Psalms of the Brethren CCLXIV: Vangisa

Alas! that now when I am gone from home
Into the homeless life, these graceless thoughts
Sprung from the Dark should flit about my mind.

Were highborn warriors, mighty archers, trained
In champion bow-craft, such as never flee,
To scatter thousand arrows round about . . .

But women! Well, far more than those may come,
Yet shall they never wreck my peace of mind,
Firmly established in the truths I stand.

For even in his presence have I heard
The Buddha of the Suns high lineage tell
About the Path that to Nibbana goes;
And there the love of all my heart is given.

Now that I alway in such mood abide,
Dost think, vile one, thou canst draw nigh to me?
Then will I do the like, O Death, and thou
Wilt ne’er discover which the way I take.

I who have given up dislikes and do tings
In all that stirs the lay imagination,
May not make anywhere a haunt for lusting.
He who from jungly vice hath gained the open,
From lusting free, ’tis he is truly Bhikkhu.

All things of visible shape here on earth dwelling,
Or in the upper air that’s based on earth,
Transient is all, and all away is wearing
Thus understanding they who think do walk.

Who here, desires suppressing, unaffected,
Adhereth nowhere, him [the wise] call Saint.

Who cleave to views mistaken eight and sixty,
Their nature of the common average sort,
They’re fixed in courses evil and unrighteous.
But whoso to no sect whate’er doth go,
Nor clutcheth at blown straws [of vain opinion],
A genuine bhikkhu he all men may know.

Fully endowed, long since of self the master,
Candid yet wise, and free from craving’s power,
A Saint, the way of peace he hath attained;
Serene and cool, awaits his final hour.

Renounce conceit, thou, Gotama’s disciple!
Wholly from path of pride remove thy foot.
Since with that path some time infatuated,
Long ere to-day thou truly didst repent.

By self-deceit deceived this generation,
Destroyed by vanity, is doomed to woe.
For many an age reborn in purgatory
Will folk destroyed by pride lament their doom.

Path-victor who the Highest hath achieved.
Both fame and happy conscience he enjoyeth.
‘Norm-seer say, and rightly say the wise.

Hence in this life, sober and unimpeded,
Dispelled all hindering clouds, and clear in mind,
Renouncing pride and vain conceits entirely,
Let me be found End-maker and serene.’

My sense with passion burns, my mind s aflame.
Take thou compassion on me, Gotamid!
O tell me truly of a putting out!

Because thy judgment is upset, perverse,
Therefore thy mind’s aflame. Thou shouldst avoid
The seeing lovely objects passion-linked.

Compel thy steeled and well-composed mind
To contemplate what is not fair to view,
Let there be heedfulness concerning sense.
And be thou filled with a sane distaste.

Study the absence of the Threefold Sign;x
Cast out the baneful bias of conceit.
Hath the mind mastered vain imaginings,
Then mayst thou go thy ways, calm and serene.

Whoso can speak a word whereby
He works no torment to himself,
Nor causeth harm to fellow men —
That word is spoken well.

Pleasant the word that one should speak.
Speech that is grateful to the ear,
That lays not hold of others’ faults:
Sweet is that word to hear.

Truth is the word that dieth not.
This is the old primeval Norm.
On Truth and Good and Norm, ’tis said,
The saints do firmly stand.

That which th’ Awakened speaks, the sure
Safe guide to make Nibbana ours,
To put a lasting end to Ill —
That is the Word Supreme.

With insight into mysteries deep,
And richly dowered with learned lore,
Expert in paths both true and false,
The son of Sari, greatly wise,
Teacheth the bhikkhus in the Norm.

He teaches first in outline brief,
And then expounds in full detail.
And like the myna-bird’s sweet song,
His exposition poureth forth.

And while he teaches, they who hear
His honeyed speech, in tones they love
Of voice enchanting, musical,
With ravished ears, transported hearts,
Delighted list his every word.

