A Guide To the Bodhisattva Way Of Life

Author: Shantideva Bodhisattva

(* Shantideva Bodhisattva is known as a direct disciple of Manjusri Bodhisattva)


The Key of becoming a Bodhisattva:

One who wishes to protect oneself and others quickly,
should practice exchanging oneself for others,
which is a great mystery.

All those who are unhappy in the world are so
as a result of their desire for their own happiness.

All those who are happy in the world are so
as a result of their desire for the happiness of others.

Enough of such talk!

Note the difference between the fool who seeks his own benefit,
and the sage who works for the benefit of others.

One, who does not exchange his own happiness for the suffering of others,
surely does not achieve Buddhahood.
How could one find happiness even in the cycle of existence?

Therefore,
in order to alleviate my own suffering and to alleviate the suffering of others,
I give myself up to others, and I accept others as my own self.

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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9


[In copying this ancient manuscript we discovered various translations from different traditions. The reader can be comforted to know that they all agreed with one another in substance, however, some were easier to understand in places then others. In making this text available we worked hard to ensure that it would be comprehensible. In every case we selected the verse that we felt was easiest to understand. BIONA ED.]

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Chapter One
The Benefit of the Spirit of Awakening (The Benefit of the Bodhi Heart)


1. Reverently bowing to the Sugatas, who are endowed with the Dharmakaya, together with their children and all who are worthy of veneration, I shall concisely present a guide to the discipline of the children of the Sugatas in accordance with the scriptures.

2. There is nothing here that has not been said before, nor do I have any skill in composition. Thus, I have no concern for the welfare of others, and I have composed this solely to season my own mind.

3. Owing to this, the power of my faith increases to cultivate virtue. Moreover, if someone else with a disposition like my own examines this, it may be meaningful.

4. This leisure and endowment, which are so difficult to obtain have been acquired, and they bring about the welfare of the world. If one fails to take this favorable opportunity into consideration, how could this occasion occur again?

5. Just as lightning illuminates the darkness of a cloudy night for an instant, in the same way, by the power of the Buddha, occasionally people's minds are momentarily inclined toward merit.

6. Thus, virtue is perpetually ever so feeble, while the power of vice is great and extremely dreadful. If there were no spirit of perfect awakening, what other virtue would overcome it?

7. The Lords of Sages, who have been contemplating for many eons, have seen this alone as a blessing by which joy is easily increased and immeasurable multitudes of beings are rescued.

8. Those who long to overcome the abundant miseries of mundane existence, those who wish to dispel the adversities of sentient beings, and those who yearn to experience a myriad of joys should never forsake the spirit of awakening.

9. When the spirit of awakening has arisen, in an instant a wretch who is bound in the prison of the cycle of existence is called a child of the Sugatas and becomes worthy of reverence in the worlds of gods and humans.

10. Upon taking this impure form, it transmutes it into the priceless image of the gem of the Jina. So, firmly hold to the quicksilver elixir, called the spirit of awakening, which must be utterly transmuted.

11. The world's sole leaders, whose minds are fathomless, have well examined its great value. You, who are inclined to escape from the states of mundane existence, hold fast to the jewel of the spirit of awakening.

12. Just as a plantain tree decays upon losing its fruit, so does every other virtue wane. But the tree of the spirit of awakening perpetually bears fruit, does not decay, and only flourishes.

13. Owing to its protection, as due to the protection of a powerful man, even after committing horrendous vices, one immediately overcomes great fears. Why do ignorant beings not seek refuge in it?

14. Like the conflagration at the time of the destruction of the universe, it consumes great ices in an instant. The wise lord Maitreya taught its incalculable benefits to Sudhana.

15. In brief, this spirit of awakening is known to be of two kinds: the spirit of awakening, and the spirit of aspiring for awakening, and the spirit of venturing towards awakening.

16. Just as one perceives the difference between a person who yearns to travel and a traveler, so do the learned recognize the corresponding difference between those two.

17. Although the result of the spirit of aspiring for awakening is great within the cycle of existence, it is still not like the continual state of merit of the spirit of venturing.

18. From the time that one adopts that spirit with an irreversible attitude for the sake of liberating limitless sentient beings,

19. From that moment on, an uninterrupted stream of merit, equal to the sky, constantly arises even when one is asleep or distracted.

20. The Tath¨¢gata himself cogently asserted this in the Subahuprccha for the sake of beings who are inclined toward the lesser vehicle.

21. A well-intentioned person who thinks, "I shall eliminate the headaches of sentient beings," bears immeasurable merit.

22. When then of a person who desires to remove the incomparable pain of every single being and endow them with immeasurable good qualities?

23. Who has even a mother or father with such altruism? Would the gods, sages, or Brahmas have it?

24. If those beings have never before had that wish for their own sake even in their dreams, how could they possibly have it for the sake of others?

25. How does this unprecedented and distinguished jewel, whose desire for the benefit of others does not arise in others even for their own self-interest, come into existence?

26. How can one measure the merit of the jewel of the mind, which is the seed of the worlds joy and is the remedy for the worlds suffering?

27. If reverence for the Buddhas is exceeded merely by an altruistic intention, how much more so by striving for the complete happiness of all sentient beings?

28. Those desiring to escape from suffering hasten right toward suffering. With the very desire for happiness, out of delusion they destroy their own happiness as if it were an enemy.

29. He satisfies with all joys those who are starving for happiness and eliminates all the sorrows of those who are afflicted in many ways.

30. He dispels delusion. Where else is there such a saint? Where else is there such a friend? Where else is there such merit?

31. Even one who repays a kind deed is praised somewhat, so what should be said of a bodhisattva whose good deed is unsolicited?

32. The world honors as virtuous one who makes a gift to a few people, even if it is merely a momentary and contemptuous donation of plain food and support for half a day.

33. What then of one who forever bestows to countless sentient beings the fulfillment of all yearnings, which is inexhaustible until the end of beings as limitless as space?

34. The Lord declared, "One who brings forth an impure thought in his heart against a benefactor, a child, of the Jina, will dwell in hells for as many eons as there were impure thoughts.

35. But if ones mind is kindly inclined, one will bring forth an even greater fruit. Even when a greatly violent crime is committed against the children of the Jinas, their virtue spontaneously arises.

36. I pay homage to the bodies of those whom this precious jewel of the mind has arisen. I go for refuge to those who are mines of joy, toward whom even an offence results in happiness.


Chapter Two
The Confession of Sin

1. In order to adopt that jewel of the mind, I make offerings to the Tath¨¢gatas, to the stainless jewel of the sublime Dharma, and to the children of the Buddhas, who are oceans of excellent qualities.

2. As many flowers, fruits, and medicinal herbs as there are, and as many jewels as there are in the world, and clear and pleasant waters,

3. Jeweled mountains, forested regions, and other delightful and solitary places, vines shining with the ornaments of lovely flowers, and trees with branches bowed with delicious fruit,

4. Fragrances and incenses, wish fulfilling trees, jeweled trees, lakes adorned with lotuses, enchanting calls of wild geese in the worlds of gods and other celestials,

5. Uncultivated crops, planted crops, and other things that ornament the venerable ones, all these that are un-owned and that extend throughout space,

6. I bring to mind and offer to the foremost of sages, together with their children. May those worthy of precious gifts, the greatly merciful ones, compassionate towards me, accept these from me.

7. Devoid of merit and destitute, I have nothing else to offer. Therefore, may the Protectors, whose concerns are for the welfare of others, accept this by their own power, for my sake.

8. I completely offer my entire self to the Jinas and their children. O supreme beings, accept me! I reverently devote myself to your service.

9. Being free from fear of mundane existence due to your protection, I shall serve sentient beings; I shall completely transcend my earlier vices, and henceforth I shall sin no more.

10. In sweetly fragrant bathing chambers, whose beautiful pillars are radiant with jewels, glowing canopies made with pearls, and crystal floors transparent and sparkling,

11. I bathe the Tath¨¢gatas and their children with many vases studded with superb jewels and filled with pleasing, fragrant flowers, and water, to the accompaniment of songs and instrumental music.

12. I dry their bodies with scented, immaculate, exquisite clothes; then I offer them beautifully colored and sweetly fragrant garments.

13. I adorn Samantabhadra, Ajita, Manjughosa, Lokesvara, and others with those divine, soft, delicate, and colorful raiment's and with the most precious of jewels.

14. With perfumes permeating a thousand million worlds, I anoint the bodies of the lords of sages that are blazing with the luster well refined, well rubbed, and polished gold.

15. I worship the most glorious lords of sages with all wonderfully fragrant and pleasing blossoms-mandarava flowers, blue lotus's, and others-and with splendidly arranged garlands.

16. I perfume them with enchanting clouds of incenses having a pungent and pervasive aroma. I offer them feasts consisting of various foods and drinks.

17. I offer them jeweled lamps, mounted in row of golden lotuses; and I scatter lovely drifts of blossoms on the floor, anointed with perfume.

18. To those filled with love I also offer brilliant multitudes of palaces, delightful with songs of praise, radiant with garlands of pearls and jewels, and ornamented at the entrances in four directions.

19. I bring to mind the great sages exquisitely beautiful, jeweled parasols perfectly raised with golden handles, lovely shapes, and inlaid pearls.

20. Thereafter, may delightful clouds of offerings rise high, and clouds of instrumental music that enrapture all sentient beings.

21. May showers of flowers, jewels and the like continually fall on the images, reliquaries, and all the jewels of the sublime Dharma.

22. Just as Manjughosa and others worship the Jinas, so do I worship the Tath¨¢gatas, the protectors, together with their children.

23. With hymns that are seas of melodies, I praise the oceans of virtues. May the clouds of harmonies of praise ascend to them in the same way.

24. With prostrations as numerous as the atoms within all the Buddha-fields, I bow to the Buddha's present in all the three times, to the Dharma, and to the sublime assembly,

25. Likewise, I pay homage to all the shrines and resting places of the Bodhisattva. I prostrate to the preceptors and to the praiseworthy adepts as well.

26. I go for refuge to the Buddha as far as the quintessence of enlightenment; I go for refuge to the Dharma and the community of Bodhisattvas.

27. With folded hands I beseech the Fully Awaked Ones present in all directions and the greatly compassionate bodhisattvas.

28. Whatever sin, I, a brute, have committed or caused others to commit in this life and others throughout the beginning less cycle of existence,

29. And anything in which I have improperly rejoiced, thereby harming myself, that transgression I confess, overcome by remorse

30. Whatever offence I have committed, out of disrespect, with my body, speech, and mind against the Three Jewels, against mother and fathers, and against spiritual mentors and others,

31. And whatever terrible vices, I, a sinner, defiled with many faults, have done, O Guides, I confess them all.

32. How shall I escape it? Rescue me quickly! May death not soon creep up on me before my vices have vanished!

33. Death does not differentiate between tasks done and undone. This traitor is not to be trusted by the healthy or the ill, for it is like an unexpected, great thunderbolt.

34. I have committed various vices for the sake of friends and enemies. This I have not recognized: "Leaving everyone behind, I must pass away."

35. My enemies will not remain, nor will my friends remain. I shall not remain. Nothing will remain.
36. Whatever is experienced will fade to a memory. Like an experience in a dream, everything that has passed will not be seen again.

37. Even in this life, as I have stood by, many friends and enemies have passed away, but terrible sin induced by them remains ahead of me.

38. Thus, I have not considered that I am ephemeral. Due to delusion, attachment, and hatred, I have sinned in many ways.

39. Day and night, a life span unceasingly diminishes, and there is no adding to it. Shall I not die then?

40. Although lying here on a bed, and relying on relatives, I alone have to bear the feeling of being cut off from my vitality.

41. For a person seized by the messengers of death, what good is a relative, and what good is a friend? At that time merit alone is a protection, and I have not applied myself to it.

42. O Protectors, I, negligent, and unaware of this danger, have acquired many vices out of attachment to this transient life.

43. One completely languishes while being led today to have the limbs of ones body amputated. Parched with thirst, and with pitiable eyes, one sees the world differently.

44. How much more is one overpowered by the horrifying appearances of the Messengers of Death as one is consumed by the fevers of terror, and smeared with a mass of excrement?

45. With distressed glances, I seek protection in the four directions. Which good person will be my protection from this great fear?

46. Seeing the four directions devoid of protection, I return to confusion. What shall I do in that state of great fear?

47. Right now I go for refuge to the Protectors of the world whose power is great, to the Jinas, who strive to protect the world and who eliminate every fear.
48. Likewise, I earnestly go for refuge to the Dharma that is mastered by them and that annihilates the fear of the cycle of existence, and to the assembly of Bodhisattvas as well.

49. Trembling with fear, I offer myself to Samantabhadra, and of my own will I offer myself to Manjughosa.

50. Terrified, I utter a mournful cry to the Protector, Avalokita, whose conduct overflows with compassion, that he may protect me, a sinner.

51. Seeking protection, I earnestly invoke noble Akasagarbha, Ksitigarbha, and all the compassionate ones.

52. I bow to Vajri, upon the sight of whom, the Messengers of Death and other malevolent beings flee in terror to the four directions.

53. After neglecting your council, in terror I go to you for refuge now as I face this fear. Swiftly remove my fear!

54. Even one frightened by a fleeting illness would not disregard the physicians advice; how much more so one afflicted by the four hundred and four diseases,

55. Of which just one can annihilate all people living Jambudvipa, and for which a medicine is not found in any region.
56. If I disregard the council of the Omniscient Physician who removes every pain, shame on me, extremely deluded one that I am!

57. If I stand very attentive, even on a smaller cliff, how much more so on an enduring chasm of a thousand leagues?

58. It is inappropriate for me to be as ease, thinking, "Just today death will not arrive." The time when I will not exist in inevitable.

59. Who can give me fearlessness? How can I escape? I shall certainly not exist. Why is my mind at ease?

60. What of value has remained with me from earlier experiences, which have disappeared, and engrossed in which, I have neglected the council of spiritual mentors?

61. Upon forsaking my relatives and friends, and this world of the living, alone I shall go elsewhere. What is the use of all my friends and enemies?

62. In that case, only this concern is appropriate for me day and night: how shall I surely escape suffering on account of that non-virtue?

63. Whatever vice, whatever natural misdeed, and whatever misdeed by prohibition I, an ignorant fool, have accumulated,

64. Terrified of suffering, all this I confess, standing with folded hands in the presence of the Protectors and bowing repeatedly.

65. May the guides be aware of my transgressions, together with my inequity. O Protectors, may I not commit this evil again!


Chapter Three
Adopting the Spirit of Awakening

1. I happily rejoice in the virtue of all sentient beings, which relieves the suffering of the miserable states of existence. May those who suffer dwell in happiness!

