KN.DHP44-59 — Chapter on Flowers
Who shall conquer this earth, the realm of Yama, and this world with its gods? Who shall discern the well-taught path of truth, as a skilled person selects a flower?
The one in training shall conquer this earth, the realm of Yama, and this world with its gods. The one in training shall discern the well-taught path of truth, as a skilled person selects a flower.
Understanding this body as foam, realizing its nature as a mirage, cutting off the flowers of Mara, one should go unseen by the King of Death.
Death carries away the man with a mind attached to gathering flowers, as a great flood sweeps away a sleeping village. Death overpowers the man with a mind attached to gathering flowers, insatiable in desires.
As a bee gathers nectar and departs without harming the flower, its color, or its fragrance, so should a sage wander in the village. One should not consider the faults of others, nor what others have done or left undone. One should consider only what one has done or left undone.
As a beautiful flower, full of color but lacking fragrance, so are well-spoken words fruitless for one who does not act upon them. As a beautiful flower, full of color and fragrance, so are well-spoken words fruitful for one who acts upon them.
As from a heap of flowers, many garlands can be made, so should one born as a mortal do much good. The scent of flowers does not travel against the wind, nor does the scent of sandalwood, tagara, or jasmine. But the fragrance of the virtuous does travel against the wind; the good person pervades all directions.
Sandalwood, tagara, lotus, and jasmine: among these kinds of fragrances, the fragrance of virtue is unsurpassed. The fragrance of tagara and sandalwood is slight; the fragrance of the virtuous, however, wafts to the gods.
Mara does not find the path of those who are accomplished in virtue, who dwell in heedfulness, and who are freed through true knowing. As a lotus, beautiful and fragrant, may grow from a heap of refuse thrown on the highway, so among the blind and ignorant, a disciple of the Fully Awakened One shines with wisdom.