The Life of the Buddha
(Buddhappavattikathā)
Pandit Chhim-Sumn
Professor at the Higher School of Pāli
First History of Buddhism
Dedicated to
Buddhists throughout the Nation of Cambodia
Homage Verses
(Paṇāmagāthā)
Having honored the Tathāgata, the steadfast Buddha,
The pure, the supreme among men,
Who has crossed to the farther shore of all Dhammas,
The destroyer of evil,
I shall speak of that Buddha’s noble lineage, Which is delightful to the people, An excellent and praiseworthy teaching, Which increases joy and gladness.
I, Sumanācāriya, pay homage and bow my head to the Buddha, the Tathāgata, the Jina, who is of a lineage pure and supreme, greater than all sages. He has reached the farther shore of all truths. He has vanquished all evil. And I shall now relate the noble lineage, passed down through generations, of that Lord Buddha, which inspires the heart and brings forth joy and gladness to all people.
The Distant Epoch
It is said that in a former time, the Sammāsambuddha, the Bull among Men, while seeking supreme enlightenment (Bodhiñāṇa), took birth as a Brahmin named Sumedha the Wise. He was a man of great wealth, but he renounced his fortune to go forth and live as an ascetic in the Himavanta forest. There, he attained the meditative absorptions (jhāna) and psychic powers (abhiññā).
While traveling through the air, he saw a great crowd of people clearing a road for the Lord of Ten Powers named Dīpaṅkara, who was leaving the Sudassana monastery to enter the city of Amaravatī. The ascetic Sumedha accepted responsibility for one section of the road to prepare it himself. Before his section of the road was finished, the Sammāsambuddha arrived. The ascetic laid his deerskin cloak over the mud and prostrated himself, making his body a bridge. He invited the Lord of Wisdom, along with his community of disciples, to walk over his body to cross the mud.
The Teacher, having crossed the mud, made a prophecy: “This ascetic is a Buddha-sprout, the root of omniscient wisdom. In the time to come, he will attain enlightenment as a Buddha named Gotama.”
From that time onwards, our Bodhisatta tirelessly perfected the thirty pāramīs without pause for four incalculable aeons (asaṅkheyya) and one hundred thousand world-cycles (kappa), until this present auspicious aeon (Bhaddakappa).
