Upasena Vaṅgantaputta

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Rājagaha at the Bamboo Forest, the Squirrels’ Sanctuary.

And on that occasion, when Ven. Upasena Vaṅgantaputta was alone in seclusion, this line of thinking appeared to his awareness:

“What a gain, what a true gain it is for me that my teacher is the Blessed One, worthy and fully self-awakened; that I have gone forth from home to the homeless life in a well-taught Dhamma & Vinaya; that my companions in the holy life are virtuous and endowed with admirable qualities; that I have achieved culmination in terms of the precepts; that my mind is unified and well-concentrated; that I am an arahant, with effluents ended; that I have great power & great might.

Fortunate has been my life; fortunate will be my death.”

Then the Blessed One, comprehending with his awareness the line of thinking that had appeared to Ven. Upasena Vaṅgantaputta’s awareness, on that occasion exclaimed:

He doesn’t regret
what life has been,
doesn’t grieve
at death,
if–enlightened–
he has seen that state.

He doesn’t grieve
in the midst of grief.

For one who has crushed
craving for becoming–
the monk of peaceful mind–
birth & the wandering on
are totally ended.

He has no further becoming.

This reflection is from the Pāli Canon: Upasena Vaṅgantaputta, Upasena Vaṅgantaputta Sutta, (Ud 4:9), translated from Pali by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu.