Angulimala chases the monk.
Angulimala collects thumbs
one from each victim;
he will collect a 1000
and this monk’s thumb will be the last


but though he chases the monk
and the monk but walks
the monk seems to elude him;
and so Angulimala shouts:
“Stop, monk!”

and the monk walks still
but his voice comes clear:
“I have stopped.
You stop too, Angulimala.”

“You have not stopped, monk;
you continue walking.
Monks do not lie –
tell me,
how have you stopped?”


“I have stopped thought;
I have stopped all violence
and hate and harm to all creatures;
I have stopped all mental-formation –
so do you stop too,
Angulimala.”


And Angulimala stops;
and he is ordained as a monk himself
even there in the wilderness
by the Buddha