Dhp90-99 — Chapter 9

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.