Dhp XIV : Awakened

They, the enlightened, intent on jhana,

delighting in stilling

& renunciation,

self-awakened & mindful:

even the devas

view them with envy.

Hard   the winning of a human birth.

Hard   the life of mortals.

Hard   the chance to hear the true Dhamma.

Hard   the arising of Awakened Ones.

The non-doing

of any evil,

the performance

of what’s skillful,

the cleansing

of one’s own mind:

this is the teaching

of the Awakened.

Not even if it rained gold coins

would we have our fill

of sensual pleasures.

‘Stressful,

they give little enjoyment’–

knowing this, the wise one

finds no delight

even in heavenly sensual pleasures.

They go to many a refuge,

to mountains & forests,

to park & tree shrines:

people threatened with danger.

That’s not the secure refuge,

not the supreme refuge,

that’s not the refuge,

having gone to which,

you gain release

from all suffering & stress.

But when, having gone

to the Buddha, Dhamma,

& Sangha for refuge,

you see with right discernment

the four noble truths–

stress,

the cause of stress,

the transcending of stress,

& the noble eightfold path,

the way to the stilling of stress:

that’s the secure refuge,

that, the supreme refuge,

that is the refuge,

having gone to which,

you gain release

from all suffering & stress.

It’s hard to come by

a thoroughbred of a man.

It’s simply not true

that he’s born everywhere.

Wherever he’s born, an enlightened one,

the family prospers,

is happy.

A blessing:      the arising of Awakened Ones.

A blessing:      the teaching of true Dhamma.

A blessing:      the concord of the Sangha.

The austerity of those in concord

is a blessing.

If you worship those worthy of worship,

–Awakened Ones or their disciples–

who’ve transcended

objectification,

crossed over

lamentation

& grief,

who are unendangered,

fearless,

unbound:

there’s no measure for reckoning

that your merit’s ‘this much.’