Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind
Page 5
9. As the Teacher of both gods and humankind has said,
A turtle could, by strange chance, place its neck
Inside a yoke adrift upon the ocean’s waves.
A human life is yet more difficult to find!
What need is there to speak of precious human life endowed
With freedoms and advantages?
I beseech you then, from this day forth, exert yourself.
10. Three kinds of human life may be attained:
Mere, superior, or that which is most precious.
Those who have the first, not knowing right from wrong,
Do evil deeds. And though their faculties are whole,
They’re only human in the commonly accepted sense.
They may be born within a central land,
And yet they act like savage borderers.
11. Then there are those, not entering the Doctrine,
Whose actions are a mixture of both good and ill.
Thinking of this life alone,
They’re utterly distracted by their busy occupations.
Rough, untamed, they cast away all thought of lives to come;
They do not strive for freedom.
Though the Dharma they may hear,
Their state is not supreme but mediocre.
To some slight good they may at times incline;
More often their minds’ sight is veiled by negativity.
They have the semblance of practitioners,
And yet what good do they achieve
For others or themselves?
Whether they assume the guise of monks or laity,
They are a little higher
Than the beings in the lower realms.
And so the Conqueror described them as “superior.”
12. Beings who are utterly sublime are vessels for the stainless Dharma.
Through learning and reflection they attain its essence.
They discipline themselves, and others they establish in the virtuous life.
Their practice, like the king of mountains, is unshakable.
They are the ensigns of the Sage’s victory.
Householders or, better,
Those who have gone forth to homelessness,
The Teacher has declared them both to have a precious human form.
13. Therefore, you who are within the Dharma,
Bend your ears to Dharma of the high and perfect ones,
That, following this Dharma, you might practice well.
Cleave constantly to Dharma;
All that is not Dharma cast aside.
Accomplishing the Dharma’s sense,
Remain within the Dharma.
Soon to cross the ocean of existence,
May you swiftly reach the land of peace
And pass beyond all sorrow.
14. If those who are now human fail to practice virtue,
They are fools and stupid, nothing else.
They are like those who come home
Empty-handed from an isle of jewels:
They do but render meaningless
Their freedoms and advantages.
Constantly make effort therefore
In the Dharma that brings peace.
15. The Dharma is dependent on the mind;
The mind depends on freedoms and advantages:
All arise dependently.
So now, when cause and many circumstances meet,
Subdue your mind! This is the Dharma’s essence.30
16. In all your endless stream of births
That lay beneath the threat of death,
Pain and loss poured down on you like rain.
This was the result of mental wandering,
Whereby advantages and freedoms were made meaningless.
All qualities of high rebirth and final excellence
Derive from thinking on how hard it is
To gain these freedoms and advantages.
So strive in this reflection day and night.
Do not relax but take great joy in it.
17. To see the Buddha in this life is meaningful,
To hear the Dharma and to practice it is also meaningful.
This meaningful existence and the fruitful one to follow
Arise from the attainment of a form endowed with freedoms and advantages.
Reflect on this with great joy, constantly.
18. In the midst of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattva heirs,
Our Lord, the first of beings in this world endowed with godly realms,
Declared that the immortal nectar of enlightenment
Derives from the supremely precious human form.
Extolling thus its freedoms and advantages,
He praised this form more highly than the body of a god.
Rejoice therefore in your humanity!
19. The ground of primal wisdom
Where the truth beyond all concepts is beheld
Is reached more easily by humans than by gods.
The essence also of the deep path of the Vajrayāna
Is more easily attained by those who find a human form.
The basis of the Dharma of both great and lesser vehicles
Is said to be supremely noble—
This human state endowed with freedoms and advantages.
20. Just like a beggar who has chanced upon a treasure of great price,
Reflect with joy upon your freedoms and advantages.
In doubt and apprehension that you might be dreaming,
Implement the sacred Dharma—
Source of happiness and benefit in this and future lives!
21. Through the nectar of this perfect and inspiring instruction,
May the futile wanderings of all beings be completely stilled.
May they go to forest solitudes,
And, weary of their gross and wild defilements,
May their minds today find rest.
2. IMPERMANENCE
1. So now you have your freedom, hard to find,
And yet its time is passing; it is subject to decay.
Look closely; see its hollowness like bubbling foam.
It is not worthy of your trust!
Think night and day upon the utter certainty of death.
