everywhere they go in safety: this is their highest blessing.” “Many gods and humans have thought about blessings desiring well-being: declare the highest blessing.”

“Not to fraternize with fools, but to fraternize with the wise, and honoring those worthy of honor: this is the highest blessing. Living in a suitable region, having made merit in the past,

Like a tall forest tree crowned with flowers in the first month of summer; that’s how he taught the superb Dhamma, leading to extinguishment, the ultimate benefit. This sublime gem is in the Buddha: by this truth, may you be well!

The superb, knower of the superb, giver of the superb, bringer of the superb; taught the superb Dhamma supreme. This sublime gem is in the Buddha: by this truth, may you be well! The old is ended, nothing new is produced. their minds have no desire for future rebirth.

who day and night bring offerings; please protect them diligently. There’s no wealth this life or the next, no sublime gem in the heavens, that equals the Realized One. This sublime gem is in the Buddha:

by this truth, may you be well! Ending, dispassion, the undying, the sublime, attained by the Sakyan Sage immersed in samādhi; there is nothing equal to that Dhamma. This sublime gem is in the Dhamma: by this truth, may you be well!

The purity praised by the highest Buddha, is said to be the “immersion with immediate fruit”; no equal to that immersion is found. This sublime gem is in the Dhamma: by this truth, may you be well! The eight individual persons praised by the good

are the four pairs of the Holy One’s disciples; they are worthy of religious donations, what’s given to them is very fruitful. This sublime gem is in the Saṅgha: by this truth, may you be well! Dedicated to Gotama’s dispensation,

is not shaken by the four winds, I say a true person is like this, who sees the noble truths in experience. This sublime gem is in the Saṅgha: by this truth, may you be well! Those who fathom the noble truths

taught by the one of deep wisdom, do not take an eighth life, even if they are hugely negligent. This sublime gem is in the Saṅgha: by this truth, may you be well!

This offering that has been given, well placed in the Saṅgha, is for their lasting welfare, and aids them right away. The relative’s duty has now been shown: how high honor to departed is performed,

Those ghosts who have gathered there, the departed relatives who have come for the lavish food and drink gratefully express appreciation: “May our relatives live long! For those to whom we owe this gain,

who have given honor to us, it will not be fruitless for the donor.” There is no farming there, no cow pasture can be found; likewise there’s no trading, and no commerce in gold coin.

The departed, the dead in that place live on what is given here. Just as water that rains on high flows down to the plains, so too what is given here aids the departed ghosts.

Just as the rivers full swell the ocean seas so too what is given here aids the departed ghosts.

A person stores away their savings in a deep trove by the water’s edge: “When need arises it will be there to help Such savings grant every desire of gods and humans too.

Analytical knowledge, the liberations, the perfections of the disciple, the plane of an independent Buddha: through this they have it all. This accomplishment in merit is so very beneficial.

That’s why the attentive and the astute praise the making of merit. free me from rulers if I am slandered, or from bandits if harassed, or to release me from debt, or in case of famine or losses.”

What the world calls savings get stored away for such reasons. But no matter how well stored away they are in a deep pit by the water’s edge, all their savings will fail to aid them all the time.

For perhaps those savings shift from there, or they forget what marks the site, or dragons make off with them, or spirits carry them away, or unloved heirs secretly unearth them.