On to Lines of
Experience Verse 11
Zealous and pure devotion with your thoughts and actions to your Guru, who
shows you the path to Enlightenment, when properly done is the root cause
resulting in the fulfillment of whatever good aims you may be pursuing for this
and future lives (18). (Once
you have seen that this is so and you have already accepted the Dharma by taking
refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha (19)), you
should then please your Guru by offering him your practice of complete obedience
concerning the path to Enlightenment, which you would not abandon even at the
cost of your life.
I, who actually have traveled a true path that leads to Enlightenment, have
had the experience of doing just that. If you would also seek Liberation, please
cultivate Guru-devotion in this same way.
The human form endowed with the eight liberties for Dharma study (20) is
superior to the wish-fulfilling gem (21), (for
although nagas (22) wear
such gems around their neck, they are of no use to them for attaining Liberation
from samsara. Only the attainment of a suitable human form presents the
opportunity of having a vehicle with which it is possible to reach
Enlightenment. Moreover,) it is only this one time (23) that
you obtain a form like this. Such a form, so difficult to acquire, (affords you
an opportunity) that can easily be lost, passing in a flash like lightning in
the sky. Thinking about how (easily this can happen at any time), and
understanding that all activities of the samsaric world are like threshed husks
of grain (in that worldly activities do not employ the human body for its
essential value as an instrument for the attainment of Enlightenment), you must
try to take advantage of the essential (significance of having obtained such a
body) at all times, day and night.
I, who actually have traveled a true path that leads to Enlightenment, have
had the experience of doing just that. If you would also seek Liberation, please
cultivate yourself in the same way.
