One in training will master this world and the realms of Yama and the gods.
One in training will select a well-taught Dharma teaching as a skilled person selects a flower.

Knowing this body is like foam, fully awake to its mirage-like nature.
Cutting off Mara’s flowers one goes unseen by the King of Death.

Death sweeps away the person obsessed with gathering flowers.
As a great flood sweeps away a sleeping village.

The person obsessed with gathering flowers, insatiable for sense pleasure,
Is under the sway of Death.

As a bee gathers nectar and moves on without harming the flower, its color, or its fragrance,
Just so should a sage walk through a village.

Do not consider the faults of others or what they have or have not done.
Consider, rather, your own faults and what you have or have not done.

Like a beautiful flower, brightly colored but lacking scent,
So are well-spoken words that are fruitless because they are not carried out.

Like a beautiful flower, brightly colored and with scent,
Are the well-spoken words that are fruitful because they have been carried out.

The scent of flowers does not go against the wind.
However the scent of a virtuous person spreads in all directions.

The scent of virtue is unsurpassed, even by sandalwood, water lily and jasmine.

Slight is the scent of sandalwood, but the scent of virtue is far more supreme,
Drifting even to the gods above.

Mara does not find the path of those who live with virtue.
Such noble souls are living with vigilance and are freed by right understanding.