{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/pos/pos06.htm","path":"bud/pos/pos06.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/pos/pos06.htm","text":"| Sleep softly, little Sturdy, take thy rest At ease, wrapt in the robe thyself hast made. Stilled are the passions that would rage within, Withered as potherbs in the oven dried. (1) | \nHow was she reborn?\nLong ago, a certain daughter of one of the clans became a fervent believer in the teaching of the Buddha Ko\u1e47\u0101gamana, 78 and entertained him hospitably. She had an arbour made with boughs, a draped ceiling, and a sanded floor, and did him honour with flowers and perfumes. And all her life doing meritorious acts, she was reborn among the gods, and then again among men when Kassapa was Buddha, under whom she renounced the world. Reborn again in heaven till this Buddha-dispensation, she was finally born in a great nobleman's family at Ves\u0101l\u012b. From the sturdy build of her body they called her Sturdykin. She became the devoted wife of a young noble. When the Master came to Ves\u0101l\u012b, she was convinced by his teaching, and became a lay-disciple. Anon, hearing the Great Paj\u0101pat\u012b the Elder preaching the Doctrine, the wish arose in her to leave the world, and she told this to her husband. He would not consent; so she went on performing her duties, reflecting on the sweetness of the doctrine, and living devoted to insight. Then, one day in the kitchen, while the curry was cooking, a mighty flame of fire shot up, and burnt all the food with much crackling. She, watching it, made it a basis for rapt meditation on the utter impermanence of all things. Thereby she was established in the Fruition of the Path of No-Return. Thenceforth she wore no more jewels and ornaments. When her husband asked her the reason, she told him how incapable she felt of living a domestic life. So he brought her, as Vis\u0101kha brought Dhammadinn\u0101,79 with a large following, to Great Paj\u0101pat\u012b the Gotamid, and said: 'Let the reverend Sisters give her ordination.' And Paj\u0101pat\u012b did so, and showed her the Master; and the Master, emphasizing, as was his custom, the visible basis whereby she had attained, spoke the verse above.\nNow, when she had attained Arahantship, the Sister repeated that verse in her exultation, wherefore this verse became her verse.\n 78 Ko\u1e47\u0101gamana and Kassapa successively preceded Gotama as Buddhas.\n \n 79 See Ps. xii. \n \n| Get free, Liberta, 80 free e'en as the Moon From out the Dragon's jaws 81 sails clear on high. Wipe off the debts that hinder thee, 82 and so, With heart at liberty, break thou thy fast. (2) | \nThis is the verse of a student named Mutt\u0101. She, too, being one who had made a resolve under former Buddhas, went on heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy in this and that state of becoming. Finally, she was reborn in this Buddha-dispensation as the child of an eminent brahmin at S\u0101vatth\u012b, and named Mutt\u0101. And in her twentieth year, her destiny being fully ripe, she renounced the world under the Great Paj\u0101pat\u012b the Gotamid, and studied the exercises for ecstatic insight. Returning one day from her round for alms, she discharged her duties toward her seniors, and then going apart to rest, and seated out of sight, she began to concentrate herself. Then the Master, sitting in the 'Fragrant Chamber'83 of the Vih\u0101ra, sent forth glory, and revealing himself as if seated before her, uttered the verse above. And she, steadfast in that exhortation, not long after attained Arahantship, and so attaining, exulted in the words of that verse. Completing her studies and promoted to full rank, she yet again uttered it, when about to pass away.\n 80 Mutt\u0101=freed (woman).\n \n 81 Cf. the 'Ford' J\u0101taka (Buddhist Birth Stories, 253):\n 'He has gained freedom\u2013as the moon set free,\nWhen an eclipse has passed, from R\u0101hu's jaws.'\n 82 Cf. Dialogues of the Buddha, i. 82-84.