I have heard that,
on eating Cunda the silversmith’s meal,
the enlightened one was touched by illness–
fierce, deadly.
After he had eaten the pig-delicacy,
a fierce sickness arose in the Teacher.
After being purged of it,
the Blessed One said,
“To the city of Kusinarā
I will go.”2
The awakened one,
–having gone to the little Kukuṭa river
with its pristine, pleasing water, clear–
the Teacher, seeming very tired,
the Tathāgata, unequalled in the world
went down, bathed, drank, & came out.
Honored, surrounded,
in the midst of the group of monks,
the Blessed One, Teacher,
proceeding here in the Dhamma,
the great seer,
went to the mango grove.
He addressed the monk named Cundaka,
“Spread it out, folded in four
for me to lie down.”
Ordered by the One of developed mind,
Cundaka quickly set it out, folded in four.
The Teacher lay down, seeming very tired,
and Cundaka sat down there before him.
For a person giving,
merit increases.
For one self-restraining,
no animosity is amassed.
One who is skillful
leaves evil behind
and
–from the ending of
passion,
aversion,
delusion–
is totally unbound.
Notes
1. The Commentary notes a wide range of opinions on what “pig-delicacy” means. The opinion given in the Mahā Aṭṭhakathā–the primary source for the Commentary we now have–is that pig-delicacy is tender pork. Other opinions include soft bamboo shoots or mushrooms that pigs like to nibble on, or a special elixir. Given that India has long had a history of giving fanciful names to its foods and elixirs, it’s hard to say for sure what the Buddha ate for his last meal.
2. This style of narrative–in which prose passages alternate with verses retelling parts of what was narrated in the prose–is called a campū. This sutta is one of the few instances of this type of narrative in the Pali Canon. Another is the Kuṇāla Jātaka (J 5:416-456). There are also some Vedic examples of this form in the Brāhmaṇas, texts that apparently dated from around the same time as the Pali Canon. When the incidents portrayed in this sutta were included in DN 16, these alternating narrative verses were included. Aside from the Buddha’s conversation with Pukkusa the Mallan (see note 4), these are the only incidents that DN 16 narrates in this style. This suggests that perhaps the version of the narrative given here was composed first as a separate piece and then later was incorporated into DN 16.
3. Ven. Ānanda’s description of the water is alliterative in the Pali: sātodakā sītodakā setodakā.
4. At this point in the narrative, DN 16 inserts the account of the Buddha’s encounter with Pukkusa the Mallan. There’s no way of knowing which version of the events is earlier, as the focus of this sutta is not on telling everything that happened to the Buddha on his final day, but on recounting all the events related to Cunda’s meal.
5. Unbinding as experienced by an arahant at death. The image is of a fire so thoroughly out that the embers are totally cold. This is distinguished from the unbinding property with fuel remaining–unbinding as experienced in this lifetime–which is like a fire that has gone out but whose embers are still glowing. See Iti 44, Thag 15:2, and the discussion in The Mind Like Fire Unbound, chapter 1.
6. Āyasmant: This is a term of respect usually reserved for senior monks. The Buddha’s using it here was probably meant to emphasize the point that Cunda’s gift of the Buddha’s last meal should be treated as a very honorable thing.
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