2. I rejoice in sentient beings' liberation from the suffering of the cycle of existence, and I rejoice in the Protectors' Bodhisattva Hood and Buddhahood.

3. I rejoice in the teachers' oceanic expressions of the spirit of awakening, which delight and benefit all sentient beings.

4. With the folded hands I beseech the Fully Awakened Ones in all directions that they may kindle the light of Dharma for those who fall into suffering owing to confusion.

5. With folded hands I supplicate the Jinas who wish to leave for Nirvana that they may stay for countless eons, and that this world may not remain in darkness.

6. May the virtue that I have acquired by doing all this relieve every suffering of sentient beings!

7. May I be the medicine and the physician for the sick. May I be their nurse until their illness never recurs!

8. With showers of food and drink may I overcome the afflictions of hunger and thirst! May I become food and drink during times of famine.

9. May I be an inexhaustible treasury for the destitute! With various forms of assistance may I remain in their presence.

10. For the sake of accomplishing the welfare of all sentient beings, I freely give up my body, enjoyments, and all my virtues of the three times.

11. Surrendering everything is Nirvana, and my mind seeks Nirvana. If I must surrender everything, it is better that I give it to sentient beings.

12. For the sake of all beings I have made this body pleasure less. Let them continually beat it, revile it, and cover it with filth.

13. Let them play with my body. Let them laugh at it and ridicule it. What does it matter to me? I have given my body to them.

14. Let them have me perform deeds that are conductive to their happiness. Whoever resorts to me, may it never be in vain.

15. For those who have resorted to me and have an angry or unkind thought, may even that always become the cause for their accomplishing every goal.

16. May those who falsely accuse me, who harm me, and who ridicule me all partake of awakening!

17. May I be a protector for those who are without protectors, a guide for travelers, and a boat, a bridge, and a ship for those who wish to cross over!

18. May I be a lamp for those who seek light, a bed for those who seek rest, and may I be a servant for all beings who desire a servant.

19. To all sentient beings may I be a wish-fulfilling gem, a vase of good fortune, an efficacious mantra, a great medication, a wish-fulfilling tree, and a wish-granting cow.

20. Just as earth and other elements are useful in various ways to innumerable sentient beings dwelling throughout infinite space,

21. So may I be in various ways a source of life for the sentient beings present throughout space until they are liberated.

22. Just as the Sugatas of old adopted the spirit of awakening, and just as they properly conformed to the practice of the Bodhisattvas,

23. So I myself shall generate the spirit of awakening for the sake of the world; and so I myself shall properly engage in those practices.

24. Upon gladly adopting the spirit of awakening in this way, an intelligent person should thus nurture the spirit in order to fulfill his wish.

25. Now my life is fruitful. Human existence is well obtained. Today I have been born into the family of the Buddhas. Now I am a child of the Buddha.

26. Thus, whatever I do now should accord with the Bodhisattvas' family, and it should not be a stain on this pure family.

27. Just as a blind man might find a jewel amongst heaps of rubbish, so this spirit of Awakening has somehow arisen in me.

28. It is the elixir of life produced to vanquish death in the world. It is an inexhaustible treasure eliminating the poverty of the world.

29. It is the supreme medicine that alleviates the illness of the world. It is the tree of rest for beings exhausted from wondering on the pathways of mundane existence.

30. It is the universal bridge for all travelers on their crossing over miserable states of existence. It is the rising moon of the mind that soothes the mental afflictions of the world.

31. It is the great sun dispelling the darkness of the world's ignorance. It is the fresh butter formed from churning the milk of Dharma.

32. For the caravan of beings traveling on the path to mundane existence and starving for the meal of happiness, it is the feast of happiness that satisfies all sentient beings who have come as guests.

33. Today I invite the world to Sugata-hood and temporal happiness. May the gods, asuras, and other rejoice in the presence of all the Protectors!



Chapter Four
Attending to the Spirit of Awakening

1. Thus, upon firmly adopting the spirit of awakening, a child of the Jinas should always vigilantly strive not to neglect his training.

2. Although one has made a commitment, it is appropriate to reconsider whether or not to do that which has been rashly undertaken and has not been well considered.

3. But shall I discard that which has been examined by the sagacious Buddhas and their children, as well as by myself according to the best of my abilities?

4. If, upon making such a promise, I do not put it into action, then having deceived those sentient beings, what destiny shall I have?

5. It has been said that a person who intended to give away even a tiny thing but does not do so, becomes a preta.

6. Then all the more so, having deceived the entire world after loudly and sincerely inviting it to unsurpassable happiness, what state of existence shall I have?

7. Only the Omniscient One knows the inconceivable course of action of those people whom he liberates even when they forsake the spirit of awakening.

8. Therefore, for a Bodhisattva it is the heaviest downfall of all; for if he commits such a downfall, he impairs the welfare of all sentient beings.

9. If someone else hinders his virtue, even for a moment, there will be no end to his miserable states of existence, because he diminishes the welfare of sentient beings.

10. One would be destroyed, obliterating the well being of even one sentient being, how much more so of beings dwelling throughout all space?

11. Thus, due to the power of the downfalls and due to the power of the Spirit of Awakening, one revolving in the cycle of existence is slow in the attaining of bodhisattva grounds.

12. Therefore, I should respectfully act in accordance with my commitment. If I do not make an effort now, I shall go from lower to lower states.

13. Innumerable Buddhas have gone by, seeking out every sentient being, but through my own fault, I have not come into the domain of their cure.

14. If I remain like this, as I am now, I will repeatedly come to the miserable states of existence, illness, death, amputation, destruction and the like.

15. When shall I encounter the extremely rare appearance of the Tath¨¢gata, faith, human existence, and the ability to practice virtue,

16. Health, daily sustenance, and lack of adversity? Life is momentary and deceptive; and the body is as if on loan.

17. With such behavior on my part, a human state is certainly not obtained again. When a human state is not achieved there is only vice, and how could there be blessing?

18. If I do not perform virtue even when I am capable of it, what then shall I do when fully dazed by the sufferings of miserable states of existence?

19. For one does not perform virtue but accumulates sin, even the expression, "favorable state of existence" will be lost for a thousand million eons.

20. Therefore, the blessed one stated that human existence is extremely difficult to obtain, like a turtles head emerging into the ring of a yoke in a vast ocean.

21. One dwells in the Avichi Hell for an eon as a consequence of a vice committed in a single moment. What then can be said of a favorable state of existence, since sin has accumulated since beginning-less time?

22. Having experienced that alone, one is still not liberated. Therefore, while experiencing it, one begets more vices.

23. Upon obtaining such leisure, if I do not practice virtue, then there is no duplicity greater than this, and there is no delusion greater than this.

24. If I recognize this and, still deluded, fall into sloth, then when I am commanded by the messengers of Yama, I shall long remain in great anguish.

25. The unendurable fire of hell will scorch my body for ages, and afterward the fire of remorse will torment my undisciplined mind for a long time.

26. I have somehow obtained the advantageous state that is very difficult to achieve, and though aware of that, I am led back to those same hells.

27. I have no will in this matter, as if bewitched by spells. I do not know by whom I am bewitched or who dwells inside me.

28. Enemies such as craving and hatred are without arms, legs, and so on. They are neither courageous nor wise. How is it that they have enslaved me?

29. Stationed in my mind, they ruin me, while remaining well established themselves; and yet I do not get angry at my forbearance with this shameful and improper situation.

30. If all gods and humans were my enemies, even they would be unable to bring me to the fire of the Avichi Hell.

31. When encountered, it consumes even the ashes of Mount Meru. Mental afflictions, the mighty enemies, instantly throw me there.

32. For the longevity of all other enemies is not so enduring, beginning-less, and endless as that of my enemies, the mental afflictions.

33. Everyone becomes favorably disposed when tended with kindness, but when these mental afflictions are honored, they bring about suffering all the more.

34. How can I take delight in the cycle of existence when constant, long lasting enemies, who are the sole cause of the currents and floods of adversities, fearlessly dwell in my heart?

35. How can I be happy if the guardians of the prison of the cycle of existence, these murderers and slaughterers in hells and the like, remain in the cage of greed within the dwelling of my heart?

36. Therefore, as long as these enemies are not destroyed before my eyes, I shall not forsake my task. Those lofty with pride, who are enraged at someone who gives them even a minor insult, will not sleep until they kill him.

37. At the height of a battle, ready to slaughter those who are in darkness and who are naturally subject to suffering through death, those afflicted with injuries from countless spears and arrows do not turn back without accomplishing their goal.

38. What then when I am eager to destroy my natural enemies, which are the perpetual causes of all miseries? Today, even if I am beset with a hundred adversities, why am I weary and despondent?

39. If they wear scars from their enemies for no reason as if they were ornaments, then why do sufferings trouble me when I am set to accomplish a great goal?

40. If fishermen, outcasts, farmers, and others, whose minds are fixed merely on their own livelihoods, withstand the adversities of cold and heat, then why do I not endure for the sake the well being of the world?

41. While I have promised to liberate beings throughout space in the ten directions from their mental afflictions, I have not liberated even myself from the mental afflictions.

42. Without knowing my own limitations, I spoke at that time as if I were a bit insane. Therefore, I shall never turn back from vanquishing mental afflictions.

43. I shall be tenacious in this matter; and fixed on revenge, I shall wage war, except against those mental afflictions that are related to the elimination of mental afflictions.

44. Let my entrails ooze out and my head fall off, but by no means shall I bow down to my enemies, the mental afflictions.

45. Even if exiled, an enemy may acquire a residence and followers in another country whence he returns with his full strength. But there is no such course for my enemy, the mental afflictions.

46. Once the afflictions that dwell in my mind have been expelled, where could it go, and where would it go, and where would it rest and attempt to return and destroy me? Feeble in spirit, I am lacking in perseverance. Mental afflictions are frail and conquerable with the eye of wisdom.

47. Mental afflictions do not exist in sense objects, or in sense faculties, or in the space between, and not anywhere else. Then where do they exist and agitate the whole world? This is an illusion only. Liberate your fearing heart and cultivate perseverance for the sake of wisdom. Why would you torture yourself in hells for no reason?

48. After pondering in this way, I shall make an effort to apply the teachings as they have been explained. How can someone who could be cured by medicine be restored to health if he strays from the physician's advice?



Chapter Five
Guarding Introspection

1. Those who wish to protect their practice should zealously guard the mind. The practice cannot be protected without guarding the unsteady mind.

2. Untamed, mad elephants do not inflict as much harm in this world as does the unleashed elephant of the mind in the Avichi Hell and the like.

3. But if the elephant of the mind is completely restrained by the rope of mindfulness, then all perils vanish and complete well-being is obtained.

4. Tigers, lions, elephants, bears, snakes, all enemies, all guardians of hells,

5. Dakinis (evil spirits) and demons become controlled by controlling the mind alone. By subduing the mind alone, they all become subdued.

6. For the Propounder of the Truth (The Buddha) said that all fears and immeasurable sufferings arise from the mind only.

7. Who diligently constructed the weapons in hell? Who devised the floor of heated iron? And from where have those women come?

8. The sage declared that all of that has arisen from the evil mind, so there is nothing else on the three worlds more formidable than the mind.

9. If the perfections of generosity makes the world free from poverty, how is it possible that the Protectors of the past acquired it, when the world is still impoverished today?

10. The perfection of generosity is interpreted simply as a state of mind due to the intention of giving away everything, together with the fruits of that, to all people.

11. Where can fish and the like be taken where I could not kill them? When the mind of renunciation is obtained, that is considered the perfection of ethical discipline.

12. How many malicious people, as unending as space, can I kill? When the mind state of anger is slain, all enemies are slain.

13. Where would there be leather enough to cover the entire world? There earth is covered over merely with the leather of my sanders.

14. Likewise, I am unable to restrain external phenomena, but I shall restrain my own mind, what need is there to restrain anything else?

15. Even when accompanied by body and speech, feeble mental activity does not have results such as Brahma hood and alike, which the mind alone has when clear.

16. The omniscient One stated that all recitations and austerities, even through performed for a long time, are actually useless if the mind is on something else or dull.

17. Those who have not cultivated the mind, which is the mystery and the very essence of Dharma, uselessly wander in space in order to eliminate suffering and find happiness.

18. Therefore, I should well control and well guard my mind. Once I have forsaken the vow of guarding the mind, of what use are many vows to me?

19. Just as those standing in the midst of boisterous people carefully guard their wounds, so those standing in the midst of evil people should always guard their minds.

20. Fearing slight pain from a wound, I guard it with great care. Why don't I, fearing the crushing of the mountains of the Samghata hell, guard the wound of my mind?

21. Living with this attitude even among evil people and among maidens, with steadfast effort, a persevering sage will not be defeated.

22. Let my possessions freely vanish; let my honor, my body, livelihood, and everything else pass away. But may my virtuous mind never be lost.

23. I appeal to those desiring to guard their minds: always diligently guard your mindfulness and introspection.

24. Just as a person smitten by disease is unfit for any work, so the mind lacking those two is not fit for any work.

25. What has been heard, pondered, and cultivated, like water in a cracked jar, does not remain in the memory of the mind that lacks introspection.

26. Even many people who have faith and extraordinary perseverance become defiled by vices on account of the fault of lacking introspection.

27. Even upon accumulating virtues, those who have been robbed by the thief of non-introspection, who come after the loss of mindfulness, enter miserable states of existence.

28. This band of thieves, the mental afflictions, looks for an entrance. Upon finding an entrance, it plunders and destroys life in fortunate realms of existence.

29. Therefore, mindfulness should never be displaced from the gate of the mind. If it is gone, it should be reinstated while recalling the anguish of hell.

30. Mindfulness easily arises for those of good fortune because of their association with a spiritual mentor, and for those who are reverent on account of the instruction of a preceptor and because of their fear.

31. The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have unobstructed vision in all directions. Everything is in their presence; and I stand in front of them.

32. Meditating thus, one should remain filled with a sense of propriety, respect, and fear; and one should repeatedly think of the Buddhas in this way.
33. When mindfulness stands guard at the gate of the mind, introspection arrives, and once it has come, it does not depart again.

34. First, I should establish this mind in such a manner, and I should always remain still as if without sense faculties like a piece of wood.

35. One should never cast one's gaze around without purpose. One should always direct one's gaze downwards as if in meditation.

36. However, one should occasionally look around in order to relax the gaze; and if someone should appear in the field of ones vision, one should look up and give a greeting.

37. In order to detect danger on the road and so forth, one should look to the four directions for a moment. Pausing, one should look in the distance, looking behind only after turning around.

38. Upon looking forward or behind, one should go ahead or turn back. Likewise, in all situations one should proceed after realizing what needs to be done.

39. Thinking, "The body should remain like this," and resorting to action again, one should periodically look afresh to see how the body is positioned.

