SUTTA 86

[^820]: The name "Angulimala" is an epithet meaning "garland (mala) of fingers (anguli)." He was the son of the brahmin Bhaggava, a chaplain to King Pasenadi of Kosala. His given name was Ahimsaka, meaning "harmless one." He studied at Takkasilā, where he became his teacher's favourite. His fellow students, jealous of him, told the teacher that Ahimsaka had committed adultery with his wife. The teacher, intent on bringing Ahimsaka to ruin, commanded him to bring him a thousand human righthand fingers as an honorarium. Ahimsaka lived in the Jālinī forest, attacking travellers, cutting off a finger of each, and wearing them as a garland around his neck. At the time the sutta opens he was one short of a thousand and had made a determination to kill the next person to come along. The Buddha saw that Angulimala's mother was on her way to visit him, and aware that Angulimala had the supporting conditions for arahantship, he intercepted him shortly before his mother was due to arrive.

[^821]: MA explains that Angulimala had just realised that the monk before him was the Buddha himself and that he had come to the forest for the express purpose of transforming him.

[^822]: MA: By virtue of his merit from past lives, Angulimala acquired the bowl and robes through the spiritual power of the Buddha as soon as the Buddha said, "Come, bhikkhu."

[^823]: Even today this utterance is often recited by Buddhist monks as a protective charm (paritta) for pregnant women close to their time of delivery.

[^824]: MA explains that any volitional action (kamma) is capable of yielding three kinds of result: a result to be experienced here and now, i.e., in the same life in which the deed is committed; a result to be experienced in the next existence; and a result to be experienced in any life subsequent to the next, as long as one's sojourn in samsāara continues. Because he had attained arahantship, Angulimāla had escaped the latter two types of result but not the first, since even arahants are susceptible to experiencing the present-life results of actions they performed before attaining arahantship.

[^825]: Several of the verses to follow also appear in the Dhammapada. Angulimāla's verses are found in full at Thag 866-91.

[^826]: Although MA says that Ahimsaka, "Harmless," was Angulimāla's given name, the commentary to the Theragāthā says his original name was Himsaka, meaning "dangerous."

[^827]: Whereas virtuous bhikkhus short of arahants are said to eat the country's almsfood as an inheritance from the Buddha, the arahant eats "free from debt" because he has made himself fully worthy of receiving alms. See Vsm I, §125-27$.