Advice for Chabtsang Jetsün

The Seed of Faith

Advice for Chabtsang Jetsün Kusho

by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

Homage to the noble gurus!
Inspire us to recall impermanence and death!

This decrepit and illusory body of the present
Changes with each passing moment as it approaches death.
We don’t know what circumstances we’ll face, good or bad,
So we must apply ourselves to the sacred Dharma right away.

The affairs of this life and this world
Are like the dreams we had last night,
And as transient as bubbles on water.
Reflect on this well, and then set aside
All unnecessary projects and activities.

When death arrives, even if we are as wealthy,
Splendid and powerful as a universal monarch,
We’ll still be unable to take so much as a needle.
Practise noble Dharma, for its benefits are certain.

Since there is no telling when the enemy, the Lord of death,
Might come, do not postpone Dharma practice until tomorrow or the next day.

Striving to adopt or avoid actions according to their effects
Is precisely what’s meant by virtue of body, speech and mind.

Pray to the guru, who is the ultimate refuge.
Generate trust and purity of perception.
When you’ve developed a confident reliance,
You’ll soon gain the siddhis, ordinary and supreme.

Since the root of all Dharma is bodhicitta,
Cultivate a stable, altruistic wish to benefit
Beings of the six classes, one’s very own parents.

We possess the ground of primordial buddhahood
Within ourselves intrinsically, yet fail to recognize it.
And this is the veil of ignorance, unawareness.
Strive, therefore, I beg you, to gather the accumulations and purify obscurations.

Meditate through the generation phase on your body as the deity, apparent yet empty.
Strive to make your speech a continuous flow of mantra recitation.
And settle naturally, without physical, vocal or mental adjustment,
In the natural state of the very essence of mind itself.

The basic condition of rigpa beyond intellectual speculation
Will then dawn as the great union of clarity and emptiness.
Through undistracted non-meditation without grasping,
Awareness-emptiness and luminosity will nakedly arise.
This is the wisdom realization of all the buddhas.

Dedicate all the virtue that you amass throughout the three times
To all sentient beings of the six classes, your own past mothers.

The virtue of providing such counsel,
Out of heartfelt affection, to my disciple,
I dedicate non-referentially, so all beings
May thereby realize the three-kāya state.

Chökyi Lodrö sent this as a substitute for meeting directly. Sarva maṅgalam. Let it be virtuous!

| Translated by Adam Pearcey with the generous support of the Khyentse Foundation and Tertön Sogyal Trust, 2022.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

'Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros. "Chab gtsang rje btsun sku zhabs la gdams pa dad pa’i sa bon" In 'Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros kyi gsung 'bum. 12 vols. Bir, H.P.: Khyentse Labrang, 2012. (W1KG12986) Vol. 8: 269–271

Version: 1.0-20221116