40. In this way the mad elephant of the mind should be watched diligently so that it is not loosed while tied to the great pillar of the thought of Dharma.

41. One should examine the mind in this way-where is mine engaged-so that it does not even for a moment leave the pole of concentration.

42. If one is unable to do so in the case of danger or a festive occasion, then one should be at ease. It is said that at the time of giving, ethical discipline may be held in abeyance.

43. Upon recognizing what needs to be undertaken, with a mind focused on that, one should attend to nothing else until one accomplishes it.

44. For in this way everything is well done. Otherwise neither will occur, and the mental affliction of non-introspection will increase as well.

45. One should eliminate yearning that arises for various idle conversations, which often take place, and for all kinds of entertainment.

46. If useless crushing of the earth, ripping of grass, or drawing in the dirt takes place, then fearfully recalling the teaching of the Tath¨¢gata, one should instantly stop it.

47. When one intends to move or when one intends to speak, one should first examine one's own mind and then act appropriately with composure.

48. When one sees one's own mind to be attached or repulsed, then one should neither act nor speak, but remain still like a piece of wood.

49. When my mind is haughty, sarcastic, full of conceit and arrogance, ridiculing, evasive, and deceitful,

50. When it is inclined to boast, or when it is contemptuous of others, abusive, and irritable, then I should remain still like a piece of wood.

51. When my mind seeks material gain, honor, and fame, or when it seeks attendance and service, then I will remain still like a piece of wood.

52. When my mind is averse to the interests of others and seeks my own self interest, or when it wishes to speak out of a desire for an audience, then I will remain still like a piece of wood.

53. When it is impatient, indolent, timid, impudent, garrulous, or biased in my own favor, then I will remain still like a piece of wood.

54. Perceiving in this way that the mind is afflicted or engaged in fruitless activities, the hero should always firmly control it by means of an antidote to that.

55. Resolute, confidant, steadfast, respectful and courteous, modest, meek, calm, devoted to pleasing others,

56. Un-distressed by the mutually incompatible desires of foolish people, endowed with compassion, knowing that they are like this as a consequence of the arising of their mental afflictions,

57. Always resorting to irreproachable things for the sake of myself and others, I will maintain my mind free of pride, like an apparition.

58. Remembering over and over again that after a long time the best of moments of leisure has been attained; I will keep this mind unshakable, like Sumeru.

59. One does not object when the body is dragged here and there by vultures coveting its flesh. Then why do so now?

60. Mind, why do you protect this body, appropriating it as your own? It is really separate from you, what good is it to you?

61. Oh fool, if you do not consider as your own a pure wooden statue, why are you guarding this foul machine composed of impurities?

62. First, with your own intellect, peel off this sheath of skin, and with the knife of wisdom loosen the flesh from the skeleton.

63. Breaking the bones, look inside at the marrow and examine for yourself, "where is the essence here?"

64. If searching carefully in this way, you do not see an essence here, then say why you are still protecting the body today.

65. If you would not eat it, as impure as it is, and if you would not drink the blood not suck out the entrails, then what will you do with the body?

66. However, it is proper to guard it for the sake of feeding the vultures and the jackets. This wretched body of humans is an instrument for action.

67. Even though you protect it so, merciless death will snatch the body away and give it to the vultures. What will you do then?

68. You do not give clothing and such to a servant if you think he will not stay. The body will eat and pass away. Then why do you waste yourself?

69. Therefore, mind, upon giving the body its wages, now serve your own needs, because not everything earned by a laborer should be given to him.

70. Consider the body as a ship because it is the basis of coming and going. Set the body in motion at your will in order to accomplish the welfare of sentient beings.

71. One who has become self-controlled in that way should always have a smiling face. One should give up frowning and grimacing, be the first to greet, and be a friend to the world.

72. One should not inconsiderately and noisily throw around chairs and the like. One should not pound on the door, and one should always delight in silence.

73. The crane, the cat, or the thief, moving silently and covertly, achieves its desired goal. A sage should always move in such a way.

74. One must respectfully accept the advice of those skilled in directing others and providing unsolicited aide. One should always be a pupil of everyone.

75. One should express one's appreciation for all good words. Having seen someone engaging in virtue, one should cheer him on with praises.

76. One should speak of other's good qualities in their absence and relate them again with satisfaction; and when one's own virtue is discussed, one should consider it as appreciation for good qualities.

77. All endeavors are for the sake of satisfaction, which is difficult to obtain, even by means of wealth. So I will enjoy the pleasure of satisfaction in good qualities diligently accomplished by others.

78. There will be no loss for me in this life, and there will be great happiness in the hereafter. But due to animosities, there is the suffering of aversion and great misery in the hereafter.

79. In a soft and gentle voice one should speak sincere, coherent words that have clear meaning and are agreeable, pleasant to the ear, and rooted in compassion.

80. One should always look straight at sentient beings as if drinking them in with the eyes, thinking, "relying on them alone, I shall attain Buddhahood."

81. Great blessing arises from continuous yearning for the fields of virtues and kindness, and from an antidote with regard to those who are suffering.

82. Skillful and vigorous one should always do the work oneself. With respect to all works, one should not leave the opportunity to someone else.

83. The perfections of generosity and so forth are progressively more and more lofty. One should not forsake a better one for the sake of a lesser, unless it is with accordance with the bridge of the Bodhisattva way of life.

84. Realizing this, one should always strive for the benefit of others. Even that which is prohibited has been permitted for the compassionate one who foresees benefit.

85. Sharing with those who have fallen into miserable states of existence, with those who have no protector, and with mendicants, one should eat moderately small proportions. Except for the three robes, one should give away everything.

86. For the sake of an insignificant benefit one should not harm the body that practices the sublime Dharma, for only in this way can one quickly fulfill the hopes of sentient beings.

87. Therefore, when the thought of compassion is impure, one should not sacrifice one's life, but it should be sacrificed when one's thought is unbiased. Thus, life must not be wasted.

88. One should not teach the profound and vast Dharma to the disrespectful, to a healthy person wearing a headdress, to a person with an umbrella, a stick, or a weapon, to one whose head is veiled,

89. To those who are inadequate (whose minds are unprepared), nor to women in the absence of a man. One should pay equal respect to inferior and superior Dharmas.

90. One should not expose a vessel of the vast Dharma to an inferior Dharma. Putting aside the Bodhisattva way of life one should not seduce them with Sutras and Mantras.

91. Flagrantly discarding a tooth-stick or spitting is undesirable and urinating or so forth in water or on land that is useable is contemptible.

92. One should not eat with a full mouth, noisily, or with the mouth wide open. One should not sit with ones legs outstretched, and one should not rub one's hands together.

93. One should not travel, lie, or sit alone with some one else's spouse. After observing and inquiring, one should forsake everything that does not please people.

94. One should not point out anything with one's finger but should respectfully show the way with one's whole right hand.

95. One should not call out to someone and wave one's arms when there is little urgency, instead should snap one's fingers or the like. Otherwise, one could lose composure.

96. One should lie down in the preferred direction in the lion's posture of the lords Nirvana. One should get up quickly with vigilance and a prior determination.
97. The conduct of Bodhisattvas is described as immeasurable. One should first surely engage in practices that purify the mind.

98. Three times by day and three times by night one should recite the Triskandha. By that means one alleviates the remaining downfalls because of ones reliance on the Jinas and the Spirit of Awakening.

99. One should diligently apply oneself to the trainings that pertain to those situations in which one finds oneself, either of one's own accord or under the influences of others.'

100. For there is nothing that the Children of the Jina should not learn. For the good person who behaves in this way, there is nothing that is non-virtuous.

101. One should do nothing other than benefit sentient beings either directly or indirectly; and for the sake of sentient beings alone, one should subordinate everything to Awakening.

102. Never, even at the cost of ones life, should one forsake the spiritual friend who observes the vows of the Bodhisattva and who is well versed in the matters of the Mahayana.

103. One should learn from the Srisambhavavimoksa respectful behavior towards mentors. This and other advice of the Buddha should be known through reciting the sutras.

104. The practices are found in the sutras; therefore one should recite them, and then one should study the primary downfalls in the akasagarbhasutra.

105. One should definitely study the Sikasamuccaya again and again, because good conduct is explained there in detail.

106. Alternatively, one should first look at it briefly, and then carefully read the Sutramuccaya composed by Arya Nargarjuna.

107. Seeing what is forbidden and what is prescribed, one should implement those teachings for the sake of protecting people's minds.
108. In brief, this alone is the definition of introspection: the repeated examination of the state of one's body and mind.

109. I shall practice it with my body. What is the use of merely reading the words? Will a sick person have any benefit merely by reading about medical treatments?



Chapter Six
The Perfection of Patience


1. Anger destroys all the good conduct, such as generosity and worshipping the Sugatas, which has been acquired over thousands of eons.

2. There is no vice like hatred, and there is no austerity like patience. Therefore, one should earnestly cultivate patience in various ways.

3. The mind does not find peace, nor does it enjoy pleasure and joy, nor does it find sleep or fortitude when the thorn of hatred dwells in the heart.

4. Even dependents whom one rewards with wealth and honors wish to harm the master who is repugnant due to his anger.

5. Even friends fear him. He saddens his friends. He attracts with generosity but is not served. In brief, there is nothing that can make an angry person happy.

6. One who recognized hatred as the enemy, knowing that it creates sufferings such as these, and persistently overcomes it, becomes happy in this world and in the other.

7. Finding its fuel in discontent originating from an undesired event and from an impediment to desired events, anger becomes inflamed and destroys me.

8. Therefore, I shall remove the fuel of that enemy, for that foe has no function other than to harm me.

9. Even if I fall into extreme adversity, I should not disrupt my happiness. When there is frustration, nothing is agreeable, and virtue is forsaken.

10. If there is a remedy, then what is the use of frustration? If there is no remedy, then what is the use of frustration?

11. For loved ones and for oneself, one does not desire suffering, contempt, verbal abuse, or disgrace; but for an enemy, it is the opposite.

12. Happiness is obtained with great difficulty, whereas suffering occurs easily. Only through suffering is there release from the cycle of existence. Therefore, O mind, be strong!

13. The devotees of Durga and the people of Karnata needlessly endure the pain of burns, cuts, and the like. Why then am I timid when my aim is liberation?

14. There is nothing whatsoever that remains difficult as one gets used to it. Thus, through habituation with slight pain, even great pain becomes bearable.

15. Do you not consider the pain of bugs, gadflies, and mosquitoes, of thirst and hunger, and the irritation of a serious rash and the like as insignificant?

16. Cold, heat, rain, wind, traveling, illness, captivity, and beatings should not induce a sense of fragility. Otherwise, the distress becomes greater.

17. Some, seeing their own blood, show extraordinary valor, while some faint even at the sight of others blood.

18. That comes from mental fortitude or from timidity. Therefore, one should become invincible to suffering, and surmount pain.

19. Not even in suffering should a wise person disrupt his mental serenity, for the battle is with the mental afflictions; in battle pain is easily obtained and there is much agony.

20. Courageous victors are dismissive of all suffering, and they conquer such enemies as hatred. The rest just kill corpses.

21. Suffering has another quality since arrogance diminishes because of despair, and ones feels compassion for beings in the cycle of existence, fear, and sin, and a yearning for the Jina.

22. I am not angered at bile and the like even though they cause great suffering. Why be angry at those who have minds? They too are impelled by conditions.

23. Just as sharp pain arises although one does not desire it, so anger forcibly arises although one does not desire it.

24. A person does not intentionally become angry, thinking, "I shall get angry," nor does anger originate, thinking, "I shall arise."

25. All offences and vices of various kinds arise under the influence of conditions, and they do not arise independently.

26. An assemblage of conditions does not have the intention, "I shall produce," nor does that which is produced have the intention, "I shall be produced."

27. That which is regarded as the Primal Substance and that which is construed as the Self do not originate, thinking, "I shall come into being."

28. Since it has not arisen, how could it wish to come into existence? Since it engages with objects, it cannot strive to cease either.

29. If the permanent self is not sentient, it is obviously inactive like space. Even in conjunction with conditions, what activity does the immutable have?

30. What is the use of action to the self, which at the time of action is the same as it was before? If the relationship is that it has action, then which of the two is the cause of the other?

31. Thus, everything is dependent on something else, and even that on which something is dependent is not autonomous. Hence, why would one get angry at things that are inactive, like apparitions?

32. Qualm: Averting anger is inappropriate, for who averts what? Response: That is appropriate, because it is a state of dependent origination and is considered to be the cessation of suffering.

33. Therefore, upon seeing a friend or an enemy committing a wrong deed, one should reflect, "Such are his conditions," and be at ease.

34. If all beings would find fulfillment according to their own wishes, then no one would suffer, for no one wishes to suffer.

35. People hurt themselves with thorns and the like out of negligence, with fasting and so on out of anger, and by desiring to obtain inaccessible women and so forth.

36. Some kill themselves by hanging, by jumping from cliffs, by eating poison or unwholesome substances, and by non-virtuous conduct.

37. When under the influence of mental afflictions, they kill even their own dear selves in this way; then how could they have restraint toward the bodies of others?

38. If you do not even have compassion toward those who, intoxicated by mental afflictions, commit suicide, then why does anger arise?

39. If inflicting harm on others is the nature of the foolish, then my anger toward them is as inappropriate as it would be toward fire, which has the nature of burning.

40. If this fault is advantageous and if sentient beings are good by nature, then anger toward them is as inappropriate as it would be toward pungent smoke in the sky.

41. Disregarding the principle of cause, such as a stick and the like, if I become angry with the one who impels it, then it is better if I hate hatred, because that person is also impelled by hatred.

42. In the past, I too have inflicted such pain on sentient beings; therefore, I, who have caused harm to sentient beings, deserve that in return.

43. Both his weapon and my body are causes of suffering. He has obtained a weapon, and I have obtained a body. With what should I be angry?

44. Blinded by craving, I have obtained this boil that appears as a human body, which cannot bear to be touched. When there is pain, with whom should one be angry?

45. I do not desire suffering; yet, fool that I am, I desire the cause of suffering. When suffering emerges due to my own fault, why should I be angry with anyone else?

46. Just as the forest of razor leaves and the birds of hell are brought into existence by my actions, so is this. With whom should I be angry?

47. Those who hurt me are impelled by my actions, as a result of which they will go to the infernal realms. Surely, it is I alone who have ruined them.

48. On account of them, many vices of mine diminish through forbearance. On account of me, they enter infernal realms with long lasting agonies.

49. It is I alone who harm them, and they are my benefactors. O Wicked mind, why do you misconstrue this and become angry?

50. If there is virtue in my intention, I will not enter the infernal realms. If I protect myself, what will happen to them here?

51. If I were to retaliate, they would not be protected and my conduct would be impaired. Because of that, those in anguish would be lost.

