Counsel to Tsamdowa Parong Lhawang

Counsel to Tsamdowa Parong Lhawang

by Khenchen Ngawang Palzang

Kye ma! Hey![1] My errant child, with your inflated head—
The mooring lines of your fixation on the world’s appearances,
Through beginningless time, over and over, have caused you pain.
Now, without chasing after outer, objective appearances,
Turn your attention inward.

Hey! Believing things last, arranging for the future, these plans of yours—
These are enormous obstacles to the Dharma.
So, intensify your attention to impermanence and death
And dedicate your resources to the Dharma!

Hey! This pernicious demon of self-absorption
Has yoked you and others to disaster, again and again.
Here and now, see its flaws,
And, banishing it to exile,
Promote bodhicitta in your mindstream.

Hey! Getting your act together cannot come soon enough.
Hew to mindfulness and circumspection.
Without sowing discord and stirring up trouble,
Commit yourself wholeheartedly to Dharma![2]

This oral instruction based on four "heys!"
Was given by Lama Ngawang Palzang
To his stunted student, Tsamdo Parong Lhawang.
May there be auspicious goodness in this and all his future lives.

| Translated by Joseph McClellan and NT Ninjyed, 2025.

Bibliography

Source Texts

mkhan po ngag dgaʼ. "tsam mdo ba pa rong lha dbang la gdams pa". In gsung ʼbum ngag dbang dpal bzang, 2: 145. Khreng tuʼu, n.d. BDRC MW22946_7BBE75.

mkhan po ngag dgaʼ. gsung ʼbum kun mkhyen ngag gi dbang po, vol. 1, p. 150–151. snga ʼgyur kaḥ thog bcu phrag rig mdzod chen moʼi dpe tshogs. Khreng tuʼu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2017. BDRC W4CZ364088.

Version: 1.0-20250409