To-day, at full moon, for full purity
Five hundred brethren are together come.
They all have cut their fetters and their bonds;
Seers who are free from rebirth and from ill.

And as a king who ruleth all the world,
Surrounded by his councillors of state,
Toureth around his empire everywhere,
Driving throughout the lands that end in sea,

So him, who is our victor in the fight,
The peerless Master of our caravan,
We followers attend and wait upon,
Who hold the triple lore, slayers of Death.

All we are sons of the Exalted One.
No sterile babbler is among us found.
I worship him who strikes down craving’s darts.
I greet the offspring of the Sun’s great line.

A thousand brethren, yea, and more than these
Attend around the Well-Come One, who here
Doth teach the Norm, the Pure, the Passionless,
Even Nibbana, where can come no fear.

They hearken to the Norm’s abundant flow,
Imparted by the Very Buddha blest,
O wondrous fair the All-Enlightened shines,
With all the Band of Brethren seated round.

Mysterious spirit thou, Exalted One!
The seventh in the lineage of the Seers,
Like a great storm-cloud in the summer sky,
Thou on thy followers pourest precious rain.

And one of these, from meditation come,
Full fain his gracious Master to behold —
Thy true disciple, mighty Hero, see!
Low at thy feet Vangisa worships thee.

O’er Mara’s devious ways he fares triumphant,
And every obstacle he breaketh down.
Behold him from all bondage our Deliverer;
Himself full fraught, he p)ortions out the Norm.

For he hath shown a Way by many methods
For crossing o’er the [fearsome fourfold] Flood;
And we to whom he hath declared Ambrosia,
Stand as Norm-seers inexpugnable.

Light-bringer, he hath pierced beyond, beholding
Past all those stations where the mind doth halt.’
The topmost heights knowing and realizing,
To us he maketh known the path of sight.

Lo! now in truths so well revealed, for trifling
What place is there mong them who learn his Lore?
Hence zealously within that Master’s System
Let each man train, and while he trains adore.

Who next to our Great Waked One was awoke,
Brother Kondanna, strong in energy,
Who oft enjoyeth hours of blissful ease —
[The harvest] of complete detachment won—

All that the Master’s follower can win,
If he fulfil the training of the Rule —
All this Kondanna step by step hath won
By study strenuous and diligent.

Sublime in power and versed in triple lore,
Expert the thoughts of others to descry,
Kondanna of the Buddha rightful heir,
Low at the Master’s feet behold him lie.

High on the hilly slopes disciples wait,
Holding the triple lore, slayers of Death,
Upon the pleasure of the seated Saint,
Who hath transcended all the power of ill.

And Moggallana great in mystic power
Doth scrutinize in thought the hearts of all,
And thus examining he finds them freed,
And having nought wherefrom to be reborn.

So do they wait upon that perfect Saint,
Who hath transcended all the power of ill,
And perfected on every hand his work —
So wait upon and honour Got am A.

As when th’ obscuring clouds have drifted from the sky,
The moon shines splendid even as a sun,
So thou, Angirasa, most mighty Seer,
Dost with thy glory all the world illume.

Drunk with divining art, of old we roamed
From town and village on to town again.
Then we beheld the All-Enlightened, Him
Who hath transcended all that we can know.

He in the Norm instructed me — the Seer,
Who hath transcended all the power of ill,
And when we heard that Norm our heart was glad,
And faith and trust therein rose up in us.

Hearing his Word concerning body, mind,
Sensations, objects of the same, and all
The data of our knowledge — grasping these,
I left the world to lead the homeless life.

O surely for the weal of many folk
The advent is of Them-who-Thus-are-Come! —
Of women and of men who keep their Rule.

Yea, surely, and for highest good of those —
The Brethren and the Sisters, they who see
The order of what is, what may become —
For them the Seer did win Enlightenment.