52. Because of its immateriality, the mind can never be harmed by anyone. However, due to its attachment to the body, the mind is tormented by suffering.

53. Neither contempt, abusive speech, nor disgrace harms the body. Why then, mind, O mind, do you become angry?

54. Will the unkindness of others toward me devour me in this life or another, that I am so adverse to it?

55. If I am adverse to it because it hinders my material gain, my acquisitions will vanish in this life, but my sin will surely remain.

56. It is better that I die today, than have a long, corrupt life. For even after living a long time, I shall have the suffering of death.

57. One person wakes up after enjoying a hundred years of pleasure in sleep, and another person wakes up after being happy for a moment.

58. Does happiness return to either once they have awakened? It is the same at the moment of death for one who lives a long time and for one who lives a short time.

59. Even though I have acquired many possessions and have enjoyed pleasures for a long time, I shall depart empty handed and naked as if I had been robbed.

60. What if I destroy vice and perform virtue while living off my acquisitions? Do vice and the destruction of virtue not occur for one who gets angry on account of material gains?

61. If the meaning of my life vanishes, then what is the point of a life that creates only non-virtue?

62. If you think that your hatred toward one who disparages you is because he dries away sentient beings, why does your anger not arise also when others are defamed in the same way?

63. You have patience toward those who are unkind because their ungracious behavior is directed toward someone else, but you do not have patience toward one who disparages you when he is subject to the arising of mental afflictions.

64. My hatred toward those who revile and violate images, stupas, and the sublime Dharma is wrong, because the Buddhas and the like are free of distress.

65. As in the preceding case, one should ward off anger toward those who injure spiritual mentors, relatives, and friends, by seeing this as arising from conditions.

66. Harm is certainly inflicted on beings either by sentient beings or non-sentient things. This distress is felt in a sentient being, so endure that pain.

67. Some do wrong out of delusion, while others, being deluded, become angry. Among them, whom do we call innocent, and whom do we call guilty?

68. Why did I previously act in such a way that now I am harmed by others? All are subject to their actions. Who am I to alter this?

69. Realizing this, I shall strive for virtues in such a way that all will have loving thoughts toward each other.

70. When fire spreads from one burning house to another, one should bundle up the straw and the like, take it out, and discard it.

71. Likewise, when the mind burns with the fire of hatred due to attachment, one should immediately cast it aside because of the fear of burning the body of merit.

72. If one who is to be executed has his hand amputated and is released, is this unfortunate? If a person is freed from hell by human suffering, is this unfortunate?

73. If one who is unable to endure even this slight suffering of the present, then why does one not ward off anger, which is the cause of pain in hell?

74. Thus, solely due to anger I have brought myself into hells thousands of times, and I have not brought about benefit for myself or others.

75. But this suffering is not of that kind, and it will bring about great benefit. Only delight in suffering that eliminates the suffering of the world is appropriate here.

76. If others find pleasure and joy in praising the abundance of someone's good qualities, why, O mind, do you not praise it and delight in this way, too?

77. This joy from your rejoicing is a blameless source of happiness. It is not prohibited by the victorious ones, and it is the most excellent way to attract others.

78. If you do not like it, thinking that it is a pleasure for that person only, then if you were to stop giving wages and the like, your seen and unseen reward would be destroyed.

79. When your own good qualities are being praised, you want others to rejoice as well. When good qualities of someone else are being praised, you do not want happiness even for your self.

80. Upon generating the Spirit of Awakening out of the desire for the happiness of all sentient beings, why are you angry at sentient beings now that they have found happiness themselves?

81. If you desire sentient beings' Buddhahood, which is worshipped in the three worlds, then why are you burned up when you see them slightly honored.

82. One who nurtures a person who you should nurture is making you a gift. Upon finding a person who supports your family, are you not delighted, but angry?

83. What does one who wishes Awakening for sentient beings not wish for them? How can one who becomes angry at others' prosperity have the Spirit of Awakening?

84. If someone does not receive that gift and if it remains in the house of the benefactor, then you do not have it anyway. So what use is it to you, whether it is given away or not?

85. Why would you have him ward off merits, kind people, and his own good qualities? Let him not accept when he is being given something? Say, at what are you angry?

86. Not only do you not repent for sins you have committed, but you also wish to compete with others who have performed virtues.

87. If something unpleasant happens to your enemy, would your satisfaction make it happen again? It would not happen merely due to your desire, without a cause.

88. Even if that suffering were brought about by your desire, why would you take delight in that? If you say it brings you satisfaction, what is worse than that?

89. Once I am snagged by this horrible fishhook cast by the fishermen, the mental afflictions, I will certainly be stewed in infernal cauldrons by the guardians of hell.

90. Praise, fame, and honor are not conducive to my merit, long life, strength, health, or physical well-being.

91. If I recognize my own self-interest, what good is there in that for me? If I want only mental pleasure, I should devote myself to gambling, drinking, and so on.

92. For the sake of fame, some sacrifice their wealth, and even kill themselves. Yet what good are words? When one dies, who has that pleasure?

93. At the loss of praise and fame, my own mind appears to me just like a child who wails in distress when its sandcastle is destroyed.

94. Since a word is not sentient, it cannot praise me. But knowing that someone likes me is a cause of my delight.

95. Whether it is for someone else or for me, what good to me is the affection of another? That joy of affection belongs only to that person. Not even a tiny fraction of that belongs to me.

96. If I take pleasure in that person's pleasure, then I should take it in every single case. Why am I am unhappy when others are made happy through their favor for some one else?

97. Therefore, it is because I am being praised that pleasure arises in me. But due to such absurdity, this is nothing more than the behavior of a child.

98. Praise and so on distract me and remove my disillusionment with the cycle of existence. They stir up jealousy toward gifted people, and anger at their success.

99. Therefore, are those conspiring to destroy my reputation and so forth not protecting me from falling into hell?

100. The bondage of acquisition and honor is unfitting for me who seeks liberation. How can I hate those who are freeing me from bondage?

101. How can I hate those who, as if due to the Buddha's blessing, block the gate as I seek to enter suffering?

102. It is wrong to feel anger toward someone, thinking that person impedes my merit. As there is no austerity equal to patience, shall I not abide in that?

103. If on account of my own fault I do not practice patience here, then I myself have created an obstacle when grounds for merit have been presented.

104. If one thing does not exist without another, and does exist when the other is present, then that other thing is its cause. How can that be called a hindrance?

105. For a supplicant is not a hindrance to generosity at the time of alms giving; and when a person who bestows an ordination arrives, he is not called a hindrance to the ordination.

106. Beggars are easy to meet in the world, but malefactors are difficult to find, for no one will wrong me when I do no wrong.

107. Therefore, since my adversary assists me in my Bodhisattva way of life, I should long for him like a treasure discovered in the house and acquired without effort.

108. Thus, he and I have obtained the fruit of patience. It should be given to him first, for patience is caused by him.

109. If an adversary does not deserve respect because his intention was not that I accomplish patience, then why is the sublime Dharma honored? It too has no intention to be a cause of that achievement.

110. If an adversary is not respected because his intention is to cause harm, then for what other reason would I have patience toward him, if he is like a physician who is intent on my well-being!

111. Thus patience arises only in dependence on that evil intention, so he alone is the cause of my patience. I should respect him just like the sublime Dharma.

112. The sage has declared that the field of sentient beings is the field of the Jinas, because many have reached the highest fulfillment by honoring them.

113. As the attainment of the Buddhas qualities is equally due to sentient beings and the Jinas, how is it that I do not respect sentient beings as I do the Jinas?

114. Their greatness is not in terms of their intention but in terms of the result itself. The greatness of sentient beings is comparable to that, so they are equal.

115. A friendly disposition, which is honorable, is the very greatness of sentient beings. The merit due to faith in the Buddhas is the very greatness of the Buddhas.

116. Therefore, sentient beings are equal to the Jinas in their share in the acquisition of the qualities of the Buddha; but none of them are equal to the Buddhas, who are oceans of good qualities with endless portions.

117. If even a minute good quality of those who are a unique collection of the essence of good qualities is found in someone, not even the three worlds would be enough to honor that one.

118. Because sentient beings have some portion of the superb qualities of the Buddha, it is right to honor sentient beings for just that similarity.

119. Apart from respecting sentient beings, what other repayment to true friends, the immeasurable benefactors, is possible?

120. The kindness of the Bodhisattvas, who sacrifice their lives and enter Avichi, is repaid by service to sentient beings, so even if sentient beings harm one, they are to be treated with kindness.

121. Why do I generate pride and not act like a servant toward those masters for whose sake my Lords have no regard for their own selves?

122. The sages are delighted with their joy, and they are not pleased if they are harmed; by pleasing them, all the sages are overjoyed, and to injure them is to injure the sages.

123. Just as there is no mental pleasure in all sensual gratification whatsoever when ones body is on fire, likewise there is no way for the compassionate ones to be happy when sentient beings are in pain.

124. Therefore, whatever displeasure I have brought to all the great compassionate ones by harming sentient beings, I confess that sin today. Thus, may I be forgiven by the sages whom I have displeased!

125. In order to please the Tath¨¢gatas, today with my entire being, I place myself in the service of the world. Let streams of people step on my head and strike me down. May the Protector of the World be pleased!

126. There is no doubt whatsoever that those Compassionate Beings regard all beings as themselves. Are they not seen as the Protectors in the form of sentient beings? Why then is there disrespect for them?

127. This alone is pleasing to the Tath¨¢gatas. This alone is the accomplishment of one's goal. This alone removes the suffering of the world. Therefore, let this alone be my resolve.

128. When some king's man tyrannized the populace, the farsighted among them cannot retaliate.

129. Because that man is not alone, and his power is the kings power. So one should not disparage any weak person who has done wrong,

130. Since his power is the guardians of hell and the Compassionate Ones. Therefore, one should please sentient beings, just as a servant would a hot-tempered king.

131. What could an angry king do that would equal the anguish of hell, experienced as a result of inflicting mental pain on sentient beings?

132. What could a gratified king give that would equal Buddhahood, experienced as a result of delighting sentient beings?

133. Let alone future Buddhahood, do you not see that in this life, fortune, fame, and happiness ensue from pleasing sentient beings?

134. While transmigrating, a patient person, with beauty, health, charisma, and so forth, achieves longevity and the abundant joy of a Cakravati.


Chapter Seven
The Perfection of Zeal

1. Thus, one who has patience should cultivate zeal, because Awakening is established with zeal, and there is no merit without zeal, just as there is no movement without wind.

2. What is zeal? It is enthusiasm for virtue. What is said to be its antithesis? It is spiritual sloth, clinging to the reprehensible, apathy, and self-contempt.

3. Spiritual sloth arises from indolence, indulging in pleasures, sleep, and craving for lounging around due to ones apathy toward the miseries of the cycle of existence.

4. Scented out by the hunters, the mental afflictions, you have entered the snare of rebirth. Why do you not recognize even now that you are in the mouth of death?

5. You do not see that those of your own kind are gradually being killed. You even fall asleep like a buffalo among butchers.

6. When Yama watches you and your path is blocked on all sides, how can you enjoy eating, and how can you sleep and have sexual intercourse?

7. Since death will come swiftly, until it does, one should accumulate the collections of merit and knowledge. Even if one rejects spiritual sloth at the time of death, what will you do at this wrong time?

8. Thinking: "I have not achieved this. I have just started this, but it remains half done. Death has suddenly arrived, O I am wretched,"

9. Seeing despondent relatives with their eyes swollen and red, with tears on their faces from the impact of their grief, and the faces of the messengers of Yama,

10. Tormented by the recollection of your own vices, hearing the sounds of hell, and befouling your body with excrement out of fear, what will you do when you are so terrified?

11. Realizing, "I am like a live fish," (pulled from the water) your fear is appropriate now. How much more when you have committed vices and face the intense suffering of hell.

12. So, delicate one, you burn even when touched by hot water. Upon performing deeds leading to hell, how will you remain at ease?

13. You expect results with no effort. So delicate you are, and in so much pain! While in the clutches of death, you act like an immortal. Hey, miserable one, you are destroying yourself!

14. Upon finding the boat of human birth now, cross the great river of suffering. O fool, there is no time for sleep, for this boat is hard to catch again.

15. Forsaking the supreme joy of Dharma, which is an endless stream of joy, how can you delight in frivolity and jokes, which are two causes of suffering?

16. The absence of apathy, the array of abilities such as prudence, self-control, equality between oneself and others, and exchange of oneself for others

17. Should be practiced without the discouragement of thinking, "how can I possibly attain awakening?" For the truth speaking Tath¨¢gata proclaimed this truth:

18. "Even those who were gadflies, mosquitoes, bees, and worms attain supreme Awakening, which is difficult to attain, through the power of their effort."

19. Human by birth and capable of knowing what is beneficial and what is not, why could I not attain Awakening as long as I do not forsake the guidance of the Omniscient One?

20. If I fear, thinking, "I shall have to sacrifice my arms, legs, and the like," I may confuse the important with the insignificant due to my lack of discrimination.

21. For countless millions of eons I shall be cut, pierced, burned, and split open many times, but awakening will not occur.

22. However, this limited suffering of mine, which yields perfect Awakening, is like the suffering of extraction when removing the pain of an imbedded splinter.

23. All physicians cure with unpleasant treatments. Therefore, to destroy a multitude of pains, a slight one must be endured.

24. Although such treatment is customary, the Supreme Physician does not give it. He cures chronic diseases with gentle treatment.

25. At the beginning, the Guide prescribes giving vegetables and the like. One does it gradually so that later one can give away even one's own flesh.

26. When insight arises that ones own flesh is like the vegetable, then what difficulty is there in giving away one's own flesh and bone?

27. On account of abandoning vices, one does not suffer, and on account of being wise, one does not become troubled in mind; for mental pain is due to false conceptions, and bodily pain is due to sinful actions.

28. The body is well on account of merit; and the mind is joyful on account of wisdom. What can afflict a compassionate one who stays in the cycle of existence for the sake of others?

29. Extinguishing previous vices and accumulating oceans of merit, owing to the power of the Spirit of Awakening alone, one moves ahead of the Sravakas.

30. Upon mounting the chariot of the Spirit of Awakening, which carries away all despondency and weariness, what sensible person would despair at progressing in this way from joy to joy?
31. The powers of aspiration, steadfastness, delight, and letting go, are for the sake of accomplishing the benefit of sentient beings. Out of fear of suffering, one should generate that aspiration as one contemplates its blessings.
32. Uprooting its opposite in this way, one should strive to increase one's zeal with the powers of aspiration, self-confidence, delight, letting go, dedication, and determination.
33. I must eliminate immeasurable faults for myself and for others. While the eradication of every single fault may take myriads of eons,

34. I shall eliminate my own and others'
immeasurable faults. While it takes oceans of eons to eliminate each of those faults, if I do not see even a fraction of a beginning of the elimination of faults, why does my heart not burst, as I am a locus of immeasurable suffering?

