Part 2 (1/2)

How needing of compa.s.sion are those beings who endlessly revolve [in the cycle of existence], As if [circling] perpetually [on] the rim of a water-wheel, In this six-dimensional city of imprisoning past actions!

Grant your blessing, so that the womb entrances to the six cla.s.ses of existence may be barred!

We who are fearless and hard-hearted, despite having seen so many sufferings of birth, old age, sickness and death, Are wasting our human lives, endowed with freedom and opportunity,6 on the paths of distraction.

Grant your blessing, so that we may [continuously] remember impermanence and death!

Since we do not recognise that impermanent [things] are unreliable, Still, even now, we remain attached, clinging to this cycle of existence.

Wis.h.i.+ng for happiness, we pa.s.s our human lives in suffering.

Grant your blessing, so that attachment to cyclic existence may be reversed!

Our impermanent environment will be destroyed by fire and water,7 The impermanent sentient beings within it will endure the severing of body and mind.

The seasons of the year: summer, winter, autumn and spring, themselves [exemplify] impermanence.

Grant your blessing, so that disillusionment [with conditioned existence] may arise from the depths [of our hearts]!

Last year, this year, the waxing and waning moons, The days, nights, and indivisible time moments are all impermanent.

If we reflect carefully, we too are face to face with death.

Grant your blessing, so that we may become resolute in our practice!

Though this [body] endowed with freedom and opportunity is extremely hard to find, When the Lord of Death8 approaches in the semblance of disease, How needing of compa.s.sion are those who, bereft of the [sacred] teachings, Return empty-handed [from this life]!

Grant your blessing so that [a recognition of] urgency may grow in our minds!

Alas! Alas! O Precious Jewel, embodiment of compa.s.sion!

Since you, the Conqueror, are endowed with a loving heart, Grant your blessing, so that we and the six cla.s.ses of beings May be liberated, right now, from the sufferings of cyclic existence!

UNCOMMON PRELIMINARY PRACTICE.

Refuge.

(Then, the outer, inner, and secret refuges should be adopted in the following way:) Outer Refuge I bow down to and take refuge in the spiritual teachers Whose enlightened intention, throughout the past, present and future, Is uninterruptedly directed towards living beings, The infinite sentient beings of the three world systems and six cla.s.ses.

I bow down to and take refuge in the [perfect] buddhas, The Transcendent Ones Gone to Bliss of the ten directions and four times, Foremost of humankind, adorned by the major and minor marks, Whose enlightened activities are inexhaustible, and as vast as s.p.a.ce.

I bow down to and take refuge in the sacred teachings, Including the doctrines of the ultimate truth, quiescent and desireless, The irreversible path9 of the three vehicles, And the transmissions, esoteric instructions, and treatises Of the transmitted precepts and treasures.

I bow down to and take refuge in the communities [of monks and nuns], Who abide on the unerring path, forming a field of all supreme merits,10 Together with the a.s.sembly of Sublime Ones, set apart from the stains of dissonant mental states, And the supreme upholders of the Teaching: bodhisattvas, pious attendants, and hermit buddhas.

Inner Refuge.

I bow down to and take refuge in the spiritual teachers, [Embodying] the essential nature of the buddhas of the three times, The masters of all the secret and unsurpa.s.sed mandalas, Who guide all living beings with their blessings and compa.s.sion.

I bow down to and take refuge in the meditational deities, Who, even though [they remain unmoving as] the Buddha-body of Reality, Uncreated and free from the limits of conceptual elaboration, Emanate in peaceful and wrathful forms for the sake of living beings, And confer the supreme and common accomplishments.

I bow down to and take refuge in the a.s.sembly of dkins, Who, moving with the energy of compa.s.sion through the s.p.a.ce of reality, Grant supreme bliss [as they arise] from their pure abodes, And bestow accomplishments upon those who keep their commitments.

Secret Refuge From within a state free from grasping and beyond intellect, I take refuge in the nature of the great expanse of sameness and perfection,11 Atemporal emptiness, free from conceptual elaboration, Primordially pure in essence, natural expression and compa.s.sionate energy.

From within [a state which is] non-conceptual, naturally radiant and stark, I take refuge in the primordial embodiment of the five buddha-bodies, Spontaneously and naturally present, [Abiding] in the mandala of the [unique] seminal point, Which is [the union of] expanse and awareness, and of radiance and emptiness, The indestructible chain of inner radiance, that is intrinsic awareness.

Throughout the three times, beginningless and endless, I take refuge in the Compa.s.sionate Ones, Unimpeded, naturally expressive, and all-pervasive, The unimpededly arising and subsiding rays of light, Which emanate through the expressive power of awareness, Dispelling, non-conceptually, the darkness in the minds of living beings.

The Generation of an Altruistic Intention.

(Then, the altruistic intention of the Greater Vehicle should be generated in the following way:) Even though all phenomena are empty and selfless, Sentient beings fail to realise this. Alas! How needing of compa.s.sion are they!

So that all those who are the focus of our compa.s.sion may attain enlightenment, I must rouse my body, speech and mind to [the practice of] virtue!

For the benefit of all sentient beings of the six cla.s.ses, From now until enlightenment is attained, Not just for my own sake but for the benefit of all, I must generate the mind [aspiring] to supreme enlightenment!

How needing of compa.s.sion are those bereft of the [sacred] teachings, Who have ensnared themselves within the unfathomable ocean of suffering.

So that all those who are the focus of our compa.s.sion may be established in happiness, I must generate the mind [aspiring] to supreme enlightenment!

I myself and all infinite sentient beings Are primordially of the nature of buddhahood.

So that we may [all] become supreme embodiments, who know this to be so, I must generate the mind [aspiring] to supreme enlightenment!

The ocean of mundane cyclic existence is like an illusion.

All compounded things lack permanence.

Their essence is empty and selfless, But these naive beings [right here] who do not realise this to be so Roam through cyclic existence, [driven on] by the twelve links of dependent origination.

So that all beings gripped in this quagmire of name and form may attain buddhahood,12 I must rouse my body, speech, and mind to [the practice of] virtue!

I take refuge [from now] until enlightenment, In the Buddha, the [sacred] teachings and supreme a.s.sembly.