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Verses of the Elder Bhikkhunīs Chapter of the Fives Verses of the Elder Bhaddā Kuṇḍalakesā “In the past I would wander with only one robe, my head shaved and my body covered in mud. I would see the blameworthy as blameless, and the blameless as blameworthy. Having ventured out from my day’s abiding at Vulture’s Peak Mountain, I saw the stainless Buddha, leading the monastic Saṅgha. I knelt in respect before him, my hands in añjali. ‘Come, Bhaddā!,’ he said. That was my higher ordination. I traveled to Aṅga, Magadha, Vajji, Kāsi, and Kosala. Free of debt, for fifty years I ate the country’s almsfood. Surely he accumulated so much merit, that wise lay devotee, who gave a robe to Bhaddā, released from all fetters.” The Elder Bhaddā Kuṇḍalakesā