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Dhp IV
PTS: Dhp 44-59
Pupphavagga: Blossoms
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
© 1997
Alternate translation: Buddharakkhita
Alternate format:

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##### 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.

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