#dammapada

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

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).

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 mind) is frivolous and difficult to control, alighting on whatever it pleases. It is good to tame the mind. A tamed mind brings happiness.

The almsman who delights in mindfulness (and) who regards unmindfulness with fear is not liable to regression. He is in the presence of Nirvana.

Mindful among the unmindful, wide awake among the sleeping, the man of good understanding forges ahead like a swift horse outdistancing a feeble hack.

As a dweller in the mountains looks down on those who live in the valley, so the spiritually mature person, the hero free from sorrow, having driven outunmindfulness by means of mindfulness, ascends to the Palace of Wisdom and looks down at the sorrowful, spiritually immature multitude (below).

Whoever is energetic, recollected, pure in conduct, considerate, selfrestrained, of righteous life, and mindful, the glory of such a one waxes exceedingly.