The Perfection of Truth (5th)

“Then again when I was

the seer Dark Light,

for more than fifty years

I lived dissatisfied.

No-one knew of this

dissatisfaction of mine,

for I mentioned it to no-one,

it only went on in my mind.

Maṇḍabya, a spiritual companion

and friend of mine was a great seer.

Bound to a deed in a past life,

he got impaled on a stake.

I nursed him

and brought him back to health.

Asking leave, I returned

to my own hermitage.

A brahmin friend of mine,

bringing wife and child,

came to me, all three of them,

as my guests.

As I exchanged greetings with them,

seated in my own hermitage,

the boy threw a ball

and angered a viper.

Then the boy, looking which way

the ball had gone,

touched the viper’s head

with his hand.

Angered at his touch,

the snake, relying on its potent poison,

completely enraged,

bit the boy right away.

When bitten by the viper,

the boy fainted on the ground.

It made me distraught,

the pain became as if mine.

Comforting the parents,

in their suffering and sorrow,

I made the first act,

the original, supreme declaration of truth:

‘For just seven days with a mind of faith

I led the spiritual life seeking merit.

My life since then,

for fifty years or more,

I have lived unwillingly.

By this truth, may he be well!

May the poison die! May Yaññadatta live!’

As I declared this truth,

the boy trembling with poison,

awoke and got up,

the brahmin youth was well.

There is no-one to equal my truthfulness:

this is my perfection of truth.”