Buddhism
Dhp90-99
Text
Minor Collection
Sayings of the Dhamma 90–99
7. The Perfected Ones
At journey’s end, rid of sorrow;
everywhere free,
all ties given up,
no fever is found in them.
The mindful apply themselves;
they delight in no abode.
Like a swan gone from the marsh,
they leave home after home behind.
Those with nothing stored up,
who have understood their food,
whose domain is the liberation
of the signless and the empty:
their path is hard to trace,
like birds in the sky.
One whose defilements have ended;
who’s not attached to food;
whose domain is the liberation
of the signless and the empty:
their track is hard to trace,
like birds in the sky.
Whose faculties have become serene,
like horses tamed by a charioteer,
who has abandoned conceit and defilements;
the unaffected one is envied by even the gods.
Undisturbed like the earth,
true to their vows, steady as Indra’s pillar,
like a lake clear of mud;
such a one does not transmigrate.
Their mind is peaceful,
peaceful are their speech and deeds.
Such a one is at peace,
rightly freed through enlightenment.
Lacking faith, a house-breaker,
one who acknowledges nothing,
purged of hope, they’ve wasted their chance:
that is indeed the supreme person!
Whether in village or wilderness,
in a valley or the uplands,
wherever the perfected ones live
is a delightful place.
Delightful are the wildernesses
where no people delight.
Those free of greed will delight there,
not those who seek sensual pleasures.
Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato, dedicated to the public domain (CC0), via SuttaCentral.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
The Path to Wisdom
Proverbs 4:7
“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”
Analects 2:11 (trans. James Legge)
“If a man keeps cherishing his old knowledge, so as continually to be acquiring new, he may be a teacher of others.”
Tao Te Ching 33 (trans. James Legge)
“He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent.”
Quran 39:9
“Are those who know equal with those who know not?”
Humility & Surrender
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 18 (trans. Edwin Arnold)
“And let go those, Rites and writ duties! Fly to Me alone! Make Me thy single refuge! I will free Thy soul from all its sins! Be of good cheer!”
Matthew 5:5
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
Tao Te Ching 22 (trans. James Legge)
“The partial becomes complete; the crooked, straight; the empty, full; the worn out, new. He whose (desires) are few gets them; he whose (desires) are many goes astray.”
Quran 2:45
“Seek help in patience and prayer; and truly it is hard save for the humble-minded.”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
Genesis 1:3
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 16 (trans. Edwin Arnold)
“The Doors of Hell Are threefold, whereby men to ruin pass, The door of Lust, the door of Wrath, the door Of Avarice. Let a man shun those three!”