2. This body is the ground of pain and every mental sorrow,
A plenteous wellspring of defiled affliction.
And yet you garland it with flowers,
Adorning it with robes and jewels.
But though you tend and wait on it
With many a tasty gift of food and drink,
At last it will not stay; it will decay and leave you.
You cherish now the future food
Of jackal, fox, and graveyard bird!
Don’t think of it as something permanent and clean,
But implement the holy teaching from this moment on.
3. Brahmā, Śiva, Indra, great and powerful gods,
Enjoy the greatest wealth in all the three dimensions of the world.
They blaze with glory through their merit and renown,
Yet in the contest with the Lord of Death
They have no victory.
Because they have achieved samādhi, they can live for aeons,
Yet when their karma is used up, their hour of death arrives.
Devas and asuras, rishis, those with magic power,
The rulers and the ruled—unnumbered are their births,
And not a single one without the fear of death!
4. This lifetime passes like the weeping clouds
Where dance the lightning garlands of the Lord of Death,
And from them, day and night, there falls
An endless rain to bathe the shoots
That grow in the three levels of existence.
5. The world and its inhabitants will pass.
The universe is formed and then destroyed
By seven fires, a flood, and then the scattering wind.31
The all-encircling sea, the con
tinents,
And even mighty Sumeru compounded of four jewels,
All girded by the rings of lesser peaks—all this will pass.
The time will come when all will have dissolved
Into a single space.
Remember this and practice Dharma from your heart.
6. The Guide and Guardian of the world,
Surrounded by a throng of the pratyekabuddhas, śrāvakas,
And all the bodhisattva offspring of the Lord,
Is like the peerless, hare-marked moon aloft in limpid skies,
Amid a host of starry constellations.
Clear, resplendent, radiant he shines,
And yet he is impermanent:
He demonstrates his passing to the state beyond all pain.
And see how the unbounded sun
Of his most precious Doctrine sets
And disappears as the generations pass.
Coreless like the plaintain tree,
This form of human flesh,
This mere illusion of a dwelling place,
How can it not decay and be destroyed?
7. Death therefore is sure;
Uncertain is its when and where and how.
This life is ever dwindling; no increment is possible.
Many are death’s circumstances;
Those that make life possible are few.
You have so little time to live!
Rein in your projects for the future—
Better far to strive in Dharma from this very instant!
8. This shelter built of the four elements,
Endowed with mind adorned with its inhabitants—
The thoughts that move—
Arises through conditions.
Thus it is compounded.
Being so, it is destructible.
Like a village crumbling down, it will not last.
Be swift to practice holy Dharma!
9. You’re momentary, ephemeral,
Aflutter like a flame caught in a gale.
When powerful dangers to your life descend,
You won’t last long; it’s certain you will die.
So practice holy Dharma right away.
10. Servants and possessions, friends both close and dear,
Your youth, your strength, your beauty, your good family—
You’ll lose them all; you must go forth alone.
But actions white and black, not left behind, will shadow you.
Other than the Dharma, there’s no other refuge at that time.
Why then do you not pass your time in diligence?
11. Think now about the past and future peoples of the world.
Of former generations countless beings have already passed,
And most of those who now are on this earth
Within a century’s time will surely be no more.
For those who follow after, it will be the same.
Look how they pass! The old and young have all an equal destiny.
From them you are no different in your nature.
Remember that your death is certain; practice Dharma!
12. Throughout the triple world, from hell until the summit of the world,
There is no place of safety from the Deadly Lord.
Everything is passing, changing, essenceless.
Nothing can be trusted; all is turning like a chariot wheel.
Especially this human state is plagued by many perils.
Disease and evil forces are the source of numerous ills.
Fire and sword, vast chasms, poisons, savage beasts,
And kings and robbers, enemies and thieves,
And all the rest destroy prosperity and life.
13. And even without harms, the lives of beings slip by,
Changing every second’s instant, night and day.
They drift toward the kingdom of the Lord of Death
Like rivers running to the sea
And like the round orb of the sun
That sets behind the western hills.
14. If food and all the good amenities of life
May be, like actual poisons, cause of pain,
How could goodness and perfection not be quenched by real adversity?
There is nothing that cannot become the cause of death.
And since its place and cause and time are all uncertain,
Rid yourself of all the futile and deceptive things pertaining to this life.
