thag.6.4 Theragatha

Kulla

I, Kulla, went to a charnel ground
and saw a woman’s body abandoned there,
discarded in a cemetery,
full of worms that devoured.
“See this bag of bones, Kulla—
diseased, filthy, rotten,
oozing and trickling,
a fool’s delight.”
Taking the teaching as a mirror
for realizing knowledge and vision,
I examined this body,
hollow, inside and out.
As this is, so is that;
as that is, so is this.
As below, so above;
as above, so below.
As by day, so by night;
as by night, so by day.
As before, so after;
as after, so before.
Even the music of a five-piece band
can never give such pleasure
as when, with unified mind,
you rightly discern the Dhamma.