Whose conquest can’t be undone, whose conquest no one in the world can reach;

awakened, his pasture endless, pathless: by what path will you lead him astray?

In whom there’s no craving —the sticky ensnarer— to lead him anywherever at all;

awakened, his pasture endless, pathless: by what path will you lead him astray?

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.

Patient endurance: the foremost austerity. Unbinding: the foremost, so say the Awakened.

He who injures another is no contemplative. He who mistreats another, no monk.

Not disparaging, not injuring, restraint in line with the Patimokkha,

moderation in food, dwelling in seclusion,

commitment to the heightened 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.

He is one who delights in the ending of craving, a disciple of the Rightly Self-Awakened One.

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.’

Buddhavaggo cuddasamo niṭṭhito.