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Thig 6.1
PTS: Thig 127-132
Pañcasata Patacara: Patacara's 500 Students
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
© 1998
Alternate translation: Olendzki (excerpt)

[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.