Angulimala

The Murderer who reached enlightenment.

Angulimala was the son of a Grand Chaplain in the court of King Pasenadi of Kosala. At school, he was his teacher’s favorite because of his intelligence and obedience. Other pupils were jealous of him and succeeded in poisoning their teacher’s mind against him. To get rid of him, the master asked him to find 1,000 human fingers, for his exit lesson. And so he could collect 999 fingers. On the day that he was trying to find any last person to kill, his mother was also looking for him. The Buddha, knowing that he would have killed his own mother had he did not intervene, went and appeared before him. Angulimala then set out after the Blessed One. However, no matter how fast he ran, he was not able to catch up the Buddha. Eventually, he screamed at the Buddha to stop.

The Enlightened One turned and replied, ‘I have stopped. It is you who have not stopped,’ and further said ‘Angulimala, I have stopped forever. I have given up killing all living beings, for I am merciful to all living beings as I abstain from causing harm to them. But you have not given up killing or ill treating others, and therefore, have not stopped.’ Angulimala was so struck by these words that there and then he stopped, repented, and followed the Buddha back to the monastery where he became a monk and later attained his spiritual goal of Arahanthood.