\n \n 83 Gandha-k\u016b\u1e6di, the traditional term for the Buddha's own room, especially that at the Jetavana Vih\u0101ra, S\u0101vatthi.\n \nThe following verse is that of a student named Pu\u1e47\u1e47\u0101.84 She, heaping up good of age-enduring efficacy under former Buddhas in this and that state of becoming, was born\u2013when the world was empty of a Saviour Buddha\u2013as a fairy, by the River Candabh\u0101g\u0101.85 One day she worshipped a certain Silent 86 Buddha with a wreath of reeds. Thereby gaining heaven, she was, in this Buddha-dispensation, reborn as the child of a leading burgess of S\u0101vatthi and named Pu\u1e47\u1e47\u0101. When she had so dwelt for twenty years, her destiny then being fully ripe, she heard the Great Paj\u0101pat\u012b teach the doctrine, and renounced the world. Becoming a student, she began to practise insight. And the Master from the 'Fragrant Chamber' shed a glory, and spake this verse:\n| Fill up, Pu\u1e47\u1e47\u0101,87 the orb of holy life, E'en as on fifteenth day the full-orb'd moon. Fill full the perfect knowledge of the Path, And scatter all the gloom of ignorance.88 (3) | \nHearing this, her insight grew, and she attained Arahantship. This verse is the expression of her exultation and the affirmation of her A\u00d1\u00d1\u0100.89\n 84 Cf. Ps. lxv., note.\n \n 85 Ca=Cha. The word is equivalent to 'moonlight.' Cf. Ps. xxix., xxxii.\n \n 86 A free rendering of Pacceka-Buddha\u2013one enlightened for himself alone, not a world-Saviour.\n \n 87 Pu\u1e47\u1e47\u0101='full.'\n \n 88 The words 'holy life,' 'of the path,' 'of ignorance,' are from the Commentary.\n \n 89 Pronounce Any\u0101 = literally, her having come to know. A\n subjective synonym of Arahantship.\n \nThe following verse is that of Tiss\u0101, a student. Heaping up merit under former Buddhas, Tiss\u0101 was, in this Buddha-dispensation, reborn at Kapilavatthu in the noble clan of the S\u0101kiyas. Made a lady of the Bodhisat's court, she renounced the world with Great Paj\u0101pat\u012b the Gotamid, and practised herself in insight. To her the Master appeared as to the foregoing Sisters, and said:\n| O Tiss\u0101! train thyself in the trainings three. See that the great conjuncture 90 now at hand Pass thee not by! Unloose all other yokes, And fare thou forth purged of the deadly Drugs. 91 (4) | \nAnd she, when she heard the verse, increased in insight, and attained Arahantship. Thereafter she was wont to repeat the lines.\n 90 There is more in this little poem than is at first sight apparent.\n Tiss\u0101\u2013i.e., (a girl) born under the lucky star or constellation of Tissa, a celestial archer (partly identical with Cancer)\u2013suggests a word-play on tisso sikkh\u0101yo, the three branches of religious training (morals, mind, 'insight'). Again, that a word-play on yoga is intended is intelligible even without the Commentary. 'Let the lucky yoga (conjuncture)\u2013to wit, your rebirth as human, your possession of all your faculties (read indriya-avekalla\u014b), the advent of a Buddha, your getting conviction\u2013not slip; for by this yoking of opportunities you can free yourself from the Four Yokes\u2013viz., sense, renewed existence, opinion, ignorance\u2013which bind you to the Wheel of Life.\n \n 91 The Four \u0100savas, or Intoxicants (another metaphor for the Four Bonds, or Yokes).\n \n| Tiss\u0101! lay well upon thy heart the yoke Of noblest culture. See the moment come! Let it not pass thee by! for many they Who mourn in misery that moment past. (5) | \n| Come, O Dh\u012br\u0101, reach up and touch the goal Where all distractions cease, where sense is stilled, Where dwelleth bliss; win thou Nibbana, win That sure Salvation 92 which hath no beyond. (6) | \n| Dh\u012br\u0101, brave 93 Sister! who hath valiantly Thy faculties in noblest culture trained, Bear to this end thy last incarnate frame, For thou hast conquered M\u0101ra and his host. (7) | \n| Mitt\u0101, thou Sister friend! 