By Him-who-Sees, the Buddha, Kin o’ th’ Sun,
Well taught in kindness to all things that breathe
Are the Four Ariyan, Four Noble Truths;

Even the What and Why of Ill, and how
Ill comes, and how Ill may be overpassed,
E’en by the Ariyan, the Eightfold Path,
That leads to the abating of all Ill.

Such were the doctrines uttered thus, and I,
I saw them e’en as they were shown to me;
And now salvation have I surely won,
And all the Buddha’s ordinance is done.

O welcome tidings! welcome time to me
To live and study near the Master’s feet;
’Mong divers doctrines mooted among men
Of all ’twas sure the best I sought and found.

To heights of intuition have I won,
From sense of hearing is the dulness swept;
The triple lore have I and magic power;
In knowing others’ thought am I adept.

I ask the Master — boundless is his wisdom —
Who as to this life severs every doubt: —
Here at Aggalava hath died a Brother,
Well-known and famous, cool and calm [his heart];

Nigrodha-Kappa, so thyself didst call him,
Such was this good man’s name, Exalted One.
Revering thee he lived, his gaze on Freedom,
And, Seer of what is stable, well he strove.

Of this disciple, Sakyan, all desirous
Are we to know the fate, thou Seer of all;
Attent the ear of everyone to hear it: —
Thou art our Master and thou art supreme.

Do thou but sever from us all our doubting,
Tell thou me, amplest Wisdom, make it known:
Hath he indeed his life’s long round completed?
Speak to us in our midst, O Seer of all,
As Sakka thousand-eyed in heavenly hall.

Bonds that here bind us, pathways of illusion,
Factors of ignorance, stations of doubt
Whate’er they be, confronted by the Master,
By Him-who-Thus-hath-Come, they cease to be,
For among men the Eye Supreme is he.

For if, i faith, some Man the world’s corruptions
Sweep not away, as wind the lowering clouds,
The world were shrouded wholly in thick darkness,
And e’en the brighter minds would lose their light.

Light-bringers [to us all] are men of wisdom;
And thou, O Sage, methinks art even such.
We have drawn nigh to one who seeth, knoweth;
Reveal to us assembled Kappa’s fate]!

Swiftly send forth thy voice in all its beauty,
O thou most beauteous; even as the swan,
With rich and mellow tones well modulated,
Lifts up its neck in measured trumpeting,
And we will hearken all, our hearts sincere.

Gone from his ways all future birth and dying;
And him who shook them off without remainder,
Him now constraining will I cause to speak.
For average folk fail to fulfil their wishes,
But saints perform whatever they devise.

Well have we learnt how thou canst answer,
Whose insight straight to heart of things dost go,
Not vainly do we stand, once more saluting,
O baffle not, thou infinite in wisdom,
Who [Kappa’s destiny] dost surely know.

The Ariyan Norm thou know’st in all its bearings,
Knowing and strong to work, O baffle not!
As for cool waters when by heat we suffer,
Thy word we wait for: — rain that we may hear!

That holy life which, for the goal desirous,
He of the Kappas led, was’t not in vain?
Passed he away fraught with the seed of rebirth,
Or as one wholly free? — that would we hear.

The Exai.ted One.
All craving as to life of mind and body
He severed here below, and crossed the stream
Of craving flowing long deep-bedded in him,
Passed utterly beyond both birth and death.

Pleased is my heart to hear thy word,
O seventh of mighty Rishis thou!
Not vain, in sooth, was my request,
Thou’st not deceived me, Holy One!

As Kappa spoke, so Kappa wrought,
Disciple of the Buddha he,
For he hath cut the netted snare
By crafty Death outstretched and strong.

He of the Kappas saw the source
Of grasping, O Exalted One!
Ah! truly he hath passed beyond
The realm of Death so hard to cross.

Thee greater than the gods I greet,
With thee thy son, O best of men,
A mighty hero like thee grown,
Of wondrous Being, very son.