04 - Blossoms

Khuddaka Nikaya
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Dhammapada

A Translation

Translated from the Pali

by Thanissaro Bhikkhu(Geoffrey DeGraff)

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Dhammapada IV

Blossoms

44-45*:

Who will penetrate this earth
& this realm of death
with all its gods?
Who will ferret out
the well-taught Dhamma-saying,
as the skillful flower-arranger
the flower?

The learner-on-the-path
will penetrate this earth
& this realm of death
with all its gods.
The learner-on-the-path
will ferret out
the well-taught Dhamma-saying,
as the skillful flower-arranger
the flower.

46:

Knowing this body
is like foam,
realizing its nature
-- a mirage --
cutting out
the blossoms of Mara,
you go where the King of Death
can't see.

47-48*:

The man immersed in
gathering blossoms,
his heart distracted:
death sweeps him away --
as a great flood,
a village asleep.

The man immersed in
gathering blossoms,
his heart distracted,
insatiable in sensual pleasures:
the End-Maker holds him
under his sway.

49:

As a bee -- without harming
the blossom,
its color,
its fragrance --
takes its nectar & flies away:
so should the sage
go through a village.

50:

Focus,
not on the rudenesses of others,
not on what they've done
or left undone,
but on what you
have & haven't done
yourself.

51-52:

Just like a blossom,
bright colored
but scentless:
a well-spoken word
is fruitless
when not carried out.

Just like a blossom,
bright colored
& full of scent:
a well-spoken word
is fruitful
when well carried out.

53*:

Just as from a heap of flowers
many garland strands can be made,
even so
one born & mortal
should do
-- with what's born & is mortal --
many a skillful thing.

54-56*:

No flower's scent
goes against the wind --
not sandalwood,
jasmine,
tagara.
But the scent of the good
does go against the wind.
The person of integrity
wafts a scent
in every direction.

Sandalwood, tagara,
lotus, & jasmine:
Among these scents,
the scent of virtue
is unsurpassed.

Next to nothing, this fragrance
-- sandalwood, tagara --
while the scent of the virtuous
wafts to the gods,
supreme.

57*:

Those consummate in virtue,
dwelling in heedfulness,
released through right knowing:
Mara can't follow their tracks.

58-59:

As in a pile of rubbish
cast by the side of a highway
a lotus might grow
clean-smelling
pleasing the heart,
so in the midst of the rubbish-like,
people run-of-the-mill & blind,
there dazzles with discernment
the disciple of the Rightly
Self-Awakened One.