35. I must acquire many good qualities for myself and for others; otherwise, the cultivation of every single good quality may not take place in myriads of eons.

36. I have never trained in even a small fraction of good qualities. It is astonishing that this life, which I have somehow obtained, has been spent in vain.

37. I have not found joy in great festivals and offerings to the Blessed One. I have not paid my respect to the teaching, nor have I fulfilled the hopes of the poor.

38. I have not granted fearlessness to the frightened, nor have I comforted the distressed. I became a spear in the womb just for my mother to suffer.

39. Due to my former lack of aspiration for Dharma, such a disaster has befallen me now. Who would forsake the aspiration for Dharma?

40. The sage declared that aspiration is a root of all virtues, and the root of that is constantly meditating on the results of the maturation of karma.

41. Miseries, depressions, various fears, and impediments to their desires befall those who do evil.

42. By performing an intended virtue, wherever one goes, one will be honored with the resultant benefits of one's merit.

43. But wherever the desire for happiness of the evildoers goes, their vices destroy it with weapons of sufferings.

44. On account of their virtues, the Children of the Sugata, who dwell in the hearts of spacious, fragrant, and cool lotuses, whose splendor is enhanced with the nourishment of the sweet voice of the Jina, and whose handsome bodies emerge from the Lotuses Blossomed by the rays of the Sage, are born in the presence of the Sugata.

45. On account of non virtues, one cries out in distress, one's entire skin is ripped away by the agents of Yama, one's body is immersed into copper melted by the heat of fire, pieces of one's flesh are cut off by hundreds of strokes of blazing spears and swords, and one repeatedly falls on intensely heated iron grounds.

46. Therefore, one should nurture an aspiration for virtue, cultivating it with reverence. Once one has begun, one should cultivate self confidence according to the method discussed in the Vajradhvaja Sutra.

47. After first examining one's means, one should either begin or not begin. Surely, it is better not to begin than to turn back once one has begun.

48. This habit continues even in another life; and due to that sin, suffering increases. Another opportunity for action is lost, and the task is not accomplished.

49. One should apply self-confidence to these three: actions, secondary mental afflictions, and ability. "I alone should do it" expresses self-confidence with regard to action.

50. This world overwhelmed by mental afflictions is incapable of accomplishing its own self-interest. Therefore, I must do it for them. I am not as incapable as the world is.

51. Why should someone else do inferior work while I stand by? If I do not do it out of pride, then it is better to let my pride be destroyed.

52. Even a crow behaves like a garuda when attacking a dead water snake. If my mind is weak, even a small adversity is troubling.

53. When one is made powerless by despondency, adversities are easily caused, but one who is uplifted and zealous is invincible even in the face of great adversities.

54. Therefore, with an unswerving mind, I shall bring disaster to adversity. For as long as I am conquered by adversities, my desire for victory over the three worlds is ludicrous.

55. I should overcome everything and not be overcome by anything. I should acquire this self-confidence, for I am a Child of Lions, the Jinas.

56. Beings who are overcome with pride are wretched and not self-confident; they are under the power of the enemy, pride. A self-confident person does not succumb to the power of the enemy.

57. Led by pride to miserable states of existence, they are devoid of joy even in human life. They are slaves who eat others' morsels, stupid, ugly, and feeble.

58. They are despised everywhere, puffed up with pride, and miserable. If they are included among the self confident, they are pitiable. Say, of what kind are they?

59. They are self confident and victorious heroes who bear their self-confidence in order to conquer the enemy, pride. Upon killing that growing enemy, pride, they demonstrate the fruit of their victory to the world as they please.

60. Abiding amidst a multitude of mental afflictions, one should be vigorous in a thousand and unconquerable by the hosts of mental afflictions, like a lion by a herd of deer.

61. Even in great troubles, the eye does not perceive flavor. Likewise, upon encountering difficulty, one should not be overcome by mental afflictions.

62. One should diligently apply oneself to the action in which one engages. Intoxicated by that action, one should be of an insatiable mind, like one striving for the satisfaction of the result of a game.

63. An action is performed for the sake of happiness, and yet happiness may or may not occur. But how can one who delights in action itself be happy when inactive?

64. In the cycle of existence, there is no satisfaction in sensual desires, which are like honey on a razors edge. How can there be satiation with the nectar of merits, which are sweet in their maturation and beneficial?

65. Therefore, even upon the completion of an action, one should immerse oneself in it again, just as an elephant, scorched by the midday sun, immediately approaches a lake.

66. And when one's strength begins to decline, one should quit so that one can re-engage later. When a task has been well completed, one should leave it with the desire for more and more.

67. One should ward off the blows of mental afflictions and severely attack them, as if engaged in a sword-combat with a trained enemy.

68. Just like one would quickly, fearfully pick up a dropped sword, so one should pick up the dropped sword of mindfulness, while bearing the hells in mind.

69. Just as a poison spreads throughout the body once it has reached the blood, so does a fault spread throughout the mind once it has reached a vulnerable spot!

70. A practitioner should be like someone carrying a jar of oil while under the scrutiny of swordsmen, careful of stumbling out of fear of death.

71. Therefore, just as one quickly jumps up when a snake creeps into one's lap, so should one swiftly counteract the advent of drowsiness and sloth!

72. At every single disgrace, one should burn with remorse and ponder: "How shall I act so that this does not happen to me again?

73. One should seek for companionship or for an appointed task with this motive: "how may I practice mindfulness in these circumstances?"

74. Bringing to mind the teaching on conscientiousness, one should arouse oneself so that one is always prepared before encountering a task.

75. Just as cotton is swayed in the direction of the winds coming and going, so should one surrender oneself to one's enthusiasm, and in this way one's supernormal powers will thrive.


Chapter Eight
The Perfection of Meditation

1. Upon developing zeal in that way, one should stabilize the mind in meditative concentration, since a person whose mind is distracted lives between the fangs of mental afflictions.

2. With bodily and mental seclusion, distraction does not arise. Therefore, upon renouncing the world, one should renounce discursive thoughts.

3. On account of attachment and craving for gain and the like, one does not renounce the world. Thus, upon forsaking them, the wise should contemplate in this way.

4. Realizing that one who is well endowed with insight through quiescence eradicates mental afflictions one should first seek quiescence. Quiescence is due to detachment toward the world and due to joy.

5. For what impermanent person, who will not see his loved ones again in thousands of births, is it appropriate to be attached to impermanent things?

6. Failing to see them, one does not find joy nor does one abide in meditative concentration. Even upon seeing them, one does not become satisfied but is tormented by strong desire, just as before.

7. One does not perceive reality and loses disillusionment with the cycle of existence. One is consumed by that grief-desire for the company of the beloved.

8. Because of thinking of that person, life ever so swiftly passes in vain. Due to a transient entity, the eternal Dharma is lost.

9. One who acts in the same manner as foolish people definitely goes to a miserable state of existence. They do like someone who is different. What is gained from association with fools?

10. One moment they are friends, and the next moment they are enemies. On an occasion for being pleased, they become angry. Ordinary people are difficult to gratify.

11. When given good advice, they become angry; and they turn me away from good advice. If they are not listened to, they become angry and go to a miserable state of existence.

12. They feel envy toward a superior, competitiveness with a peer, arrogance toward one who is inferior, conceit due to praise, and anger due to reproach. When could there be any benefit from a fool?

13. Between one fool and another, something non-virtuous is inevitable, such as glorification of one's own self, speaking ill of others, and conversation about the pleasures of the cycle of existence.

14. Thus, on account of one's association with someone else, one encounters adversity. I shall happily live alone with a non-afflicted mind.

15. One should flee far from a fool. One should gratify the encountered person with pleasantries, not with the intention of intimacy but in the manner of a kind and impartial person.

16. Taking only what benefits Dharma, like a bee taking nectar from a flower, I shall live everywhere without acquaintance, as if I had not existed before.

17. A mortal who thinks, "I am rich and respected, and many like me," experiences fear of approaching death.

18. Wherever the mind, infatuated by pleasures, finds enjoyment, there a thousand-fold suffering arises and falls to one's share.

19. Hence, the wise should not desire it. Fear arises from desire, yet it passes away by itself. Generate fortitude and look at it with indifference.

20. Many have become wealthy and many have become famous, but no one knows where they have gone with their wealth and fame.

21. If others despise me, why should I rejoice when praised? If others praise me, why should I be despondent when reviled?

22. If sentient beings of different dispositions have not been satisfied by the Jinas themselves, then how could they be like an ignorant person like myself? So, what is the point of attending to the world?

23. They revile a person without acquisitions, and despise a person with acquisitions. How can those whose company is by nature suffering bring forth joy?

24. The Tath¨¢gatas have said that a fool is no ones friend, because the affection of a fool does not arise without self-interest.

25. Love due to self-interest is love for one's own sake, just as distress at the loss of possessions is occasioned by the loss of pleasures.

26. Trees do not revile nor can they be pleased with effort. When might I dwell with those whose company is a delight?

27. When shall I dwell in a cave, an empty temple, or at the foot of a tree, without looking back, and without attachment?

28. When shall I dwell, living freely and without attachment, in unclaimed and naturally spacious regions?

29. When shall I dwell with a paltry alms bowl and so on in clothing wanted by no one, living fearlessly, even without concealing my body?

30. When shall I go to the local charnel grounds and compare my own body, which has the nature of decay, with other corpses?

31. For this body of mine will also become so putrid that even the jackals will not come near it because of the stench.

32. If the flesh and bone that have arisen together with this body will deteriorate and disperse, how much more is this the case for other friends?

33. A person is born alone and also dies alone. No one else has a share in one's agony. What is the use of loved ones who create hindrances?

34. Just as one who has undertaken a journey takes lodging, so does one who travels in the cycle of existence take lodging in a rebirth.

35. Until one his hoisted by four men and mourned by the world, one should retire to the forest.

36. Without intimacy and without conflict, one dwells in physical solitude, and when one is counted as if already dead no one grieves when one actually dies.

37. There is on one to inflict grief and harm, nor is there any one to distract one from the recollection of the Buddha and so forth.

38. Thus, I shall always dwell alone in the delightful forest, which creates few problems, good cheer, and the pacification of all distraction.

39. Free from all other concerns and having a single-pointed mind, I shall apply myself to meditative concentration and to the subjugation of the mind.

40. Casting off all other concerns, and with a single pointed mind, I shall strive to balance and subdue my mind. In this world and the next, sensuous desires create troubles, such as murder, imprisonment, and dismemberment in this life, and hell and so forth in the next.

41. She for whom you have supplicated male and female messengers many times and for whose sake you have not considered the cost of either vice nor disgrace,

42. Throwing yourself into danger and wasting your health, embracing her with the greatest pleasure-

43. She is nothing but bones, indifferent and impersonal. Why do you not resort to emancipation, fully embracing it to your hearts content?

44. Either you have seen that bashfully lowered face before as being lifted up with effort, or you have not seen it as it was covered by a veil.

45. Just as that face that torments you is perceived now, so you will see it unveiled by vultures. Why does it make you flee now?

46. Since you guarded her face from the gaze of others, why do you, O avaricious one, not guard it as it is being eaten?

47. Seeing this mass of flesh being eaten by vultures and others, should you worship others food with wreaths of flowers, sandalwood paste, and ornaments?

48. You fear a skeleton that has been seen like this, even though it does not move. Why do you fear it when it moves, as if set in motion like some ghost?

49. Their saliva and excrement arise from the same food. Why then do you dislike excrement, and like sucking saliva?

50. Taking no delight in cotton pillows that are soft to the touch, the lustful, who are deluded with respect to filth, say the body does not emit a foul odor?

51. The lustful, degraded, and deluded have distain for soft cotton, saying, "It can't engage in intercourse."

52. If you say 'I do not lust after filth,' why do you embrace on your lap something else that is a skeleton tied together with sinews, and plastered over with a mire of flesh?

53. You have plenty of filth yourself, and you always have the use of it, yet out of craving, you desire the filth in another sack of muck.

54. Casting aside a fresh lotus opening, under the rays of the cloudless sun, why do you, with your filth-craving mind, take delight in a container of muck?

55. The mind that you desire cannot be seen or touched; and that which can be is not conscious. Why do you embrace in vain?

56. It is not surprising that you do not look at another persons body as composed of filth, but it is astonishing that you do not perceive your own body as composed of filth.

57. Thinking, "I like its flesh," you wish to touch it and look at it. Why do you not desire the flesh of a dead body, which, by nature, is not sentient?

58. If you do not desire to touch soil and the like because it is smeared with excrement, how can you wish to touch the body out of which it is excreted?

59. If you do not have passion for what is impure, why do you embrace someone else, who is a seed or arisen from a field of filth and nourished by it?

60. You do not desire a dirty worm originating from filth because it is small, but you desire a body that consists of much filth and also born from filth.

61. Not only do you not abhor your own filth, out of craving, you desire other filthy sacks of excrement.

62. Even the ground is considered impure when savory foods, such as camphor or boiled rice and condiments, are spat out or vomited from the mouth.

63. If you do not trust that this is filth even though it is obvious, look at other bodies too, repugnant and discarded in the charnel ground.

64. Knowing that great fear arises when the skin is torn off, how can you have attraction to that same thing again?

65. Although applied to the body, this fragrance is from sandalwood and not from anything else. Why are you attracted to someone by the fragrance that belongs to something else?

66. If attraction does not arise due to a naturally foul smell, is that not good? Why do people take pleasure in what is worthless and anoint it with fragrance?

67. If it is sandalwood that is sweet smelling, did it come from the body? Why is someone attracted to someone because of a fragrance that belongs to something else?

68. If the naked body, containing the slime of filth, is frightening in its natural condition, with its long hair and nails and stained yellowish teeth,

69. Why do you meticulously polish it like a weapon for suicide? This earth is crowded with the insane, so diligent in deluding themselves!

70. If you are repelled upon seeing just skeletons in a charnel ground, are you attracted to a village, which is a charnel ground crowded with animated skeletons?

71. Thus, that filth is not gained without a price. Due to accomplishing that end, one is afflicted with fatigue and tormented in hells.

72. A child cannot increase its wealth, so with what is one happy when one is a youth? When ones life is spent accumulating wealth, what good is sensual gratification once one is old?

73. Some debased sensualists exhaust themselves with work throughout the day; then upon coming home, their depleted bodies fall asleep like the dead.

74. Others are afflicted by traveling abroad and suffer as they are far from home; and though they long for their wives and children, they do not see them for years on end.

