Dhammapada verse 46
Chapter 4, Flowers (Pupphavagga) · verses 44–59
“Knowing this body’s like foam, realizing it’s all just a mirage, and cutting off Māra’s blossoming, vanish from the King of Death.”
Pheṇūpamaṁ kāyamimaṁ viditvā, Marīcidhammaṁ abhisambudhāno; Chetvāna mārassa papupphakāni, Adassanaṁ maccurājassa gacche.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 46 mean?
Verse 46 belongs to chapter 4, Flowers (Pupphavagga), which gathers verses 44–59 on flowers, and what they stand for. It is filed under impermanence & death. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 45 and verse 47 are part of the same passage.
Sixteen verses that use flowers as their working image — garlands made from a heap, a blossom that falls, a fragrance that travels with the wind or does not. The chapter moves from that image to speech, to the person who gathers what is worth gathering, and to the end of the body. It also holds the verse on knowing the body as foam and a mirage.
More verses on this