Whatever spirits have gathered here,
    -- on the earth, in the sky --
may you all be happy
& listen intently to what I say.

Thus, spirits, you should all be attentive.
Show kindness to the human race.
Day & night they give offerings,
so, being heedful, protect them.

Whatever wealth -- here or beyond --
whatever exquisite treasure in the heavens,
does not, for us, equal the Tathagata.
    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 knowing:
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 Sangha.
    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 Sangha.
    By this truth may there be well-being.

An Indra pillar,[1] 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 Sangha.
    By this truth may there be well-being.

Those who have seen clearly the noble truths
well-taught by the one of deep discernment --
regardless of what [later] might make them heedless --
will come to no eighth state of becoming.[2]
    This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Sangha.
    By this truth may there be well-being.

At the moment of attaining sight,
one abandons three things:
    identity-views, uncertainty,
    & any attachment to precepts & practices.[3]
One is completely released
from the four states of deprivation,[4]
and incapable of committing
the six great wrongs.[5]
    This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Sangha.
    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 Sangha.
    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,
    unexcelled, 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 further becoming,
they,             with no seed, no desire for growth,
the prudent,     go out like this flame.
    This, too, is an exquisite treasure in the Sangha.
    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 Tathagata 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 Tathagata 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 Sangha
& the Tathagata worshipped by beings
human & divine.
    May there be
    well-being.

Notes

1. Indra-pillar: A tall hardwood pillar, planted at the entrance to a village. [Go back]

2. The person who has reached this stage in the practice will be reborn at most seven more times. [Go back]

3. These three qualities are the fetters abandoned when one gains one's first glimpse of Unbinding at stream-entry (the moment when one enters the stream to full Awakening). [Go back]

4. Four states of deprivation: rebirth as an animal, a hungry shade, an angry demon, or a denizen of hell. In the Buddhist cosmology, none of these states is eternal. [Go back]

5. The six great wrongs: murdering one's mother, murdering one's father, murdering an arahant (fully Awakened individual), wounding a Buddha, causing a schism in the Sangha, or choosing anyone other than a Buddha as one's foremost teacher. [Go back]