75. Deluded by sensual desires, they sell themselves for that which they never acquire. Instead, their life is uselessly spent in labor for others.

76. The wives of those who have sold themselves and who always carry out commissions give birth at the feet of trees in the jungles and other inappropriate places.

77. In order to make a livelihood they enter war that endangers their lives, and they become servants for the sake of their self-respect. They are fools ridiculed for their sensual desires.

78. Some other sensualists are mutilated, fixed on a stake. They are seen being burned, and slain with daggers.

79. Consider wealth as an unending misfortune because of the troubles of acquiring, protecting, and losing it. Those who are distracted by attachment to wealth have no opportunity for liberation from the suffering of mundane existence.

80. Thus, sensualists have much distress and little enjoyment, like a beast that has hold of a bit of grass while pulling a wagon.

81. For the sake of that bit of enjoyment, which is easily obtainable even for an animal, an ill-fated one has destroyed this leisure and endowment, which is very difficult to find.

82. Sensual gratification is definitely transient and it casts one down to hell and so forth, and for no great end, one is constantly weary.

83. With even a billionth part of that diligence, there can be Buddhahood. Sensualists have suffering greater than the suffering of the Path, but they have no Awakening.

84. If one considers the suffering of the hells and so on, weapons, poison, fire, precipices, and enemies do not compare to sensual desires.

85. Becoming disillusioned with sensual desires in that way, generate delight in solitude in the peaceful forest, devoid of strive and annoyances.
86. The fortunate, pondering on how to benefit others, roam about, caressed by silent, gentle forest breezes, and cooled by the sandalwood rays of the moon on the lovely mansions of vast boulders.
87. In an empty hut, at the foot of a tree, or in a cave, one remains as long as one desires, and casting off the suffering of guarding ones possessions, one lives light heartedly, without a care.
88. Living freely, without attachment, and not tied by anyone, one savors the joy of contentment that is difficult even for a king to find.
89. After meditating on the advantages of solitude in this and other ways, having one's discursive thoughts calmed, one should cultivate the spirit of awakening.

90. One should first earnestly meditate on the equality of oneself and others in this way: "All equally experience suffering and happiness, and I must protect them as I do myself."

91. Although it has many divisions, such as arms and so one, the body is protected as a whole. Likewise, different beings, with their joys and sorrows, are all equal, like my self, in their yearning for happiness.

92. Even though my agony does not hurt anyone else's body, that suffering of mine is unbearable because I cling to it as mine.

93. Likewise, although others' suffering does not descend upon me, that suffering of theirs is difficult to bear because they cling to it as 'theirs.'

94. I should eliminate the suffering of others because it is suffering, just like my own suffering. I should take care of others, just as I am a sentient being.

95. When happiness is equally dear to others and myself, then what is so special about me that I strive after happiness for myself alone?

96. When fear and suffering are equally abhorrent to others and myself, then what is so special about me that I protect myself but not others

97. If I do not protect them because I am not afflicted by their suffering, why do I protect my body from the suffering of a future body, which is not my pain?

98. The notion that I will experience that is mistaken, for the one who has died is born elsewhere and is someone else.

99. If one thinks a person's suffering should be warded off by himself, since pain of the foot is not of the hand, why should the one take care of the other?

100. If one argues that even though it is inappropriate, it happens because of a grasping onto a self, our response is: with all ones might, one should avoid that which is inappropriate, whether it belongs to oneself, or to another.

101. The continuum of consciousness, like a series, and the aggregation of constituents, like an army and such, are unreal. Since one who experiences suffering does not exist, to whom will that suffering belong?

102. All sufferings are without an owner, because they are not different, they should be warded off, simply because they are suffering. Why is any restriction made in this case?

103. Why should suffering be prevented? Because everyone agrees. If it must be warded off, then all of it must be warded off; and if not, then this goes for oneself as it does for everyone else.

104. Qualm: much suffering arises from compassion, so why should one force it to arise? Response: After seeing the suffering of the world, how can this suffering from compassion be considered great?

105. If the suffering of many disappears because of the suffering of one, then a compassionate person should induce that suffering for his own sake and for the sake of others.

106. Therefore, Supuspacandra, although knowing the king's animosity, did not avoid his own suffering as a sacrifice for many people in misery.

107. Thus, one whose mind stream is accustomed to meditation and who delights in calming the suffering of others enters into Avichi Hell like a swan into a pool of Lotuses.

108. When sentient beings are liberated, they have oceans of joy. Is that not enough? What is the point of desiring ones own liberation?

109. Thus, although working for the benefit of others, there is neither conceit nor dismay; and on account of the thirst for the single goal of benefiting others, there is no desire for the result of the maturation of ones Karma.

110. Therefore, to the extent that I protect myself from disparagement, so shall I generate a spirit of protection and a spirit of compassion toward others!

111. Due to habituation, there is a sense that "I" exists in the drops of blood and semen that belongs to others, even though the being in question does not exist.

112. Why do I not also consider another's body as myself in the same way, the otherness if my own body is not difficult to determine?

113. Acknowledging oneself as fault-ridden and others as oceans of virtues, one should contemplate renouncing one's self-identity and accepting others.

114. Just as the hands and the like are cherished because they are members of the body, why are the embodied beings not cherished in the same way, for they are the members of the world?

115. Just as the notion of a self with regard to one's own body, which has no personal existence, is due to habitation, will the identity of one's self with others not arise in the same way?

116. Although working for the benefit of others in this way, there is neither conceit nor dismay. Even upon feeding oneself, expectation of a reward does not arise.

117. Therefore, just as you protect yourself from even minor disparagement, cultivate a spirit of protection and a spirit of compassion toward the world.

118. Hence, out of great compassion Lord Avalokita (Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara) blessed his own name to dispel even the anxiety of being in a crowd.

119. One should not turn away from difficulty, since owing to the power of habituation, one may have no pleasure in the absence of something that one previously feared to hear mentioned.

120. One who wishes to protect oneself and others quickly should practice exchanging oneself for others, which is a great mystery.

121. If even at a small danger fear arises on account of great attachment to oneself, why should one not abhor that self like a terrifying enemy?

122. One who kills birds, fish, and deer, and sets up an ambush with the desire to quell illness, thirst, and hunger,

123. One, who kills one's parents and steals the property of The Three Jewels for the sake of profit and respect, will become fuel in the Avichi Hell.

124. What wise person would desire, protect, and venerate such a self? Who would not see it as an enemy, and who would respect it?

125. If, out of concern for oneself, one thinks: "if I give it away, what shall I enjoy?" This is a fiendish state. If out of concern for others one thinks: "if I enjoy it, what shall I give away?" This is a divine state.

126. Upon harming another for one's own sake, one is burnt in hells and the like; but upon afflicting oneself for the sake of others, one has success in everything.

127. The desire for self-aggrandizement leads to a miserable state of existence, low status, and stupidity. By transferring that same desire to someone else, one obtains a fortunate state of existence, respect, and wisdom.

128. By ordering another around for ones own sake, one experiences the position of a servant and the like; but by ordering oneself around for the sake of others, one experiences the position of a master and the like.

129. All those who are unhappy in the world are so as a result of their desire for their own happiness. All those who are happy in the world are so as a result of their desire for the happiness of others.

130. Enough of such talk! Note the difference between the fool who seeks his own benefit, and the sage who works for the benefit of others.

131. One, who does not exchange his own happiness for the suffering of others, surely does not achieve Buddhahood. How could one find happiness even in the cycle of existence?

132. Not to mention the next life, even in this life, a desired goal of a servant who does not do his work, and of a master who does not pay out the wages, cannot be accomplished.

133. Forsaking the generation of mutual happiness and the felicity of present and future happiness, deluded people take on tremendous suffering because of harming one another.

134. If all the harm, fear, and suffering in the world occur due to grasping onto the self, what use is that great demon to me?

135. Without forsaking one's own self, one cannot avoid suffering, just as without avoiding the fire one cannot avoid being burned.

136. Therefore, in order to alleviate my own suffering and to alleviate the suffering of others, I give myself up to others, and I accept others as my own self.

137. O mind, make this resolve: "I am bound to others." From now on you must not be concerned with anything but the welfare of all sentient beings.

138. It is inappropriate to seek one's own welfare with the eyes and so on that are dedicated to others. It is inappropriate to pour one's own benefit with hands that are dedicated to others.

139. Therefore, becoming subservient to sentient beings, and snatching away whatever you see on this body, use it for the well being of others.

140. Placing your own identity in inferior ones and placing the identity of others in your own self, cultivate envy and pride with the mind free of discursive thoughts.

141. He is respected, not I. I am not wealthy, as he is. He is praised, while I am despised. I am unhappy, while he is happy.

142. I do chores while he lives at ease. It seems he is great in the world, while I am debased, lacking in good qualities.

143. What can one do without good qualities? Every person is endowed with good qualities. There are those with regard to whom I am inferior, and there are those with regard to whom I am superior.

144. The degeneration of my ethical discipline, views, and so on is due to the power of mental afflictions and not my own free will. You must heal me as well as you can, and I shall accept the pain.

145. If he cannot cure me, why does he disdain me? What use are his good qualities to me when he is the one who has good qualities?

146. He has no compassion for beings who dwell in the jaws of the beast of prey of miserable states of existence. Moreover, out of pride in his qualities, he desires to surpass the wise.

147. Seeing himself as being equal to others in order to enhance his own superiority, he will obtain wealth and respect for himself even by means of discord.

148. Were my good qualities to become apparent to everyone in the world, then no one would ever even hear of his good qualities.

149. Were not my faults to be concealed, there would be honor for me and not for him. Today, I have easily acquired possessions. I am honored while he is not.

150. Delighted, we shall watch him, as he is finally being ill treated, ridiculed and reviled from all sides.

151. Also, it seems this wretched one is competing with me does he have this much learning, wisdom, beauty, noble ancestry, and wealth?

152. Hearing my own good qualities being praised everywhere in this way, thrilled, with my hair standing on end, I shall enjoy the delight of happiness.

153. Even though this one has possessions, they are to be taken over with my strength; and if he works for me, I will give him just enough to survive.

154. We should deprive him of happiness and always yoke him to our anguish. We all have been afflicted in the cycle of existence hundreds of times by him.

155. O mind, countless eons have passed as you have yearned to accomplish your own self-interest, but with such great toil you have gained only suffering.

156. Thus, definitely apply yourself in this way right now without hesitation. Later you will see the advantages of this, for the words of the Sage are true.

157. If you had carried out this task earlier, this state deprived of the perfection and bliss of the Buddha would not have occurred.

158. Therefore, just as you formed a sense of self-identity, with regard to the drops of blood and semen of others, contemplate others in the same way.

159. Living as one who belongs to others and snatching away whatever you see on this body, practice what is beneficial to others.

160. Arouse envy towards your own self in this way: I am well while the other is miserable; the other is lowly while I am exalted; the other works while I do not.

161. Deprive yourself of happiness and expose yourself to the suffering of others. Examine your own faults with the consideration, "what have I done, at what time?"

162. Take the mistake made by another on your head, and disclose even a trivial mistake of yours to the Great Sage.

163. Let your own reputation be outshone by exalting the reputation of others, and like the least of servants, commit yourself to everyone's welfare.

164. This one of defective nature should not be praised for adventitious good qualities. Act so that no one may know of this one's good qualities.
165. In brief, whatever offense you have committed toward others for your own benefit, let it descend on yourself for the benefit of sentient beings.

166. This one should not be encouraged to be abusive, but should be established in the behavior of a young bride, modest, meek, and restrained.

167. Act in this way! Remain in this way! You should not do this! You should be subjugated and subdued in this way if you disobey.

168. O mind, if you do not do this even when you are being told, then I shall subjugate you alone, for all faults dwell in you.

169. Where will you go? I can see you, and I shall annihilate all your vanities. That was another, earlier time when I was ruined by you.

170. Now give up this hope: "Still, I have my own self interest!" Unconcerned as you are with much distress, I have sold you to others.

171. If I do not joyfully offer you to sentient beings, you will undoubtedly deliver me to the guardians of hell.

172. Handing me over in that way many times, you have tormented me for a long time. Remembering those grudges, I shall destroy you, the servant of your own self interest.

173. If you are pleased with yourself, you should take no pleasure in yourself. If you need protection, it is inappropriate to protect yourself.

174. The more this body is pampered, the more fragile it becomes, and the more it degenerates.

175. When it has degenerated in this way, not even this earth can completely fulfill its desire. Who then will satisfy its desire?

176. For one who desires the impossible, mental affliction and disappointment arise; but for one who is free of expectations there is unblemished prosperity.

177. Therefore, free rein should not be given to the growth of bodily desires. It is truly good when one does not take something that ones wants.

178. This awful, impure form has its end in ashes and stillness, moved only by another. Why do I grasp onto it as mine?

179. Of what use is this contrivance to me, whether it is dead or alive? What difference is there between this and a clump of soil and the like? Alas, you are not eliminating the grasping onto the "I."

180. By favoring the body, one uselessly accumulates suffering. Of what use is anger or love to something equal to a piece of wood?

181. Whether it is nurtured by me, or eaten by vultures, it feels neither affection nor aversion, so why am I so fond of it?

182. If the body, which has no anger due to abuse, or satisfaction due to praise, is unconscious, then for whom am I exerting myself?

183. Those who like this body are said to be my friends. They all like their own bodies too, so why do I not like them?

184. Therefore, with indifference I have given up my body for the benefit of the world. Hence, although it has many faults, I keep it as an instrument for that task.

185. So enough of worldly conduct! Recalling the teaching on consciousness and warding off drowsiness and lethargy, I shall follow the wise.

186. Therefore, withdrawing the mind from evil ways, I shall always concentrate it on its own meditative object to eliminate obscurations.


Chapter Nine
Affection of Wisdom


1. The Sage taught this entire system for the sake of wisdom. Therefore, with the desire to ward off suffering, one should develop this wisdom.

2. This truth is recognized as being of two kinds: conventional and ultimate. Ultimate reality is beyond the scope of the intellect. The intellect is called conventional reality.

3. In the light of this, people are seen to be of two types: the contemplative and the ordinary person; the ordinary folks are superseded by the contemplatives. [The contemplative perceives the ordinary, worldly persons viewpoint to be incorrect. (Ed.)]

4. Due to the difference in their intelligence, even contemplatives are refuted by successfully higher ones by means of analogies accepted by both parties, regardless of what they aim to prove.

5. Ordinary people see and imagine things as real and not illusory. It is in this respect that there is disagreement between the contemplatives and the ordinary people.

6. Even the objects of direct perception, such as form and the like, are established by consensus and not by verifying cognition. That consensus is false, as is the general agreement that pure things are impure, for example.

7. The Protector taught things in order to bring people to understanding. Qualm: If these things are not ultimately, but only conventionally, momentary, this is inconsistent.

