Skip to reading
← Therāpadāna

139. Sālapupphadāyaka

Tha-ap 141

Moonlight reflected in a still pool beside a flowering forest grove.

Walt 1928 I was the king of beasts back then,
a wild lion who was fearless.
While hunting in a mountain crag,
I saw the Leader of the World. Verse 1

Walt 1929 “This one would be the Great Hero;
he will liberate many folks.
Well then oughtn’t I approach the
God of Gods, the Bull among Men?” Verse 2

Walt 1930 Breaking a branch of a sal tree
I carried it, flowers and buds.
Having approached the Sambuddha,
I gave him those superb flowers. Verse 3

Walt 1931 In the ninety-one aeons since
I offered those flowers to him,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of flower-pūjā. Verse 4

Walt 1932 And in the ninth aeon ago
there were three different kings back then
known by the name Virocana,
wheel-turning monarchs with great strength. Verse 5

Walt 1933 The four analytical modes,
and these eight deliverances,
six special knowledges mastered,
I have done what the Buddha taught! Verse 6

Thus indeed Venerable Sālapupphadāyaka Thera spoke these verses.

The legend of Sālapupphadāyaka Thera is finished.

Connections

Collection & context

About this edition

Translation by Jonathan S. Walters · SuttaCentral · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US

Noncommercial reuse with attribution and the same license. Original publication and digitization credits are preserved below.

Translated by Jonathan S. Walters.

Whitman College, 2017

Legends of the Buddhist Saints (Apadāna) is released under the Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike license.

This is the first-ever complete translation of Apadāna into a Western language.

For more information, visit apadanatranslation.org

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Ayya Vimala.

Published source. Translation wording and order are preserved; source headings and notes are retained, with navigation and formatting adapted for this reader.

The opening image is AI-generated nature artwork for Buddhist Atlas, an evocative companion rather than a historical depiction.