Flowering Goodness

I love the way the Buddha's teachings in the Dhammapada so often use images and metaphors to make a point vividly and memorably. It is a good way to teach. Today's reading from chapter four of the Dhammapada, uses the image of flowers in a variety of ways to talk about the beauty and fragrance of "walking the talk."

As a garland-maker chooses the right flowers,

choose the well-taught path of dharma (virtue, harmony with the Law of Life)

and go beyond the realm of death and the powers that be.

As a garland maker chooses the right flowers,

those who choose the well taught path of dharma

will go beyond the realm of suffering.

Do not give your attention to what others do or fail to do:

attend to what you do or fail to do.

Like a lovely flower, full of color but lacking in fragrance,

are the words of those who do not practice what they preach.

Like a lovely flower full of color and fragrance

are the words of those who do practice what they preach.

Many garlands can be made from a heap of flowers.

Many good deeds can be done in this life.

The scent of flowers or sandalwood cannot travel against the wind;

but the fragrance of the good spreads everywhere.

Neither sandalwood nor the tagara flower, neither lotus nor jasmine,

can come near the fragrance of the good.

Faint is the scent of sandalwood or the tagara,

but the fragrance of the good rises high to reach heaven.

Mara (death, temptation, illusion) can never come near those who are good, earnest, and enlightened.

A true follower of the Buddha shines among blind mortals as the fragrant lotus,

growing along the roadside, brings joy to all who pass by.

My reflections:

When our family left India, after my mother and father, a doctor and nurse, had served there for five years,

a huge crowd of people came to see them off at the train station in Taxila. (I just read that Taxila was the place from which one of the young Buddha's teachers came!) My parents had garlands of flowers hung around their necks until they reached to their ears. These garlands represented the people's gratitude for all the good they had both done in their healing service to the people of Taxila and beyond. So the image of a garland of flowers being an image of good deeds resonates pretty deeply with me.