Thig 6.1 - Thig 6:1 Paṭācārā’s 500 Students
Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Thig/thig6_1.html
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Copyright: Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017
License notice: Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. “Commercial” shall mean any sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities. Questions about this book may be addressed to Metta Forest Monastery Valley Center, CA 92082-1409 U.S.A. Additional resources More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu are available to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at dhammatalks.org. Printed copy A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082 USA.
Attribution: From Handful of Leaves, Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu; https://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/Ebooks/SuttaPitaka_251113.epub. Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. “Commercial” shall mean any sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities. Questions about this book may be addressed to Metta Forest Monastery Valley Center, CA 92082-1409 U.S.A. Additional resources More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu are available to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at dhammatalks.org. Printed copy A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082 USA.
Publisher references (not part of the sutta): See also: SN 47:13; AN 5:49; Ud 5:1; Ud 8:8; Sn 3:8; Thig 3:5
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.

Thig 6:1 Paṭācārā’s 500 Students

[Paṭācārā recounts 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 [the Buddha] expelled from me
    —overcome with grief—
the grief
over my son.

Today—with arrow removed,
    without hunger, entirely
        unbound—
to the Buddha, Dhamma, & Saṅgha I go,
    for refuge to
    the Sage.