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## Dhammapada IV

# Blossoms

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
For free distribution only.

Read an alternate translation by Acharya Buddharakkhita

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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.

Revised: Wed 16 May 2001