'Failing to catch the spirit of the Buddhas,
What use is it to follow the letter of the Law ?
Without an apprenticeship to a competent Master,
What use is great talent and intelligence ?
Unable to love all beings as your sons,
What use is solemn prayer and ritual ?
Ignorant of the sole point of the Three Vows,
What is gained by breaking each in turn ?
Failing to realize that Buddha is within,
What reality can be found outside ?
Incapable of a natural stream of meditation,
What can be gained by violating thought ?
Unable to regulate life according to the seasons and the time of the day,
Who are you but a muddled, indiscriminate fool ?
If an Enlightened perspective is not intuitively grasped,
What can be gained by a systematic search ?
Living on borrowed time and energy, wasting your life,
Who will repay your debts in the future ?
Wearing coarse and scanty clothing in great discomfort,
What can the ascetic gain by suffering the cold hells in this life ?
The aspirant striving without specific instruction,
Like an ant climbing a sand hill, accomplishes nothing.
Gathering instruction, but ignoring meditation on the nature of mind,
Is like starving oneself when the larder is full.
The Sage who refuses to teach or write,
Is as useless as the jewel in the King Snake's head.
The fool who knows nothing but prattles constantly,
Merely proclaims his ignorance to all.
Understanding the essence of the Teaching, practice it!'
Post je objavljen 14.12.2005. u 21:56 sati.