Thig 6.1 - Pañcasata Patacara: Patacara's 500 Students
Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/thig/thig.06.01.than.html
License: CC-BY-NC-4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Copyright: ©1998 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
License notice: The text of this page ("Pañcasata Patacara: Patacara's 500 Students", by Thanissaro Bhikkhu) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of the license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions.
Attribution: ©1998 Thanissaro Bhikkhu. The text of this page ("Pañcasata Patacara: Patacara's 500 Students", by Thanissaro Bhikkhu) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of the license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions. Transcribed from a file provided by the translator. Last revised for Access to Insight on 4 August 2010. How to cite this document (a suggested style): "Pañcasata Patacara: Patacara's 500 Students" (Thig 6.1), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 4 August 2010, https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/thig/thig.06.01.than.html .
Changes: Presentation only: original HTML markup reflowed into plain text; wording, numbering and source repetitions retained. No repetitions expanded.
Completeness: ABBREVIATED. Every source-unit character is preserved, including introductions, notes and verse structure. Thanissaro's collection-level note explicitly states that repetitions were cut: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/about.html. This is evidence about the translation method, not an assertion that every individual unit contains an omission; no repetitions reconstructed.

[Patacara recalls the Buddha's words:]

 "You don't know the path of his coming or going, that being who has come from where? — the one you lament as 'my son.' But when you know the path of his coming or going, you don't grieve after him, for that is the nature of beings. Unasked, he came from there. Without permission, he went from here — coming from where? having stayed a few days. And coming one way from here, he goes yet another from there. Dying in the human form, he will go wandering on. As he came, so he has gone — so what is there to lament?" Pulling out —completely out — the arrow so hard to see, embedded in my heart, he expelled from me —overcome with grief — the grief over my son. Today — with arrow removed, without hunger, entirely Unbound — to the Buddha, Dhamma, & Sangha I go, for refuge to the Sage.