292. Pupphadhāraka

I was a bark-clothed ascetic,
wearing deer-leather outer robes.
I had five special knowledges;
a person who could stroke the moon.

Seeing Vipassi, the World’s Torch,
come to the same place as me,
I bore the floral canopy
over the head of the Teacher.

In the ninety-one aeons since
I bore that floral canopy,
I’ve come to know no bad rebirth:
that’s the fruit of bearing flowers.

In the eighty-seventh aeon
hence, there was one lord of the earth
by name Samantadharaṇa,
a wheel-turning king with great strength.

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

Thus indeed Venerable Pupphadhāraka Thera spoke these verses.