The Story of Angulimala (Part 1)

During the time of the Buddha there was a brilliant student from a wealthy family called Ahimsaka. The other students were jealous of him and eventually managed to turn his teacher (The teacher was not a follower of the Buddha) against him. As a result, in order to get rid of him, his teacher made the outrageous demand that to receive the high teaching that he desired, Ahimsaka must first kill one thousand people!

Amazingly, Ahimsaka did not at this point give up, but he continued to trust his teacher, trusting that this shocking demand must somehow be for the overall good. So he set out to complete his task. Ahimsaka became a murderer, lurking in a forest and killing people.

But keeping count of so many victims is difficult, especially as his murderous action filled his mind with hatred and delusion. So finally, to stay organized and keep track of his progress, he began to cut off the little fingers of his victims, and strung them in a grue some growing garland which he wore aaround his neck. This earned him the infamous nick-name Augulimala, which means finger garland.

One fateful day, when he had 999 fingers around his neck, there was a convergence of events. The local king, tired of the murderer in the forest, organized his troops to sweep their forest and put an end to Angulimala. At the same time, Angulimala's mother realized that it was her son who was the terrible killer. Yet despite the fact that he was a mass murderer, her motherly love compelled her to go into the forest to warn him about the king.

Angulimala, his mind twisted by his murderous deeds, failed to recognize his own mother and was preparing to kill her to complete his tally when the Buddha intervened.

The Buddha positioned himself between Angulimala and his mother, and Angulimala shifted targets, and began to chase the Buddha.....

Continued in The Story of Angulimala(Part 2)...

Reference book: Karma for today's traveler by Phra Bhasakorn Bhavilai with David Freyer