2:1  Treasures

Thus, spirits, you should all be attentive.

Show goodwill to the human race.

Day & night they bring offerings,

so, being heedful, protect them.

Whatever wealth—here or beyond—

whatever exquisite treasure in the heavens,

does not, for us, equal the Tathāgata.

This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Buddha.

By this truth may there be well-being.

The exquisite deathless—ending, dispassion—

discovered by the Sakyan Sage in concentration:

There is nothing to equal that Dhamma.

This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Dhamma.

By this truth may there be well-being.

What the excellent Awakened One extolled as pure

and called the concentration

of unmediated knowing1:

No equal to that concentration can be found.

This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Dhamma.

By this truth may there be well-being.

The eight persons—the four pairs—

praised by those at peace:

They, disciples of the One Well-Gone, deserve offerings.

What is given to them bears great fruit.

This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Saṅgha.

By this truth may there be well-being.

Those who, devoted, firm-minded,

apply themselves to Gotama’s message,

on attaining their goal, plunge into the deathless,

freely enjoying the liberation they’ve gained.

This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Saṅgha.

By this truth may there be well-being.

An Indra pillar,2 planted in the earth,

that even the four winds cannot shake:

That, I tell you, is like the person of integrity,

who—having comprehended

the noble truths—sees.

This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Saṅgha.

By this truth may there be well-being.

Those who have seen clearly the noble truths

well-taught by the one deeply discerning—

regardless of what [later] might make them heedless—

will come to no eighth state of becoming,3

This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Saṅgha.

By this truth may there be well-being.

At the moment of attaining sight,

one abandons three things:

identity-views, uncertainty,

& any attachment to habits & practices.4

One is completely released

from the four states of deprivation,5

and incapable of committing

the six great wrongs.6

This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Saṅgha.

By this truth may there be well-being.

Whatever bad deed one may do

—in body, speech, or in mind—

one cannot hide it:

an incapability ascribed

to one who has seen the Way.

This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Saṅgha.

By this truth may there be well-being.

Like a forest grove with flowering tops

in the first month of the heat of the summer,

so is the foremost Dhamma he taught,

for the highest benefit, leading to unbinding.

This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Buddha.

By this truth may there be well-being.

Foremost,

foremost-knowing,

foremost-giving,

foremost-bringing,

unsurpassed, he taught the

foremost Dhamma.

This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Buddha.

By this truth may there be well-being.

Ended the old, there is no new taking birth.

Dispassioned their minds toward future becoming,

they,

with no seed,

no desire for growth,

enlightened,     go out like this flame.7

This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Saṅgha.

By this truth may there be well-being.

Whatever spirits have gathered here,

—on the earth, in the sky—

let us pay homage to the Buddha,

the Tathāgata worshipped by beings

human & divine.

May there be

well-being.

Whatever spirits have gathered here,

—on the earth, in the sky—

let us pay homage to the Dhamma

& the Tathāgata worshipped by beings

human & divine.

May there be

well-being.

Whatever spirits have gathered here,

—on the earth, in the sky—

let us pay homage to the Saṅgha

& the Tathāgata worshipped by beings

human & divine.

May there be

well-being.