Chapter 4

Who shall conquer the earth and the Realm of Death with its deities? Who shall make out the well-taught Verses of Truth as an expert picks flowers?

The Learner (of the Transcendental Path) shall conquer the Realm of Death with its deities. The Learner shall make out the well-taught Verses of Truth as an expert picks flowers.

Seeing the body as froth, (and) thoroughly comprehending its mirage-nature, let one proceed unseen by the King of Death, having broken the flower-tipped arrows of Mara.

As a great flood carries away a sleeping village, so death bears off the man who, possessed of longing, plucks only the flowers (of existence).

The Destroyer brings under his sway the man who, possessed by longing, plucks only the flowers (of existence), (and) who is insatiable in sexual passions.

Let the silent sage move about in the village as the bee goes taking honey from the flower without harming colour or fragrance.

One should pay no heed to the faults of others, what they have done and not done. Rather should one consider the things that one has oneself done and not done.

Like a beautiful flower, brightly coloured but without scent, even so useless is the well-uttered speech of one who does not act accordingly.

Like a beautiful flower, brightly coloured and scented, even so useful is the well-uttered speech of one who acts accordingly.

As many garlands are made from a heap of flowers, so one who is a mortal born should perform many ethically skilful deeds.

The fragrance of flowers, of sandalwood, of aromatic resin or jasmine, does not go against the wind, (whereas) the fragrance of the good does go against the wind.

Sandalwood or aromatic resin, blue lotus, or wild jasmine, of all these kinds of fragrance, the odour of virtue is unsurpassed.

Insignificant in comparison is this fragrance of aromatic resin and sandalwood. The fragrance of virtue it is that blows among the gods as the highest.

Mara does not find the path of those who are virtuous, who live mindfully, and who are freed through Perfect Knowledge (sammadaññā).

As pink lotuses, sweet-scented and lovely, spring from a heap of rubbish thrown in the highway,

so among those who have become (as) rubbish, (among) ignorant, ordinary people, the Disciple of the Perfectly Enlightened One shines forth exceedingly in wisdom.