94 who camest forth Convinced in heart, love thou in thought and deed Friends worthy of thy love. 95 So train thyself In ways of good to win the safe, sure Peace. (8) | \n| Bhadr\u0101, who camest forth convinced in heart, To sure felicity, O fortunate!96 That heart devote. Develop 97 all that's good, Faring to uttermost Security. (9) | \n| Upasam\u0101! cross thou serene and calm 98 The raging difficult Flood where death doth reign. Bear to this end thy last incarnate frame, For thou hast vanquished M\u0101ra and his host. (10) | \nOf all these six Sisters the story is similar to that of Tiss\u0101 (IV.), with this exception: Dh\u012br\u0101, called 'another Sister Dh\u012br\u0101,' had no glory-verse pronounced to her, but was troubled in heart at the Master's teaching. Leaning on his words, she strove for insight, and when she had reached Arahantship, she declaimed her verse in exultation. All the others did the same.\n 92 Yogakkhema, a term adapted from secular use, therein meaning well-being or security in possession.\n \n 93 Her name means 'brave,' 'heroic.'\n \n 94 Mitt\u0101='friend'; but see note 2 to Ps. xxv.\n \n 95 'In thought and deed,' 'worthy of thy love,' are from the Commentary. \n 'Peace' is another rendering of yogakkhema, so is 'security' (verse 9).\n \n 96 Bhadr\u0101=Felicia.\n \n 97 The graceful progression\u2013bhadrarat\u0101 bhava, bh\u0101vehi . . . cannot well be reproduced. It is merely suggested by 'devote. Develop.'\n \n 98 Up\u0103s\u0103m\u0101=tranquil, calm.\n \n THRESHING RICE IN 'MORTAR,' BANDIPUR, KASHMIR.\n To face p. 14.\n \nMutt\u0101, heaping up good under former Buddhas, was, in this Buddha-dispensation, born in the land of Kosala as the daughter of a poor brahmin named Ogh\u0101\u1e6daka. Come to proper age, she was given to a hunchbacked brahmin; but she told him she could not continue in the life of the house, and induced him to consent to her leaving the world. Exercising herself in insight, her thoughts still ran on external objects of interest. So she practised self-control, and, repeating her verse, strove after insight till she won Arahantship; then exulting, she repeated:\n| O free, indeed! O gloriously free Am I in freedom from three crooked things:\u2013 From quern, from mortar, from my crookback'd lord! 100 Ay, but I'm free from rebirth and from death, And all that dragged me back is hurled away. (11) | \n 99 Cf. Ps. ii.\n \n 100 The Thera Sumangala also celebrates his release from three crooked things\u2013the sickle, the plough, and the spade. See Ps. xxi.\n \nNow, she, in the time when Padumuttara was Buddha, lived at Ha\u014bsavat\u012b in a state of servitude; and because she ministered and did honour to one of the chief apostles when he rose from his cataleptic trance, she was reborn in heaven and so on, among gods and men, till Phussa was Buddha. Then she worked merit by doubling the gift prescribed by her husband to the Master's half-brothers while they were staying in a servant's house. And when Kassapa was Buddha, she came to birth in the house of Kiki, King of K\u0101s\u012b, as one of the Seven Sisters, his daughters,101 and for 20,000 years lived a holy life. . . . Finally, in this Buddha-dispensation, she was reborn of a clansman's family at R\u0101jagaha, and became the wife of Vis\u0101kha, a leading citizen. Now one day her husband went to hear the Master teaching, and became One-who-returns-no-more. When he came home, Dhammadinn\u0101 met him as he went up the stairs; but he leant not on her outstretched hand, nor spoke to her at supper. And she asked: 'Dear sir, why did you not take my hand? Why do you not talk to me? Have I done anything amiss?' ''Tis for no fault in you, Dhammadinn\u0101; but from henceforth I am not fit to touch a woman or take pleasure in food, for of such is the doctrine now borne in upon me. Do you according as you wish, either continuing to dwell here, or taking as much wealth as you need and going back to your family.' 'Nay, dear sir, I will make no such goings back. Suffer me to leave the world.' 