66. Sucintita

Roaming a mountain hard to reach
I was then a high-born lion.
Slaying assemblies of wild beasts
I was living on that mountain.

But Atthadassi, Blessed One,
Best Debater, Omniscient One,
with a wish for my upliftment
came to that superb mountain then.

I approached wishing to eat some
spotted antelopes I had killed.
At that time the Blessed One did
come there during his begging rounds.

Taking excellent chunks of meat,
I gave them to the Teacher then.
The Great Hero gave thanks for that,
thus bringing me toward nirvana.

I entered that hard-reached mountain
with that pleasure in my own heart,
and having given birth to joy,
I passed away right then and there.

Because of that gift of some meat
and the resolve in my own heart,
for fifteen hundred aeons I
delighted in the world of gods.

In all the remaining aeons
I always acted wholesomely,
because of the gift of that meat,
and through Buddha-recollection.

In the thirty-eighth aeon hence
there were eight kings named Dighāyu.
In the sixtieth aeon hence
there were two kings named Varuṇa.

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

Thus indeed Venerable Sucintita Thera spoke these verses.