First ten verses:
Preface
Homage to the teacher!
Fortunate practitioners gathered here in Tingri, listen!
Just as worn-out clothes can never again be made as new,
It’s no use seeing a doctor once you’re terminally ill;
You’ll have to go. We humans living on this earth
Are like streams and rivers flowing toward the ocean –
All living beings are heading for that single destination.
Now, like a small bird flying off from a treetop,
I, too, will not be here much longer; soon I must move on.
1
If you spend the present meaninglessly and leave with empty hands,
People of Tingri, a human life in the future will be very hard to find.
2
To apply yourselves with body, speech and mind to the sacred Teachings,
People of Tingri, is the best thing that you can do.
3
Give your very life, heart and soul to the Three Jewels [the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha],
People of Tingri, and their blessings cannot but arise.
4
Forget your goals for this life – concentrate instead on lives to come.
People of Tingri, that is the highest goal.
5
Families are as fleeting as a crowd on market day;
People of Tingri, don’t bicker or fight.
6
Wealth and poverty, like a magic show, just seduce and deceive;
People of Tingri, don’t let the knot of avarice bind you.
7
This body’s just a bag containing various kinds of filth;
People of Tingri, don’t pamper it and spruce it up so.
8
Family and friends are no more real than a magic show;
People of Tingri, in your fondness for them don’t tie yourself down.
9
Country and land are like a nomad’s pastures
People of Tingri, don’t cling sentimentally to them.
10
As parents, all beings in the six realms have cared for you;
People of Tingri, don’t relate to them with your ideas of “I” and “mine”.