Mokchokpa's Song of Advice
My practice was culminating in every way: I had
many disciples and was always receiving donations. Yet there were many, such
as Ngomshö Lachö, who didn't really listen to the teachings. I warned him that
if he were to go back home, he would face death at some not-so-distant point,
would not meet with me again. But he did not take my advice and set out to
return to his village. The sight saddened me so, I took Ngomshö's hand in mine
and sang him this song:
The Buddha is the predecessor of all sentient beings,
The holy
Dharma is the shared jewel of all sentient beings.
Since all is
karmically allotted to devoted men and women--
Ignoring one's
inheritance is meaningless.
The root of the Buddhas of the three
times
Is the lama who holds the lineage
Fulfilling our wishes and
desires in this and future lives.
Lacking devotion for him, or her, is
meaningless.
For the remainder of this life
Engage fully in
practice with undistracted concentration
Rather than trying to benefit
the ever-dissatisfied.
Wasting this life is meaningless.
Immature beings with but a twig of awareness
Are incited by the
demon of death.
Where they'll be in the future depends on the karma they
gathered in the past.
Doing evil deeds is meaningless.
In this
sorrowful world of contaminated aggregates
We undergo birth, sickness,
old age and death.
To hope that this body-bag, a clay pot of sorts, may
last forever--
That is meaningless.
Since food and wealth are in
the nature of an illusion,
They do not lead to the benefit of self or
others.
Yet you wallow in ingrained miserliness.
Inability to let go
is meaningless.
Drawn off the path by the demon of conceptual
thought,
You lose sight of the Dharmata,
And fear death, the parting
of body and mind.
Mental agitation is meaningless.
You fail to
seize the opportunities
To meditate undistracted at the four times of
day
On the all-accomplishing vajrayana practices.
Your ceaseless
chatter and dwelling on the past is meaningless.
As for this mind,
this wish-fulfilling gem:
If you do not meditate on it as inseparable
from the three bodies
You are just like a deer chasing a mirage.
Pursuing verbal postulates is meaningless.
Failing to take hold
of the Dharmata as your homeland,
You slack in your vigilance about
ego-clinging: wandering aimlessly in samsara
While holding on to the
illusion of the citadel of the six classes of beings--
That is
meaningless.