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Buddhism

Thig 2:4 · Aḍḍhkāsī

Thai temple painting: Prince Vessantara gives away the white elephant
Vessantara Jātaka, Chapter 2 (Himavanta Forest) · Thai, Rattanakosin, c. 1850–1870 · Walters Art Museum

All of the Kāsi countryside:

My fee was equal to that.

Having made that my price,

the town1 set me as priceless in price.

But then I became disenchanted with my body,

and—disenchanted—dispassionate:

“May I not run again & again

through birth & the wandering-on.”

The three knowledges

have been realized.

The Buddha’s bidding

done.

Note

1. Reading nigamo with the Thai edition. The Burmese and Sinhalese editions read negamo, “the townspeople.”

See also: AN 7:48


Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. © 2014 / rev. 2017 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu — released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 licence, for free distribution only. Source: dhammatalks.org (Metta Forest Monastery).

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