attendant named Ānanda was ever present at my side.

Inda-bh 19The bhikkhuṇīs Khemā and Uppalavaṇṇā are the foremost pair of female disciples. Citta and Haṭṭhāḷavaka are the foremost male lay supporters.

Inda-bh 20Nandamātā and Uttarā are the foremost female lay supporters. I attained the supreme state of Perfect Enlightenment at the foot of the Assattha tree.

Inda-bh 21The radiance of my aura perpetually extends sixteen arm-lengths (eight metres). In my present age at that time, the lifespan is known to be brief—only one hundred years. While it lasts that long, I have helped many beings cross over.

Inda-bh 22Having established the torch of the Dhamma and enlightenment for beings in the future, before long I, together with the assembly of disciples, shall attain Parinibbāna right here, like a fire that has exhausted its fuel.

Inda-bh 23Those incomparable powers,¹ the ten strengths, and these supernormal abilities—and here is the body containing the virtues adorned with the thirty-two marks of a great being.

Inda-bh 24Having illuminated the ten directions in all their breadth like the sun with the six-coloured radiance, all will utterly vanish; are not all formations empty?

The history of the Buddha Gotama is the twenty-seventh chapter.