It was well-gotten and it did not fail me,
Not ill-advised (I have made that choice);
Of all the multifarious doctrines,
It is the best that I obtained. Instead he equipped himself with a set of the fivefold weaponry, among them a large sword, and went into the wild Jalini forest in his home state, Kosala.
Utterly bewildered, he shouted out: “Stand still, ascetic!” The Buddha turned around and looked at him, and replied: “I am still. The Buddha said that he himself had already stopped, and that it was Angulimala who should stop.
[v. Out of that resentment, as an act of revenge, they were mean enough to injure the venerable Angulimala by throwing stones and sticks which struck him when he had gone for alms. At the same time, he was very anxious to kill the thousandth person and complete his task.
Tibetan sources
The Tibetan Canon includes:
Angulimala is also referred to in well-known texts from the Tibetan tradition, such as:
Chinese sources
The Chinese Canon includes editions of the Angulimala Sutra.[3]
The account of Angulimala from the Pali suttas
| Editor's note: The quotes in this section use the translation by Thanisarro Bhikkhu.
He must have come here just to help me!” Angulimala threw away his weapons and asked the Buddha to teach him meditation and wisdom. The name Angulimala literally means "necklace of fingers". [v. Meanwhile a crowd of people had gathered at the court of King Pasenadi Kosala asking him to do something about Angulimala, calling out: - "There is a bandit in your realm, sire, named Angulimala: brutal, bloody-handed, devoted to killing & slaying, showing no mercy to living beings.
But, how could such an unvirtuous person of evil character have such virtue and restraint?" Then the Master extended his right arm and said: "Here, great King, this is Angulimala." The king was now greatly alarmed and fearful, and his hair stood on end. A few days later, as the Buddha and Angulimala were sitting in the Jetavana, King Pasenadi and a retinue of fully armed soldiers came to visit.
You must silently endure this. He was filled with joy when his wife gave birth to a boy, but when the baby’s horoscope was drawn up, his joy turned to dread. It was a woman suffering the agonies of childbirth. He stopped and thought to himself, “All human beings suffer.” He began to have deep compassion for the woman and all the people he had harmed, as well as for himself and all living beings. The feelings of compassion and kindness calmed his mind and helped him develop better concentration and patience.
The king now offered to support "the noble Gagga Mantaniputta" with all the monk's requisites, that is, robes, food, shelter and medicine. His story is seen as an example of the redemptive power of the Buddha's teaching and the universal human potential for spiritual progress, regardless of one's background. 891] - 1.
- The commentary says that Angulimala spoke the verses 874-876 after he had been injured during his alms-round.
Angulimala"Non-harmer" is the name I bear
Who was a harmer in the past,
The name I bear is true today:
I hurt not any one at all.
69. Papancasudani states, even more strangely, that he was told to "kill a thousand legs", and gathered fingers only as an aid to keeping an accurate count).
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