From the collection work of Shechen Gyaltsab
You possess the wisdom body that always resides in my lotus heart of threefold faith.
You are the all-pervading lord and the protector of all mandalas.
May Lodoe Thaye, the second Buddha,
Shower upon you the flowers of auspiciousness!
Kyeho! As the fruit produced by the positive accumulations of the past,
The golden grain of this human body of freedom and advantages has fully ripened
And you have met with the essential teachings of the practice lineage.
At such a time, please do not get carried away by careless distractions.
Almost all the flower garlands of youth have withered;
Without your notice, the noose of old age has naturally tightened.
The waves of futile actions are endless
So it is now high time to radically control your mind.
The Victorious One has perfectly said that among all footprints, the elephant’s is supreme,
And among all flowers, the white lotus is the finest.
In the same way, remembering impermanence is the supreme among all reflections:
Keep this in mind.
The outer world is impermanent, exhibiting the change of the four times.
Its inner contents—sentient beings—are impermanent, revolving through the cycle of life and death.
Foes and friends are impermanent as if in a dramatic performance.
Think! Wherever you look, is there anything that is reliable?
One’s present happiness and suffering are the results of [actions] accumulated in the past.
What will happen in the future will be determined by one’s present actions.
Just like the body’s shadow, karma will follow you.
The fruit of virtue and non-virtue will ripen into joy and sorrow respectively.
All those who are wise should think this over.
Family line, beauty, prosperity, power and strength, name and fame and so on—
No matter how much you achieve, it’s just like discovering treasure in a dream.
Attachment, aversion and torment grow because of these.
Like the saliva of silkworms, you end up binding yourself into exhaustion.
Therefore, rely on the wealth of contentment with little desire.
Whatever you engage in should accord with dharma.
In this manner, always examine your thoughts day and night.
If you err, shame yourself, and if you are virtuous, appreciate yourself.
Even if one just hears a drop of nectar of the Three Jewels’ name,
It can cut off the continuity of samsaric epidemics.
No need to speak then of [the benefits of] taking refuge in, supplicating, offering to and relying upon them from the core of your heart.
Therefore, entrust yourself to them with confidence and faith.
The three excellences are the roots of the Mahayana path.
If you have these, whatever you do will become the path of Enlightenment.
Without these, it is impossible for any activity to become a perfect path.
This alone is the main body of the Bodhisattva’s conduct.
Knowing the gratitude towards all the motherly sentient beings equal to space who are like your parents,
With the thought of repaying their kindness,
You should give rise to the aspirational and practical bodhichitta driven by the four immeasurables of loving kindness and others.
It is important not to break your [Bodhisattva] vows even at the cost of your life.
In reality, all phenomena are non-conceptual and beyond elaboration.
In the apparent mode, the relative is infallible in being interdependently originated.
The union of the two truths, appearance and emptiness, is like a magical illusion.
Please gather the army of the two accumulations, the union of method and wisdom.
Particularly at the present time when the Buddha’s teachings have nearly reached extinction,
The Buddha said that even just teaching, writing or reading a single verse and listening to it and keeping precepts for a day and night, bring about immeasurable merit which is hard to enumerate.
If both the intention and the actions are pure, both the Buddha and sentient beings are no different in being the fields from which to harvest Enlightenment.
Therefore, there is no practice greater than pleasing sentient beings.
Any actions like making offerings to the Three Jewels, building supports for dharma, practising generosity and so forth,
Should not be tainted with non-virtue. This is important.
If one’s intention and actions are pure, though the actions may be small, the results will be abundant.
Conversely, even though one’s actions are big [in appearance], the result will be the opposite.
In the end, whatever multitude of merits you have accumulated whether large or small,
Without being defiled by the characteristics of threefold conceptualization,
It is important to follow the example of the victorious ones and their sons like Samantabhadra
By dedicating them for the achievement of the great Enlightenment.
Therefore, supreme friend, adorn this advice, “The Garland of Jewels”,
As your neck ornament.
This will be infallible in the long run as it is based upon the great evidence of the scriptures of the Buddha.
Hence, if you follow it, you will be virtuous.
I, Padma Vija, who spoke these words,
Although my behaviour is opposite to the perfect Dharma,
Assume that they are in accordance with Dharma.
By this virtue, may your mind engage in virtue!
Translated by Padma Mani Translation Committee, NNNI