'It is well, Dhammadinn\u0101,' replied Vis\u0101kha, and sent her to the Bhikkhun\u012bs in a golden palanquin. Admitted to the Order, she shortly after asked permission of her teachers to go into retreat, saying: 'Mothers, my heart hath no delight in a place of crowds; I would go into a village abode.' The Bhikkhun\u012bs brought her thither, and while there, because in her past lives she had subjugated the complexities of thought, word, and deed, she soon attained Arahantship, together with thorough mastery of the form and meaning of the Dhamma.102 Thereupon she thought: 'Now have I reached the summit. What shall I do here any longer? I will even go to R\u0101jagaha and worship the Master, and many of my kinsfolk will, through me, acquire merit.' So she returned with her Bhikkhun\u012bs. Then Vis\u0101kha, hearing of her return, curious to know why she came, interviewed her with questions on the Khandhas and the like. And Dhammadinn\u0101 answered every question as one might cut a lotus-stalk with a knife, and finally referred him to the Master. The Master praised her great wisdom, as it is told in the Lesser Vedalla (Miscellany) Sutta,103 and ranked her foremost among the Sisters who could preach.\nBut it was while she was dwelling in the country, and, while yet in the lowest path, was acquiring insight to reach the highest, that she uttered her verse:\n| In whom desire to reach the final rest Is born suffusing all the mind of her, Whose heart by lure of sense-desire no more Is held\u2013BOUND UPSTREAM:\u2013so shall she be called.104 (12) | \n 101 The seven most illustrious women of early Buddhism have been grouped as these Seven Sisters in the Apad\u0101na: Khem\u0101, Uppalava\u1e47\u1e47\u0101, Pa\u1e6d\u0101c\u0101r\u0101, Bhadd\u0101 (Ps. xlvi.), Kis\u0101gotam\u012b, Dhammadinn\u0101, and Vis\u0101kh\u0101, the wealthy lay sister. On the last see Warren, Buddhism in Translations, 451 \u017f.\n \n 102 Literally, 'together with the Pa\u1e6disambhid\u0101's,' or four aspects of doctrinal knowledge. These four\u2013analytical knowledge in meaning, doctrine, interpretation, and distinctions\u2013are very variously interpreted, both in works of Abhidhamma content (Pa\u1e6disambhid\u0101magga, Vibhanga) and in commentarial writings of various later dates (see Childers's Dictionary, s.v.). The phrase is of commentarial date, and recurs frequently in Dhammap\u0101la (see following Psalms).\n \n 103 In the Majjhima Nik\u0101ya, i., p. 299 \u017f\u017f.; discussed by the writer in J.R.A.S., 1894, p. 321. Cf. Mrs. Bode in J.R.A.S., 1893, p. 562 \u017f\u017f.\n \n 104 In the mythology of Buddhism respecting the after-life, the Uddha\u014b-soto was one who, having destroyed here below only the first five of the ten Fetters (to destroy all ten meant Nibbana in this life), was reborn successively in an ever higher heaven, till, reaching the Supreme or Akani\u1e6d\u1e6dha Sphere, he there passed away. The expression means rather rising above the stream of sa\u014bs\u0101ra than going against it; but it is ambiguous, and, anyway, the upward effort is expressed in either metaphor. The Commentary has, as the last word, not ti vuccati ('is called'), but vimuccati ('is set free'). As it does not comment on the latter term, I incline to hold it a misreading.\n \nHer story is similar to that of the Sister Dh\u012br\u0101.105 After winning Arahantship she pondered on the bliss of emancipation, and thus announced A\u00d1\u00d1\u0100:\n| The Buddha's will be done! See that ye do His will. An ye have done it, never more Need ye repent the deed. Wash, then, in haste Your feet and sit ye down aloof; alone.106 (13) | \nThus she admonished others to follow her example.\n 105 Ps. vi. \n \n 106 Cf. Ps. xlviii.\n \nHer story is similar to that of Sister Tiss\u0101.107 Sending forth glory, the Master revealed himself as if seated in front of her, and spake:\n| Hast thou not seen sorrow and ill in all The springs of life? Come thou not back to birth! Cast out the passionate desire again to Be. So shalt thou go thy ways calm and serene. (14) | \n 107 Ps. iv.