Dhammapada: Flowers

1Who bestirs this earth,

2and the Yama realm with its gods?

3Who sets out the well-taught word of truth,

4as an expert a flower?

1A trainee bestirs this earth,

2and the Yama realm with its gods.

3A trainee sets out the well-taught word of truth,

4as an expert a flower.

1Knowing this body’s like foam,

2realizing it’s all just a mirage,

3and cutting off Māra’s blossoming,

4vanish from the King of Death.

1As a mighty flood sweeps off a sleeping village,

2death steals away a man

3even as he gathers flowers,

4his mind caught up in them.

1The terminator gains control of the man

2who has not had his fill of pleasures,

3even as he gathers flowers,

4his mind caught up in them.

1A bee takes the nectar

2and moves on, doing no damage

3to the flower’s beauty and fragrance;

4and that’s how a sage should walk in the village.

1Don’t find fault with others,

2with what they’ve done or left undone.

3You should only watch yourself,

4what you’ve done or left undone.

1Just like a glorious flower

2that’s colorful but lacks fragrance;

3eloquent speech is fruitless

4for one who does not act on it.

1Just like a glorious flower

2that’s both colorful and fragrant,

3eloquent speech is fruitful

4for one who acts on it.

1Just as one would create many garlands

2from a heap of flowers,

3when a person has come to be born,

4they should do many skillful things.

1The fragrance of flowers doesn’t spread upwind,

2nor sandalwood, pinwheel, or jasmine;

3but the fragrance of the good spreads upwind;

4a true person’s virtue spreads in every direction.

1Among all the fragrances—

2sandalwood or pinwheel

3or lotus or jasmine—

4the fragrance of virtue is supreme.

1Faint is the fragrance

2of sandal or pinwheel;

3but the fragrance of the virtuous

4floats to the highest gods.

1For those accomplished in ethics,

2meditating diligently,

3freed through the highest knowledge,

4Māra cannot find their path.

1From a heap of trash

2discarded on the highway,

3a lotus might blossom,

4fragrant and delightful.

1So too, among those thought of as trash,

2a disciple of the perfect Buddha

3outshines with their wisdom

4the blind ordinary folk.