Ten Things Most Dear:
An Advisory Song
If there were no such lamas and instructors,
attended upon for the longterm yet this time around
acting under the influence of hate and lust, it would be
enough for us.
To attend on a virtuous friend with all the right
qualifications is most dear.
However great the efforts we put into learning, if there
were no such studies
of dry technical terms that keep the attainment of full
knowledge at a distance
it would be enough for us.
Learning and reflecting on the profound precepts
that express the quintessence of the tantra texts are most
dear.
However much the meditating, if there were no pushing and
striving
for the kind with turnoffs and diversions, poor in
experiences and realization,
it would be enough for us.
Practical engagement without letting go to waste
the precepts passed down within a lineage is most dear.
Even if it happens in groups of two or three, if there were
no exchange
of idle chatter when people gather in their homes imitating
one another
it would be enough for us.
Staying on in a secure place
with a few Dharma-minded companions is most dear.
When they have a couple of marks and signs of no account, if
they were not
making a big deal of them as if they were seeing dharmas as they truly are
it would be enough for us.
As with the louse and the finger,
confidence and cheerfulness at the moment of death is most
dear.
If there were none who were the best of Buddhists in happy
times
but turn ordinary as soon as misfortunes come to them
it would be enough for us.
The equanimity that bears all things,
both good and bad, is most dear.
If there were no followers of the kind who in the thick of
the battle
are running for Dharma, but helpless and without a clue
when it comes to following it, it would be enough for us.
A supporter doing as instructed out of faith is most dear.
If there were no people with certain religious qualities who
out of their fear of death, strive for liberation for
themselves alone
it would be enough for us.
Leading a life of love for each and every
animate being as if for an only child is most dear.
If there were no people laying out plans in hopes of
permanence
at the same time claiming to believe in impermanence
it would be enough for us.
A reversal of attachments that sees
the true nature of things as compounded is most dear.
If there were no people with "good interests in
mind"
who beguile the minds of others with their wealth and
devious posturings
it would be enough for us.
Benefitting others by first taming
one's own mind and then employing the Four Gatherings is
most dear.
— These words of advice were for the monk and meditator Sherab Pelden.
Translator's
notes: I choose the translation
"most dear" for gces-pa
because it helps to carry the meanings of rarity, exceptionality and endearment
or even cuteness. Each of the ten verses
shares the same parallel structure and rhythm, although in the interest of easy
intelligibility I decided not to preserve this fully in the English. In the
final verse, the Four Gatherings (four ways of gathering disciples) means [1]
giving them what is needed, [2] speaking to them kindly, [3] not opposing their
worldly aims, [4] acting for the benefit of the aspirant. I admit that the louse metaphor doesn't make
much sense to me, but I imagine that the louse is most lively just on the point
when it is going to be picked out and crushed. A thirty-year-old translation
emerged from my recovered archive and seeing it had many mistakes I did my best
to improve it, thinking it is applicable to things that are happening these days in our world. The Tibetan text, too, has been emended to make it better, putting in a few missing vowel signs, correcting confusions between nga (ང་) and da (ད་), reading yong-gtam (ཡོང་གཏམ་) as long-gtam (ལོང་གཏམ་) and the like.་As of yet I have been unable to find out more about Sherab Pelden, the person to whom these verses were directed. You can find an entry on the author here at Wikipedia.