\n \nHer story is also similar to that of Sister Tiss\u0101.108 And it was the 'Glory-verse' through which she won Arahantship that she declaimed in exultation:\n| Well have I 109 disciplined myself in act, In speech and eke in thought, rapt and intent. Craving with root of craving 110 is o'ercome; Cool am I now; I know Nibbana's peace. 111 (15) | \n 108 Ps. iv.\n \n 109 \u0100si. The aorist tense is applicable to first, second, or third person singular, and 'myself' is not in the Pali. Hence the former half of the verse might have been said equally to or by the Ther\u012b.\n \n 110 I.e., ignorance (Commentary).\n \n 111 S\u012btibh\u016bt' amhi nibbut\u0101, lit., 'Become cool am I, content,' or 'at peace.' See Introduction. The phrase is an oft-recurring refrain, implying\u2013whatever other implications of peace, happiness, serenity went with it\u2013the attainment of Nibbana. 'Rapt and intent' (sam\u0101dhin\u0101) is the Commentary's explanation of 'disciplined thought.'\n \n(Who left the world when old).\nShe too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up good in this life and in that, was, in this Buddha-dispensation, born at S\u0101vatth\u012b as the sister of the King of Kosala. Hearing the Master preach the doctrine to the King Pasenadi in the discourse beginning, 'There are four young creatures, sire, who may not be disregarded,' 112 she believed, and was established in the Refuges and the Precepts. Fain to leave the world, she put off doing so that she might take care of her grandmother as long as she lived. After the grandmother's death, Suman\u0101 went, accompanied by the King, to the Vih\u0101ra, taking much treasure in carpets and shawls, and presenting them to the Order. And hearing the Master teach, she attained the fruit of the Path of No-return, and asked for ordination. And the Master, discerning the maturity of her knowledge, spake thus:\n| Happily rest, thou venerable dame! Rest thee, wrapt in the robe thyself hast made. Stilled are the passions that have raged within. Cool art thou now, knowing Nibbana's peace. (16) | \nAnd when he had finished, she won Arahantship, together with thorough knowledge of the Norm in form and in meaning. 113 In her exultation she uttered that same verse, so that it became the announcement of her A\u00d1\u00d1\u0100. Straightway she left the world for the Order.\n 112 Contained in Sa\u014by\u016btta Nik\u0101ya, i. 68-70; see also 97, and Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, 10, on the affection of brother and sister for their grandparent. The 'young creatures' in the parable are a prince, a serpent, a fire, and a bhikkhu. All four are great potential agencies for good or evil. Pronounce Pase'n\u0103d\u012d.\n \n 113 See p. 15, n. 1.\n \nShe, too, having made her resolve under former Buddhas, and heaping up merit in this and that state of becoming, was, in this Buddha-dispensation, born in a respectable family at S\u0101vatth\u012b. Given in marriage to a suitable husband, she became converted, and desired to leave the world, but her husband would not consent. So she waited till after his death, and then entered the Order. One day, returning to the Vih\u0101ra from seeking alms, she lost her balance and fell. Making just that her base of insight, she won Arahantship with thorough knowledge of the Norm in form and in meaning. 114 And, triumphing, she uttered this verse:\n| Far had I wandered for my daily food; Weary with shaking limbs I reached my rest, Leaning upon my staff, when even there I fell to earth.\u2013Lo! all the misery Besetting this poor mortal frame lay bare To inward vision. 115 Prone the body lay; The heart of me rose up in liberty. (17) | \n 114 See p. 15, n. 1.\n \n 115 The text has simply disv\u0101, 'seeing.' But the word, when applied to spiritual insight, has the glamour of our 'Seer'; hence the Commentary's comment, 'Seeing with the eye of Insight.' 'Rose up' in the Pali is 'was set at liberty.'\n \nHer story is like that of Sister Dh\u012br\u0101, 116 but her verse is as follows:\n 116 Presumably Ps. vii.","title":"Psalms of the Sisters: Canto I. Psalms of Single Verses","type":"page"}