Thag 16.8 PTS: Thag 866-891- Angulimala

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Thag 16.8 PTS: Thag 866-891- Angulimala
(Angulimala:) "While walking, contemplative, you say, 'I have stopped.' But when I have stopped you say I haven't. I ask you the meaning of this: How have you stopped? How haven't I?"

(The Buddha:) "I have stopped, Angulimala, once & for all, having cast off violence toward all living beings. You, though, are unrestrained toward beings. That's how I've stopped <p style="text-align:center;">and you haven't."

<p style="text-align:center;">(Angulimala:) <p style="text-align:center;">"At long last a greatly revered great seer <p style="text-align:center;">for my sake <p style="text-align:center;">has come to the great forest. <p style="text-align:center;">Having heard your verse <p style="text-align:center;">in line with the Dhamma, <p style="text-align:center;">I will go about <p style="text-align:center;">having abandoned evil."

<p style="text-align:center;">So saying, the bandit <p style="text-align:center;">hurled his sword & weapons <p style="text-align:center;">over a cliff <p style="text-align:center;">into a chasm, <p style="text-align:center;">a pit. <p style="text-align:center;">Then the bandit paid homage <p style="text-align:center;">to the feet of the One Well-gone, <p style="text-align:center;">and right there requested the Going-forth. <p style="text-align:center;">The Awakened One, <p style="text-align:center;">the compassionate great seer, <p style="text-align:center;">the teacher of the world, along with its devas, <p style="text-align:center;">said to him then: <p style="text-align:center;">"Come, bhikkhu." <p style="text-align:center;">That in itself <p style="text-align:center;">was bhikkhuhood for him.

<p style="text-align:center;">* * *

<p style="text-align:center;">Who once was heedless, <p style="text-align:center;">but later is not, <p style="text-align:center;">brightens the world <p style="text-align:center;">like the moon set free from a cloud.

<p style="text-align:center;">His evil-done deed <p style="text-align:center;">is replaced with skillfulness: <p style="text-align:center;">he brightens the world <p style="text-align:center;">like the moon set free from a cloud.

<p style="text-align:center;">Whatever young monk <p style="text-align:center;">devotes himself <p style="text-align:center;">to the Buddha's bidding: <p style="text-align:center;">he brightens the world <p style="text-align:center;">like the moon set free from a cloud.

<p style="text-align:center;">May even my enemies <p style="text-align:center;">hear talk of the Dhamma. <p style="text-align:center;">May even my enemies <p style="text-align:center;">devote themselves <p style="text-align:center;">to the Buddha's bidding. <p style="text-align:center;">May even my enemies <p style="text-align:center;">associate with those people <p style="text-align:center;">who — peaceful, good — <p style="text-align:center;">get others to accept the Dhamma. <p style="text-align:center;">May even my enemies <p style="text-align:center;">hear the Dhamma time & again <p style="text-align:center;">from those who adviseendurance, <p style="text-align:center;">forbearance, <p style="text-align:center;">who praise non-opposition, <p style="text-align:center;">and may they follow it.

<p style="text-align:center;">For surely he wouldn't harm me, <p style="text-align:center;">or anyone else; <p style="text-align:center;">he would attainthe foremost peace, <p style="text-align:center;">would protect the feeble & firm.

<p style="text-align:center;">Irrigators guidethe water. <p style="text-align:center;">Fletchers shapethe arrow shaft. <p style="text-align:center;">Carpenters shapethe wood. <p style="text-align:center;">The wise control <p style="text-align:center;">themselves.

<p style="text-align:center;">Some tame with a blunt stick, <p style="text-align:center;">with hooks, & with whips <p style="text-align:center;">But without blunt or bladed weapons <p style="text-align:center;">I was tamed by the one who is Such.

<p style="text-align:center;">"Doer of No Harm" is my name, <p style="text-align:center;">but I used to be a doer of harm. <p style="text-align:center;">Today I am true to my name, <p style="text-align:center;">for I harm no one at all.

<p style="text-align:center;">A bandit <p style="text-align:center;">I used to be, <p style="text-align:center;">renowned as Angulimala. <p style="text-align:center;">Swept along by a great flood, <p style="text-align:center;">I went to the Buddha as refuge.

<p style="text-align:center;">Bloody-handed <p style="text-align:center;">I used to be, <p style="text-align:center;">renowned as Angulimala. <p style="text-align:center;">See my going for refuge! <p style="text-align:center;">Uprooted is (craving), <p style="text-align:center;">the guide to becoming.

<p style="text-align:center;">Having done the type of kamma <p style="text-align:center;">that would lead to many <p style="text-align:center;">bad destinations, <p style="text-align:center;">touched by the fruit of (that) kamma, <p style="text-align:center;">unindebted, I eat my food.

<p style="text-align:center;">They're addicted to heedlessness <p style="text-align:center;">— dullards, fools — <p style="text-align:center;">while one who is wise <p style="text-align:center;">cherishes heedfulness <p style="text-align:center;">as his highest wealth.

<p style="text-align:center;">Don't give way to heedlessness <p style="text-align:center;">or to intimacy <p style="text-align:center;">with sensual delight — <p style="text-align:center;">for a heedful person, <p style="text-align:center;">absorbed in jhana, <p style="text-align:center;">attains an abundant bliss.

<p style="text-align:center;">This has come well & not gone away, <p style="text-align:center;">it was not badly thought through for me. <p style="text-align:center;">From among well-analyzed qualities, <p style="text-align:center;">I have obtained <p style="text-align:center;">the best.

<p style="text-align:center;">This has come well & not gone away, <p style="text-align:center;">it was not badly thought through for me.

<p style="text-align:center;">The three knowledges <p style="text-align:center;">have been attained; <p style="text-align:center;">the Awakened One's bidding, <p style="text-align:center;">done.

<p style="text-align:center;">Where once I stayed here & there <p style="text-align:center;">with shuddering mind — <p style="text-align:center;">in the wilderness, <p style="text-align:center;">at the foot of a tree, <p style="text-align:center;">in mountains, caves — <p style="text-align:center;">with ease I now lie down, I stand, <p style="text-align:center;">with ease I live my life. <p style="text-align:center;">O, the Teacher has shown me sympathy!

<p style="text-align:center;">Before, I was of brahman stock, <p style="text-align:center;">on either side high-born. <p style="text-align:center;">Today I'm the son <p style="text-align:center;">of the One Well-gone, <p style="text-align:center;">the Dhamma-king, <p style="text-align:center;">the Teacher.

<p style="text-align:center;">Rid of craving, devoid of clinging, <p style="text-align:center;">sense-doors guarded, well-restrained, <p style="text-align:center;">having killed the root of evil, <p style="text-align:center;">I've reached fermentations' end.

<p style="text-align:center;">The Teacher has been served by me; <p style="text-align:center;">the Awakened One's bidding, <p style="text-align:center;">done; <p style="text-align:center;">the guide to becoming,uprooted; <p style="text-align:center;">the heavy load,laid down.