གྲོས་འདེབས་ཀྱི་གླུ་གཅེས་པ་བཅུ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ།།
རིང་དུ་བསྟེན་ན་ཆགས་སྡང་དབང་གིས།།
ད་རིས་གཅོད་པའི་བླ་མ་སློབ་དཔོན།།
མེད་ཀྱང་ཆོག་སྟེ་མཚན་ཉིད་ཀུན་ལྡན།།
དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་སུ་བསྟན་པ་གཅེས་སོ།།
འབད་པས་སྦྱངས་ཀྱང་རྣམ་མཁྱེན་ཐོབ་ལ།།
ཁ་ཐག་རིང་བའི་ཐ་སྙད་སློབ་གཉེར།།
མེད་ཀྱང་ཆོག་སྟེ་རྒྱུད་སྡེའི་ཉིང་ཁུ།།
གདམས་ངག་ཟབ་མོའི་ཐོས་བསམ་གཅེས་སོ།།
མང་དུ་བསྒོམས་ཀྱང་ཉམས་རྟོགས་བུལ་ཞིང༌།།
གོལ་ཤོར་འབྱུང་དེར་བརྩོན་ཅིང་འགྲུས་པ།།
མེད་ཀྱང་ཆོག་སྟེ་རྒྱུད་ལྡན་གདམས་པ།།
ཆུད་ཟོས་མེད་པའི་ཉམས་ལེན་གཅེས་སོ།།
གཉིས་གསུམ་ཚོགས་ཀྱང་ལོང་གཏམ་འཕེལ་ལ།།
མང་དུ་ཚོགས་ན་མིག་ལྟོས་ལད་པ།།
མེད་ཀྱང་ཆོག་སྟེ་ཆོས་མཐུན་གྲོགས་རེ།།
བཙན་ས་ཟིན་ཟིན་བསྟན་པ་གཅེས་སོ།།
རྟགས་དང་མཚན་མ་བྲང་བྲེང་རེ་ལ།།
ཆོས་ཉིད་མཐོང་བའི་ཁོང་ཡུས་ཆེན་པོ།།
མེད་ཀྱང་ཆོག་སྟེ་ཤིག་དང་འཛུབ་བཞིན།།
འཆི་ཀར་བྲོད་པའི་གདེང་ཚད་གཅེས་སོ།།
སྐྱིད་པའི་སྐབས་དེར་ཆོས་པའི་བཟང་ཤོས།།
རྐྱེན་ངན་སླེབ་ཚེ་ཐ་མལ་འགྱུར་བ།།
མེད་ཀྱང་ཆོག་སྟེ་བཟང་ངན་ཀུན་ལ།།
ཐོག་ཏུ་བརྫི་བའི་རོ་སྙོམས་གཅེས་སོ།།
འཐབ་མོས་བསྐུལ་ནས་ཆོས་ལ་བྲོས་ཤིང༌།།
ཆོས་བཞིན་གཅུར་ན་ཡར་བའི་འཁོར་རྣམས།།
མེད་ཀྱང་ཆོག་སྟེ་དད་པའི་དབང་གིས།།
ཅི་གསུང་བསྒྲུབ་ན་སྐྱོང་བྲན་གཅེས་སོ།།
འཆི་བས་འཇིགས་ནས་རང་ཉིད་གཅིག་པུ།།
ཐར་པ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་སྣ་ཚོགས།།
མེད་ཀྱང་ཆོག་སྟེ་འགྲོ་བ་ཀུན་ལ།།
བུ་གཅིག་ལྟར་བརྩེའི་སྤྱོད་པ་གཅེས་སོ།།
མི་རྟག་འཇིག་པ་ཁ་ནས་བཤད་ཀྱིན།།
རྟག་ཏུ་རེ་བའི་བཤོམ་ར་འདིང་པ།།
མེད་ཀྱང་ཆོག་སྟེ་འདུས་བྱས་དངོས་པོའི།།
ཆོས་ཉིད་མཐོང་བའི་ཞེན་ལོག་གཅེས་སོ།།
ནོར་དང་གཡོ་སྒྱུ་ཚུལ་འཆོས་དབང་གིས།།
གཞན་སེམས་འདྲིད་པའི་ཚུགས་ཁྱེར་བཟང་པོ།།
མེད་ཀྱང་ཆོག་སྟེ་རང་སེམས་བཏུལ་ནས།།
བསྡུ་བ་རྣམ་བཞིས་གཞན་ཕན་གཅེས་སོ།།
ཞེས་པ་འདི་དགེ་སློང་བསམ་གཏན་པ་ཤེས་རབ་དཔལ་ལྡན་ལ་གདམས་པའོ།། །།
Posts
Hi Dan,
ReplyDeleteNice song and a fluent translation!
I was wondering about the ris gcod pa'i qualifying the available lamas. Do you think it could be translated with sectarian?
Joy
Dear J, Nice hearing from you. My mistake. Somehow a syllable got dropped at the beginning of the 2nd line. It ought to read ད་རིས་གཅོད་པའི་... The ད་རིས་ is what I translated "this time around." I went in and fixed it already. Meanwhile I compared my text with the original again and didn't find any more unintended changes, so I think the Tibetan, at least, is good now. Thanks for pointing out the mistake, and take care. Yours, D.
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