8. Madhyamika: There is no fault in the conventional truth of the contemplatives. In contrast to ordinary people, they see reality. Otherwise, ordinary people would invalidate the perception of women as impure.

9. Qualm: How can there possibly be merit due to the Jina who is like an illusion, as is the case if he is truly existent? If a sentient being is like an illusion, why is he reborn again after he dies?

10. Madhyamika: Even an illusion lasts for as long as the collection of its conditions. Why should a sentient being truly exist merely because its continuum lasts a long time?

11. Yogacarin: If consciousness does not exist, then there is no sin in killing an illusionary person. Madhyamika: On the contrary, when one is endowed with the illusion of consciousness, vice and merit do arise.

12. Yogacarin: an illusionary mind is not possible, since mantras and the like are unable to produce it. Madhyamika: Diverse illusions originate on account of diverse conditions. Nowhere does a single condition have the ability to produce everything.

13. Yogacarin: If one could be ultimately emancipated, and yet transmigrate conventionally, then even the Buddha would transmigrate. So what would be the point of the Bodhisattva way of life?

14. Madhyamika: When its conditions are not destroyed, an illusion does not cease either. Due to a discontinuity of its conditions, it does not originate even conventionally.

15. Yogacarin: When even a mistaken cognition does not exist, by what is an illusion ascertained?

16. Madhyamika: If, for you an illusion itself does not exist, what is apprehended? Even if it is an aspect of the mind itself, in reality it exists as something different.

17. Yogacarin: If the mind itself is an illusion, then what is perceived by what? Madhyamika: The Protector of the World stated that the mind does not perceive the mind. Just as a sword cannot cut itself, so it is with the mind.

18. Yogacarin: It illuminates itself, as does a lamp. Madhyamika: A lamp does not illuminate itself, for it is not concealed by darkness.

19. Yogacarin: A blue object does not require something else for its blueness, as does a crystal. So something may or may not occur in dependence on something else.

20. Madhyamika: As is the case of non-blueness, blue is not regarded as its own cause. What blue by itself could make itself blue?

21. Yogacarin: It is said; that a lamp illuminates once this is cognized with awareness. The mind is said to illuminate once this is cognized with what?

22. Madhyamika: If no one perceives whether the mind is luminous or not, then there is no point in discussing it, like the beauty of a barren woman's daughter.

23. Yogacarin: If self-cognizing awareness does not exist, how is consciousness recalled? Madhyamika: Recollection comes from its relation to something else that was experienced, like a rats poison.

24. Yogacarin: It illuminates itself, because the mind, endowed with other conditions, perceives. Madhyamika: A Jar seen due to the application of a magical ointment is not the ointment itself.

25. The Manner in which something is seen, heard, or cognized is not what is refuted here, but the conceptualization of its true appearance, which is the cause of suffering, is rejected here.

26. If you fancy that an illusion is neither different from the mind, nor non different, then if it is a really existing thing, how can it not be different? If it is not different, then it does not really exist.

27. Just as an illusion can be seen even though it does truly exist, so it is with the observer, the mind. Yogacarin: The cycle of existence has its basis in reality or else it would be like space.

28. Madhyamika: How can something that does not exist have any efficacy by being based on something real? You have approached the mind as being an isolated unity.

29. If the mind were free from any apprehended object, then all beings would be Tath¨¢gatas. Thus, what good is gained by speculating that only the mind exists?

30. Yogacarin: Even when the similarity to illusion is recognized, how does a mental affliction cease, since lust for an illusory woman arises even in the mind of the one who created her?

31. Madhyamika: Because her creator's imprints of mental afflictions toward objects of knowledge have not been eliminated, when seeing her, his imprint of emptiness is weak.

32. By building up the imprints of emptiness, the imprint of existence is diminished; and after accustoming oneself to the fact that nothing truly exists, even that diminishes.

33. Yogacarin: If it is conceived that a phenomenon that does not really exist cannot be perceived, then how can a non-entity, which is without basis, stand before the mind?

34. Madhyamika: When neither an entity nor a non-entity remains before the mind, then since there is no other possibility, having no objects, it becomes calm.

35. Just as a wish fulfilling gem, or a wish granting tree satisfies desires, so the image of the Jina is seen, because of his vow and his disciples.

36. When a charmer against poison dies, after completing a pillar, that pillar neutralizes poisons and the like, even for a long time after his death.

37. Likewise, the pillar of the Jina, completed with accordance with the Bodhisattva way of life, accomplishes all tasks, even when the bodhisattva has passed into Nirvana.

38. Hinayananist: How could worship offered to something that has no consciousness be fruitful? Madhyamika: Because it is taught that it is the same whether he is present or has passed into Nirvana.

39. According to the scriptures, effects of worship do exist, whether conventionally or ultimately, in the same way that worship offered to the true Buddha is said to be fruitful.

40. Hinayananist: Liberation comes from understanding the four noble truths, so what is the point of perceiving emptiness? Madhyamika: Because the scripture states that there is no awakening without this path.

41. Hinayananist: The Mahayana is certainly not authenticated. Madhyamika: How is your scripture authenticated? Hinayananist: Because it is authenticated by both of us. Madhyamika: Then it is not authenticated by you from the beginning.

42. Apply the same faith and respect to the Mahayana as you do to it. If something is true because it is accepted by two different parties, then the Vedas and the like would also be true.

43. If you object that the Mahayana is controversial, then reject your own scripture because it is contested by heterodox groups and because parts of your scriptures are contested by your own people and others.

44. The teaching has its root in the monk-hood and the monk-hood is not on a firm footing. For those whose minds are subject to grasping, Nirvana is not on a firm footing either.

45. If your objection is that liberation is due to the elimination of mental afflictions, then it should occur immediately afterward. Yet one can see the power of Karma over those people, even though they had no mental afflictions.

46. If you think that as long as there is no craving there is no grasping onto rebirth, why could their craving, even though free of mental afflictions, not exist as delusion?

47. Craving has its cause in feeling, and they have feeling. The mind that has mental objects has to dwell on one thing or another.

48. Without emptiness the mind is constrained and arises again, as in non-cognitive meditative equipoise. Therefore, one should meditate on emptiness.

49. If you acknowledge the utterances that correspond to the sutras as the words of the Buddha, why do you not respect the Mahayana, which for the most part is similar to your sutras?

50. If the whole is faulty because one part is not acceptable, why not consider the whole as taught by the Jina because one part is similar to the Sutras?

51. Who will not accept the teachings not fathomed by leaders such as Maha- Kassapa just because you failed to understand them?

52. Remaining in the cycle of existence for the sake of those suffering due to delusion is achieved through freedom from attachment and fear. That is a fruit of emptiness.

53. Thus, no refutation is possible with regard to emptiness, so one should meditate on emptiness without hesitation.

54. Since emptiness is the antidote to the darkness of afflictive and cognitive obstructions, how is it that one desiring omniscience does not promptly meditate on it?

55. Let fear arise towards something that produces suffering. Emptiness pacifies suffering. So why does fear of it arise?

56. If there were something called "I," fear could come from anywhere. If there is no "I," whose fear would there be?

57. Teeth, hair, and nails are not "I," nor am I bone, blood, mucus, phlegm, puss, or lymph.

58. Bodily oil is not I, nor are sweat, fat, or entrails, the cavity of the entrails is not "I," nor is excrement or urine.

59. Flesh is not "I," nor are sinews, heat, or wind. Bodily apertures are not "I," nor, in any way, are the six consciousnesses.

60. If the awareness of sound were "I," then sound would always be apprehended. But without an object of awareness, what does it cognize on account of which is called awareness?

61. If that which is not cognizant were awareness, a piece of wood would be awareness. Therefore, it is certain there is no awareness in the absence of its object.

62. Why does that which cognizes form not hear it as well? Samkhya: Because of the absence of sound, there is no awareness of it.

63. Madhyamika: How can something that is of the nature of the apprehension of sound be the apprehension of form? One person may be considered as a father and a son, but not in terms of ultimate reality,

64. Since Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas are neither a father nor a son. Moreover its nature is not seen as related to the apprehension of sound.

65. If it is the same thing taking another guise, like an actor, he too is not permanent. If he has different natures, then this unity of his is unprecedented.

66. If another guise is not the true one, then describe its natural appearance. If it were the nature of awareness, then it would follow that all people would be identical.

67. That which has volition and that which has no volition would be identical because their existence would be the same. If difference were false, then what would be the basis for similarity?

68. That which is not conscious is not "I", because it lacks consciousness, like a cloth and the like. If it were consciousness because it has consciousness, than it would follow that when it stops being conscious of anything, it would vanish.

69. If the self is not subject to change, what is the use of its consciousness? Thus, this implies that space, which lacks consciousness and activity, has a self.

70. Objection: Without the self, the relationship between an action and its result is not possible, for if the agent of an action has perished, who will have the result?

71. Madhyamika: When both of us have agreed that an action and its result have different bases and that the self has no influence in this matter, then there is no point in arguing about this.

72. One who has the cause cannot possibly be seen as being endowed with the result. It is pointed out that the existence of the agent and the experiencer (sic) of the consequences depends upon the unity of their continuum of consciousness.

73. The past or future mind is not "I", since it does not exist. If the mind were "I", then when it had vanished, the "I" would not exist anymore.

74. Just as the trunk of a plantain tree is nothing when cut into pieces, in the same way, the "I" is non-existence when sought analytically.

75. Qualm: If no sentient being exists, for whom is there compassion? Madhyamika: For one who is imagined through delusion, which is accepted for the sake of the task.

76. Qualm: If there is no sentient being, whose is the task? Madhyamika: True. The effort, too, is due to delusion. Nevertheless, in order to alleviate suffering, delusion with regard to one's task is not averted.

77. However, grasping onto the "I", which is a cause of suffering, increases because of the delusion with regard to the self. If this is the unavoidable result of that, meditation on identity-less-ness is the best.

78. The body is not the feet, the calves, nor the thighs. Nor is the body the hips, the abdomen. The back, the chest, or the arms.

79. It is not the hands, the sides of the torso, or the armpits, nor is it characterized by the shoulders. Nor is the body the neck or the head. Then what here is the body?

80. If this body partially exists in all of these, and its parts exist in their parts, where does it stand by itself?

81. If the body were located in its entirety in the hands and other limbs, there would be just as many bodies as there are hands and so forth.

82. The body is neither inside nor outside. How can the body be in the hands and other limbs? It is not separate from the hands and the like. How, then, can it be found at all?

83. Thus, the body does not exist. However, on account of delusion, there is the impression of the body with regard to the hands and the like, because of their specific configuration, just as there is the impression of a person with regard to a pillar.

84. As long as a collection of conditions lasts, the body appears like a person. Likewise, as long as it lasts with regard to the hands and the like, the body continues to be seen in them.

85. In the same way, since it is an assemblage of toes, which one would be a foot? The same applies to a toe, since it is an assemblage of joints, and to a joint as well, because of its division into its own parts.

86. Even the parts can be divided into atoms, and an atom itself can be divided according to its cardinal directions. The section of a cardinal direction is space, because it is without parts. Therefore, an atom does not exist.

87. What discerning person would be attached to form, which is just like a dream? Since the body does not exist, then who is a woman and who is a man?

88. If suffering truly exists, why does it not oppress the joyful? If delicacies and the like are a pleasure, why do they not please someone struck by grief and so forth?

89. If it is not experienced because it is overpowered by something more intense, how can that which is not of the nature of experience be a feeling?

90. Objection: Surely there is suffering in its subtle state while its gross state is removed. Madhyamika: If it is simply another pleasure, then that subtle state is a subtle state of pleasure.

91. If suffering does not arise when the conditions for its opposite have arisen, does it not follow that a "feeling" is a false notion created by conceptual fabrication?

92. Therefore, this analysis is created as an antidote to that false notion. For the meditative stabilizations that arise from the field of investigations are the food of contemplatives.

93. If there is an interval between a sense faculty and its object, where is the contact between the two? If there is no interval, they would be identical. In that case, what would be in contact with what?

94. One Atom cannot penetrate another, because it is without empty space and is of the same size as the other. When there is no penetration, there is no mingling there is no contact.

95. How, indeed, can there be contact with something that has no parts? If part-less-ness can be observed when there is contact, demonstrate this.

96. It is impossible for consciousness, which has no form, to have contact; nor is it possible for a composite, because it is not a truly existent thing, as investigated earlier.

97. Thus, when there is no contact, how can feeling arise? What is the reason for this exertion? Who can be harmed by what?

98. If there is no one to experience feeling and if feeling does not exist, then after understanding this situation, why, oh craving, are you not shattered?

99. The mind that has a dream-like and illusion-like nature sees and touches. Since feeling arises together with the mind, it is not perceived by the mind.

100. What happen earlier is remembered but not experienced by what arises later. It does not experience itself, nor is it experienced by something else.

101. There is no one who experiences feeling. Hence, in reality, there is no feeling. Thus, in this identity-less bundle, who can be hurt by it?

102. The mind is not located in the sense facilities, or in form and other sense-objects, or in between them. The mind is also not found inside, or outside, or anywhere else.

103. That which is not in the body nor anywhere else, neither intermingled nor somewhere separate, is nothing. Therefore, sentient beings are by nature liberated.

104. If cognition is prior to the object of cognition, in dependence on what does it arise? If cognition is simultaneous with the object of cognition, in dependence on what does it arise?

105. If it arises after the object of cognition, from what would cognition arise? In this way it is ascertained that no phenomenon comes into existence.

106. Objection: If conventional truth does not exist, how can there be the two truths? If it does exist due to another conventional truth, how can there be a liberated sentient being?

107. Madhyamika: One is an ideation of someone else's mind, and one does not exist by one's own conventional truth. After something has been ascertained, it exists; if not, it does not exist as a conventional reality either.

108. The two, conception and the conceived, are mutually dependent; just as every analysis is expressed by referring to what is commonly known.

109. Objection: But if one analyzes by means of analysis which itself is analyzed, then there is an infinite regress, because that analysis can also be analyzed.

110. Madhyamika: When the object of analysis is analyzed, no basis for analysis is left. Since there is no basis, it does not arise, and that is called "nirvana."

111. A person for whom these two are truly existent is in an extremely shaky position. If an object exists because of the power of cognition, how does one arrive at the true existence of cognition?

112. If cognition exists because of the power of the object of cognition, how does one arrive at the true existence of cognition? If their existence is due to their mutual power, neither can exist.

113. Objection: If there is no father without a son, how can there be a son? Madhyamika: Just as in the absence of a son there is no father, in the same way these two do not exist.

114. Objection: A sprout arises from a seed. The seed is indicated by that sprout. Why does cognition that arises from the object of cognition not ascertain the true existence of that object of cognition?

