Chapter 4
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Who will master this earth, along with the realm of Yama (lord of the dead) and the realm of the gods? Who will discover the clearly taught path of virtue, the way a skilled person picks out the right flower?
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The disciple will master this earth, the realm of Yama, and the realm of the gods. The disciple will discover the clearly taught path of virtue, the way a skilled person picks out the right flower.
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Whoever recognizes that this body is like foam, and understands that it is as insubstantial as a mirage, will snap the flower-tipped arrow of Mara and never lay eyes on the king of death.
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Death sweeps away a person who is busy gathering flowers with a distracted mind, just as a flood sweeps away a sleeping village.
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Death overpowers a person who is gathering flowers with a distracted mind, before they have had their fill of pleasures.
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As a bee collects nectar and flies off without harming the flower, its color, or its scent, so let a sage move through the village.
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Not the faults of others, not what others have done or failed to do—a sage should pay attention only to his own wrongdoings and lapses.
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The fine words of someone who does not act on them are like a beautiful flower, full of color but without fragrance—lovely but yielding nothing.
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But the fine words of someone who acts on them are like a beautiful flower, full of color and full of fragrance—lovely and fruitful.
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Just as many kinds of garlands can be fashioned from a pile of flowers, many good things can be accomplished by a mortal once they have been born.
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The scent of flowers does not travel against the wind, nor does that of sandalwood, tagara, or mallika flowers; but the fragrance of good people travels even against the wind—a good person reaches in every direction.
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Sandalwood, tagara, lotus, vassiki—among all these fragrances, the fragrance of virtue is unsurpassed.
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The scent that comes from tagara and sandalwood is slight; the fragrance of those who possess virtue rises all the way to the gods as the highest of all.
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Of those who possess these virtues, who live free from carelessness, and who are liberated through true knowledge, Mara the tempter can never find the trail.
58, 59. Just as a lily can grow on a heap of rubbish thrown by the roadside, full of sweet fragrance and delight, so the disciple of the truly enlightened Buddha shines forth through knowledge among those who are like rubbish, among the people walking in darkness.
