Having understood this body is like foam, having awakened to its mirage nature, cutting off Māra’s poisonous flowers, one goes beyond the sight of the death king.

Pheṇūpama — comparable to foam. This metaphor is one of the most powerful in the Pāli canon for describing the nature of the body. Foam seems solid from a distance, has shape and volume, but on touch it disperses. The body has the same nature: it appears solid but is continuous process, impermanent in every cell.

Marīcidhammaṃ — of mirage nature. The mirage (marīci) seems like real water in the desert but does not quench thirst. The body seems like a solid self, but investigated with attention reveals itself as a set of processes without permanent substance. This double metaphor — foam and mirage — points to the two marks of anicca (impermanence) and anattā (non-self).

Mārassa papupphakāni — Māra’s flowers: here flowers are inverted. If in previous verses they were Dhamma teachings gathered like flowers, here they are Māra’s temptations — sensuality, illusion, fear of death — that present themselves as attractive but poisonous flowers.

Understanding the body as foam and mirage does not lead to nihilism but to freedom. When compulsive identification with the body as “self” ceases, Māra’s domain also disappears — death seen as threat rather than natural transition. The practitioner who sees clearly the nature of the body goes adassanaṃ maccurājassa — beyond the sight of the death king.