Advice for the Mantra-Holder Wanglu

Advice for the Mantra-Holder Wanglu[1]

from The Essential Amrita of Profound Meaning: Oral Instructions and Practical Advice Bestowed Upon Fortunate Followers, Eye-opener to What is to Be Adopted and Abandoned

by Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa

Listen, Wanglu, mantradhara!

If you want to gain a foothold on the path to liberation,
Keep impermanence vividly in mind.

See saṃsāra as flawed,
Have confidence in the undeceiving refuge,
See the sublime guru as buddha,
And make prayers.

Though you’re already grey, you’re still planning to stick around.
How can such a person ever gain liberation?

When you’re happy and with a full stomach, you take up your mālā.
When hungry and suffering, you perform misdeeds like killing.
How can such a person ever gain liberation?

People who place their reliance on the Dharma,
But ride high on their fake wisdom wings,
Are like the self-destructive snake that is anger.

If you don’t train in loving kindness and compassion,
The root of Dharma will be rotten.
If you’re unable to give away the wealth you’ve accumulated,
It’s like the story of Drakseb Drapa, all over again.

This life is like a guesthouse.
You will stay much longer in future lives.
It would be better for your accumulated wealth to be of use to you then.
So, with that in mind, make offerings and give.

That behavior will create an unassailable wealth, certain to help you.
By using it for a virtuous cause,
You are burying an inexhaustible treasure.
Seal this treasure with dedication.

Practicing the generation stage of secret mantra
While grasping at appearances as concrete—
That is the seed of Rudra, the demon of ego-clinging.
It should be practiced as rainbow-like appearance-emptiness,
With pure perception, the essence of faith.

Looking with clinging at the emptiness of mind
Will simply lead you astray.
When you know how to let be, free of grasping,
you are certain to become awakened in a single lifetime.

In general, this is sound advice for all Dharma practitioners.
In particular, it is the heart samaya of mantradharas.
For the teachers and disciples gathered here with faith and devotion,
May there be the auspiciousness of the profound Dharma's flourishing!

I, Chokgyur Lingpa wrote this at the request of the elder Wanglu and other mantradharas who beseeched me to give them some advice. May it bring goodness!

| Samye Translations, 2023.

Bibliography

Source Text

mChog gyur gling pa, “rJes 'jug skal bzang rnams la bstsal pa’i zhal gdams bslab bya nyams len gyi skor spang blang mig 'byed zab don snying gi bdud rtsi.” In mChog gling bka' 'bum skor. Vol. 36 of mChog gling bde chen zhig po gling pa yi zab gter yid bzhin nor bu’i mdzod chen po, 114–115. Kathmandu, Nepal: Ka-nying Shedrub Ling Monastery, 2004.

Version: 1.0-20231206