Sincerely practice Dharma:
This will help you in the moment of your death.
15. So now that you have found the boat of freedoms and advantages
That’s fitted with the rudder of a master’s teaching,
If now you do not strive to cross the stream of sorrow,
There is no self-betrayal more terrible than this!
16. Now you have attained a precious vessel,
Free of every defect, perfect, lauded by the Buddha.
If you do not store in it the riches of the twofold aim for self and others,
You will but bind yourself within the prisons of saṃsāra.
17. Alas, it is like giving teachings to a stone!
Most people in this world—
To think of them brings sorrow welling up!
They do not comprehend when taught,
And explanation brings no understanding.
Tomorrow death awaits them, but they think they’ll live forever.
Saṃsāra does not sadden them,
And of the will for freedom they have not the slightest trace.
If they have knowledge, they are arrogant.
If they have some understanding, it is all distorted.
They are borne away by busyness and pastimes
And are deluged by the rain of their defilement.
When might I be of help to them?
18. But you who wish to cross the ocean of your faults
Accomplishing the marvelous qualities of excellence,
In this very moment think about death’s certainty.
Meditate at all times, day and night, on your impermanence.
Cultivate repeatedly an attitude of sadness at saṃsāra,
And be determined to be free from it.
19. By this means you’ll implement the Teaching,
Useful, beneficial, for the present and for future lives.
You will strive in practice with a strong endeavor,
In your mind abandoning this life,
And bring to nothing the delusion of self-clinging.
All good qualities, in brief, will be achieved.
The cause of highest freedom and the halting of all defects
Is to think about impermanence,
Reducing projects for the future.
It is indeed the root of all the Dharma.
20. The minds of beings are wearied by defilement and distraction,
By clinging to phenomena they think are permanent.
Through this helpful teaching, deep and pleasing to the ear,
Resounding from the drum of Dharma clouds,
May their minds today find rest.
3. THE SUFFERINGS OF SAṂSĀRA
1. Everything occurring in the three worlds of saṃsāra is impermanent.
Change is everywhere. Great suffering abounds:
By sufferings of pain itself, of change, and suffering in the making,32
The beings in the six realms are completely overwhelmed.
2. As though burned in a fire or caught by savage men,
Or by wild beasts or else imprisoned in a tyrant’s jail,
Beings suffer torment in a seamless continuity.
There’s no escape for them, and sorrow grows to think of it.
3. Pleasure to find and pain to flee is all that they desire,
Yet sorrows do they chase in cause and fruit.
They’re like moths caught in candlelight;
They crave and cling to objects of their wanting
And are thus beguiled.
Like deer, like bees, like fish, like elephants,
By sound, by scent, by taste, by touch are beings caught,
Deceived by the five objects of desire.
See how they have no happiness but only suffering.
4. Gods and demigods, the denizens of hell,
The famished spirits, humankind, and beasts—
The six realms follow one by one in endless pain,
As though attached to one great waterwheel.
5. All living beings in the tally of their lives,
Assuming roles of friendship, enmity, indifference,
Have given help or harm, brought happiness or pain
For times past numbering.
Fathers into mothers, mothers into sisters are transformed,
And sisters into sons.
There is no certainty in kinship,
No count of friends that into enemies have turned.
6. If you think about the stream of karma in the world,
A sorrow greater than mere sadness will come welling up.
The bodies of your insect lives,
All swept together in a heap,
Would tower over Meru with its four sides made of jewels;
More than the four oceans are the tears that you have wept.
The mighty streams that flow down to the margin of the world
Are no match for the molten bronze, the pus, the blood, the filth
You drank in realms of hell or in the preta worlds.
And all the motes of dust found in the universe
Are no match for the severed heads and limbs
That other beings, many as the sky is vast,
Have lost pursuing their desires.
7. When you were born in other forms—
As beasts or demons, yakṣas, nāgas, and the like—
Countless were the joys and sorrows that you had.
As Brahmā or as Indra you were graced
With the samādhis and absorptions of no form;
You gained the glory and perfection of great rulers of mankind
And walked on pavements made of seven precious stones.
But then you fell into the lower realms,
And great was the torment that you suffered.
8. Those there are who in this present life
Have high and pleasing status, wealth untold,
But dying, they must suffer helpless poverty
And be the slaves of slaves.
Their wealth was but a dream that vanished when they woke.