115. Madhyamika: It is ascertained that a seed exists owing to a cognition that is not the same as a sprout. How is the existence of a cognition cognized, since the object of cognition is ascertained by that cognition?

116. People observe every cause through direct perception, since the components of a lotus, such as the stalk and so forth, are produced by a variety of causes.

117. Qualm: What makes the variety of causes? Madhyamika: a preceding variety of causes. Qualm: How can a cause give an effect? Madhyamika: Because of the power of the preceding causes.

118. Nyaya-Vaisesika: Isvara is the cause of the world. Madhyamika: Then explain who Isvara is. If he is the elements, so be it; but then why tussle over a mere name?

119. Moreover, the earth and other elements are not one; they are impermanent, inactive, and not divine. They can be stepped on and are impure. That is not Isvara.

120. Space is not the Lord because it is inactive. Nor is it the Self, because that has been refuted. How can the inconceivable creatorship of the Inconceivable One be describes?

121. What does he desire to create? If he desires to create a self, are not that self, the nature of the earth and other elements, and Isvara eternal? Cognition is due to the object of cognition and is without beginning.

122. Happiness and suffering are the result of action. Say then, what did he create? If the cause has no beginning, how can its effect have a beginning?

123. If he does not depend on anything else, why does he not always create? There is nothing whatsoever that is not created by him. So on what would he depend?

124. If Isvara depends on a collection of conditions, then again, he is not the cause. He cannot refrain from creating when there is a collection of conditions, nor can he create in their absence.

125. If Isvara creates without desiring to do so, it would follow that he is dependent on something other than himself. Even if he desires to create, he is dependent on that desire. Whence is the supremacy of the creator?

126. Those who claim the atoms are permanent have been refuted earlier. The Samkhyas consider a primal substance as the permanent cause of the world.

127. The universal constituents-sattva, rajas, and tamas-remaining in equilibrium, are called the primal substance. The universe is explained by their dis-equilibrium.

128. It is implausible that a single thing has three natures, so it does not exist. Likewise, he universal constituents do not exist, since they would each be comprised of three constituents.

129. In the absence of the three universal constituents, the existence of sound and other sense objects is far fetched. There is also no possibility of pleasure and the like in unconscious things such as cloth and so on.

130. If you argue that things have the nature of causes, have things not been analyzed away? For you, pleasure and the like are the cause, but cloth and the like are not the result of that cause.

131. Happiness and other feelings may be due to things such as a cloth, but in their absence, there would be no happiness and so on. The permanence of happiness and other feelings is never ascertained.

132. If the manifestation of happiness truly exists, why is the feeling not apprehended? If you see that it becomes subtle, how can it be gross and subtle?

133. Objection: It is subtle upon leaving its gross state. Its grossness and subtlety are impermanent. Madhyamika: Why do you not consider everything impermanent in that way?

134. If its gross state is not different from happiness, then the impermanence of happiness is obvious. If you think that something non-existent does not arise, because it has no existence whatsoever, then you have accepted, even against your will, the origination of something manifest that was non-existent.

135. If you accept that the effect is present in the cause, then one who eats food would be eating excrements, and a cotton tree seed would be bought at the price of a cloth and worn as a garment.

136. If you argue that ordinary people do not see this because of delusion, this is the case even for one who knows reality.

137. Even ordinary people know that. Why do they not see it? If you argue that ordinary people have no verifying cognition, then even their perception of something manifest is false.

138. Samkhya: If verifying cognition is not verifying cognition, then what is not verified falsely? In reality, the emptiness of phenomena is not ascertained through that verifying cognition.

139. Madhyamika: Without detecting an imagined thing, its non-existence is not apprehended. Therefore, if a thing is false, its non-existence is clearly false.

140. Thus, when in a dream a son has died, the thought 'he does not exist' prevents the arising of the thought of his existence; and that too is false.

141. Therefore, with this analysis, nothing exists without a cause, nor is it contained in its individual, or combined causal conditions.

142. Nothing comes from something else, nothing remains, and nothing departs. What is the difference between an illusion and that which is considered by fools as real?

143. Examine this: As for that which is created by illusion and that which is created by causes, where do they come from and where do they go?

144. How can there be true existence in something artificial, like a reflection, which is perceived only in conjunction with something else, and not in its absence?

145. For something that already exists, what need is there for a cause? If something does not exist, what is the need for a cause?

146. Something that does not exist will not be subject to change, even with millions of causes. How can something in that state be existent. What else can come into existence?

147. If there is no existent thing at the time of non-existent, when will an existent thing come into existence? For that non-existent thing will not disappear as long as the existent thing is not produced.

148. When a non-existent thing has not disappeared, there is no opportunity for the existent thing. An existent thing does not does not become non-existent; since it would follow that it would be of two natures.

149. Thus, there is neither cessation nor coming into existence at any time. Therefore, this entire world does not arise or cease.

150. States of existence are like dreams; upon analysis, they are similar to plantain trees. In reality, there is no difference between those who have attained Nirvana and those who have not.

151. When all phenomena are empty in this way, what can be gained and what can be lost? Who will be honored or despised by whom?

152. Whence comes happiness or suffering? What is pleasant and what is unpleasant? When investigated in its own nature, what is craving and for what is craving?

153. Upon investigation what is the world of living beings, and who will really die here? Who will come into existence, and who has come into existence, who is a relative, and who is a friend of whom?

154. May those who are like me apprehend everything as being like space. They rage and rejoice by means of dispute and jubilation.

155. Seeking their own happiness with evil deeds they live miserably with grief, troubles, despair, and cutting and stabbing each other.

156. After repeatedly entering the fortunate states of existence and becoming accustomed to pleasure again and again, they die and fall into the miserable states of existence in which there is long and intense anguish.

157. There are many pitfalls in mundane existence, but there is not this truth here. There is mutual incompatibility. Reality could not be like this.

158. There are incomparable, violent, boundless oceans of suffering. Strength is scanty there; and the life span is short there as well.

159. There, too, in practices for long life and health, in hunger, fatigue, and weariness, in sleep and calamities, and in unprofitable associations with fools,

160. Life passes by swiftly and in vain. Discrimination is difficult to obtain there. How could there be a way to prevent habitual distractions?

161. There, too, Mara tries to throw them into very wretched states. There, because of the abundance of wrong paths, doubt is difficult to overcome.

162. And leisure is hard to obtain again. The appearance of a Buddha is extremely rare. The flood of mental afflictions is difficult to impede. Alas, what a succession of suffering!

163. Ah, there should be a great pity for those adrift in the flood of suffering, who, although miserable in this way, do not recognize their wretched situation.

164. Just like one who repeatedly immerses himself in water but must enter fire again and again, so they consider themselves fortunate, although they are extremely miserable.

165. As they live like this, pretending that they are not subject to aging and death, terrible calamities come, with death the foremost of them.

166. Thus, when might I bring relief to those tormented by the fire of suffering, with the requisites of happiness springing forth from the clouds of my merit?

167. When shall I respectfully teach emptiness and the accumulation of merit-in terms of conventional truth and without reification-to those whose views are reified?



Chapter Ten
Dedication


1. May all sentient beings be graced with the bodhisattva way of life by the virtue I have obtained while reflecting on the "A Guide To The Bodhisattva Way of Life."

2. Through my merit, may all those in all directions who are afflicted by bodily and mental sufferings, obtain oceans of joy and contentment.

3. As long as the cycle of existence lasts, may their happiness never decline. May the world attain the constant joy of the Bodhisattvas.

4. As many hells as there are in the world, may beings in them delight in the joys of contentment in Sukhavati.

5. May those afflicted with cold, find warmth. May those oppressed by heat be cooled by oceans of water springing from the great clouds of the Bodhisattvas.

6. May the forest of sword leaves become for them the splendor of a pleasure grove; and may the sword-like Salmali trees grow as wish-fulfilling trees.

7. May the regions of hell become vast ponds of delight, fragrant with lotuses, beautiful and pleasing with the cries of white geese, wild ducks, ruddy geese, and swans.

8. May the heap of burning coal become a mound of jewels. May the burning ground become a crystal marble floor; and may the mountains of "The Crushing Hell" become temples of worship filled with Sugatas.

9. May the rain of burning coal, lava, and daggers from now on become a rain of flowers; and may mutual battling with weapons now become a playful flower fight.

10. By the power of my virtue, may those whose flesh has completely fallen off, whose skeletons are of the color of a white jasmine flower, and who are immersed in the river Vaitarani whose water is like fire, attain celestial bodies and dwell with goddesses by the river Manakini.

11. May the horrifying agents of Yama, crows, and vultures suddenly watch here in fear. Those looking upward behold blazing Vajrapani in the sky wonder: "Whose is this brilliant light that dispels darkness all around and generates the joy of contentment?" May they depart together with him, freed of vice through the power of their joy.

12. A rain of Lotuses falls mixed with fragrant waters. It is seen to extinguish the unceasing fires of the hells. May the beings of the hells, suddenly refreshed with joy, wonder, "What is this?" and may they see Padmapani.

13. Friends, come quickly! Cast away fear! We are alive! A radiant vanquisher of fear, a certain prince in a monastic robe, has come to us. By his power every adversity is removed, streams of delight flow, the Spirit of Awakening is born, as is compassion, the mother of protection of all beings.

14. Behold him whose Lotus-Feet are worshipped with tiaras of hundreds of gods, whose eyes are moist with compassion, on whose head a stream of diverse flowers rains down, with his delightful summer palaces celebrated by thousands of goddesses singing hymns of praise. Upon seeing Manjughosa before them, may the beings of the hells immediately cheer.

15. Through my virtues, may the beings of the hells rejoice upon seeing the un-obscured clouds of Bodhisattvas, headed by Samantabhadra and bearing pleasant, cool, and fragrant rains and breezes.

16. May the intense pains and fears of the beings of the hells be pacified. May the inhabitants of all miserable states of existence be liberated from their woeful states.

17. May the animal's risk of being eaten by each other disappear! May the Pretas be as happy as the people in Uttarakura!

18. May the Pretas always be satiated, bathed, and refreshed by streams of milk pouring from the hand of noble Avalokiteshvara.

19. May the blind always see forms, and may the deaf hear. May pregnant women give birth without pains, as did Mayadevi.

20. May they acquire everything that is beneficial and desired by the mind: clothing, food, drink, flower garlands, sandalwood-paste, and ornaments.

21. May the fearful become fearless and those struck with grief find joy. May the despondent become resolute and free of trepidation.

22. May the ill have good health. May they be freed from every bondage. May the weak become strong and have affectionate hearts for one another.

23. May all regions be advantageous to all those who travel on roads. May the purpose for which they set out be expediently accomplished.

24. May those who journey by boat succeed, as they desire. May they safely reach the shore and rejoice with their relatives.

25. May those who find themselves on wrong paths in dreary forests come upon the company of fellow travelers; and without fatigue, may they journey without fear of bandits, tigers, and the like.

26. May deities protect the dull, the insane, the deranged, the helpless, the young, and the elderly, and those in danger from sickness, the wilderness, and so on.

27. May they be free from all lack of leisure; may they be endowed with faith, wisdom, and compassion; may they be possessed of stature and good conduct; and may they always remember their former lives.

28. May they be inexhaustible treasuries just like Sky Treasure. Free of conflict or irritation, may they have an independent way of life.

29. May beings who have little splendor be endowed with great magnificence. May unattractive wretched be endowed with great beauty.

30. May the women in the world become men. May the lowly obtain grandeur and yet be free of arrogance.

31. Through this merit of mine, may all beings without exception abstain from every vice and always engage in virtue.

32. Not lacking the Spirit of Awakening, devoted to the Bodhisattva way of life, embraced by the Buddhas, and free of the deeds of Maras,

33. May all beings have immeasurable life spans. May they always live happily, and may even the word death disappear.

34. May all quarters of the world be delightful with gardens of wish fulfilling trees, filled with the Buddhas and the Children of the Buddhas, and be enchanting with the sound of Dharma.

35. May the ground everywhere be free from stones and rocks, smooth like the palm of the hand, soft, and made of Lapis Lazuli.

36. May the great assemblages of Bodhisattvas sit on all sides. May they beautify the earth with their own resplendence.

37. May all beings unceasingly hear the sound of Dharma from the birds, from every tree, from the rays of light, and from the sky.

38. May they always encounter the Buddhas and the Children of the Buddhas. May they worship the Spiritual Mentor of the world with endless clouds of offerings.

39. May a god send rain in time, and may there be an abundance of crops. May the populace be prosperous, and may the king be righteous.

40. May medicines be effective, and may the mantras of those who recite them be successful. May Dakinis, Rakasas, and other ghouls be filled with compassion.

41. May no sentient being be unhappy, sinful, ill, neglected, or despised; and may no one be despondent.

42. May monasteries be well established, full of chanting and study. May there always be harmony among the Sangha, and may the purpose of the Sangha be accomplished.

43. May monks who wish to practice find solitude. May they meditate with their minds agile and free of all distractions.

44. May nuns receive provisions and be free of quarrels and troubles. May all renunciations be of untarnished ethical discipline.

45. May those who are of poor ethical discipline be disgusted and become constantly intent on the extinction of their vices. May they reach a fortunate state of existence, and may their vows remain unbroken there.

46. May they be learned and cultured, receive alms, and have provisions. May their mind streams be pure and their fame be proclaimed in every direction.

47. Without experiencing the suffering of the miserable states of existence and without arduous practice, may the world attain Buddhahood in a single divine body.

48. May all sentient beings worship all the Buddhas in many ways. May they be exceedingly joyful with the inconceivable bliss of the Buddhas.

49. May the Bodhisattvas' wishes for the welfare of the world be fulfilled; and whatever the protectors intend for sentient beings, may that be accomplished.

50. May the Pratyekabuddhas and Sravakas be happy, always worshipped by the lofty gods, asuras, and humans.

51. Through the grace of Manjughosa, may I always achieve ordination and the recollection of the past lives until I reach the Joyous Ground.

52. May I live endowed with strength in whatever posture I am. In all my lives may I find plentiful places of solitude.

53. When I wish to see or ask something, may I see the Protector Manjunatha himself, without any impediment.

54. May my way of life be life be like that of Manjusri, who lives to accomplish the benefit of all sentient beings throughout the ten directions.

55. For as long as space endures and for as long as the world lasts, may I live dispelling the miseries of the world.

56. Whatever suffering there is for the world, may it all ripen upon me. May the world find happiness through all the virtues of the Bodhisattvas.

57. May teaching that is the sole medicine for the suffering of the world and the source of all prosperity and joy remain for a long time, accompanied by riches and honor!

58. I bow to Manjughosa, through whose grace my mind turns to virtue. I salute my spiritual friend through whose kindness it becomes stronger.

[End of Text]

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