Thig 6:1  Paṭācārā’s 500 Students

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.