19. HOW TO CONTEMPLATE THE DHARMA
The most intelligent rulers do not focus
simply on bringing about the happiness of this life,
which is as fleeting as the dance of lightning.
Foolish and childish people
become attached to fleeting pleasures
and then engage in sinful deeds to obtain them.
This brings them boundless suffering.
When a nation follows the holy Dharma,
the tradition of “the people’s Dharma” arises as a byproduct,1
and the state’s excellence increases
without ever being obstructed.
When you properly practice the people’s Dharma,
it won’t be long before you reach heaven.
Ascending the staircase of gods and men,
you are then close to emancipation.2
Since you have obtained this human body, with its leisure and opportunities,3
that is so difficult to find, if you are not careful,
when the messengers of the Lord of Death come calling,
you will regret it; but what can you do about it at that point?4
Alas, all compounded things are impermanent;
They have the characteristic of constantly arising and ceasing.
Whatever is born dies. [136]
Anything that comes together falls apart.
Once born, your lifespan is quickly depleted,
like a waterfall flowing from a steep mountain.
The life of creatures lasts but a moment,
and then they go before the Lord of Death.
The Lord of Death won’t wait or listen to such excuses as,
“I’ve finished this, but not that.”
So engage in meritorious deeds
from this very day forward.5
Wealth fluctuates and youth ends in an instant.6
Life is lived in the fangs of the Lord of Death.
Alas, how amazing the behavior of people
who are lax about preparing for their next life.7
Abandon the bustle of this life;
but if you cannot do so,
then associate with holy people.
That is the medicine for the distracted life.8
Abandon desire,
but if you cannot do so,
then direct your desire toward being liberated.
That is the medicine for attachment to pleasure.9
If all these beings could see
the Lord of Death sitting on their head,
they would find no joy even in eating;
what need to speak about finding pleasure in other actions.10
The Lord of Death is already
sitting and waiting in front of you.
Who knows when he will strike,
like a bolt of lightning striking you on the head.11
People’s lifespans are exceedingly short;
the night uses up half of its hours.
Sickness, old age, afflictive emotions, and fear
prevent us from living the other half happily.12
Alas, those who, deceived by frivolous distraction,
squander what little leisure and opportunity
they have in this momentary life,
will fall into the suffering realms. [137]
Can you really bear the sufferings
of the exceedingly hot and cold hells:
of being burned in raging fires
and being interred in pockets of snow?
The same applies to the suffering
of the poor, starving hungry ghosts,
and of the animals who experience the pain of being stupid,
of mutually harming one another, and of being exploited.
Those who fall into these three states of suffering
encounter horrific and long-lasting pain.
What self-aware person would enter
into such an abyss on purpose?
Even the higher realms of gods and humans
possess various kinds of suffering:
humans are born, grow old, get sick, and die;
gods too die and fall into the lower realms.
The world is permeated by the three forms of suffering:
the natural suffering of pain,
things that appear to be pleasant but that change into pain,
and the condition that acts as the cause of future suffering.13
Hence, there is no happiness within saṃsāra,
which is like a sweet-smelling swamp of excrement.
Childish beings constantly take rebirth,
cycling through these demonic lands and fire pits.
But what causes us to experience happiness and suffering
in the higher and lower realms?
The cause is virtuous and sinful deeds.
You experience the effect of each action you do; no doubt about it.
No matter how prosperous a kingdom may be,
old age, sickness, and death
are experienced by everyone in common.
How can anyone escape them?
When, ravaged by time, it is the king’s turn to go,
his wealth, relatives, and friends do not follow him. [138]
Wherever individuals stay and wherever they go,
it is only karma that, like a shadow, follows them.14
The karma of embodied beings
never vanishes, even if a hundred eons go by.
When the proper conditions come together
and the time is right, it ripens into its result.15
Therefore, the belief in the infallibility
of cause and effect
is considered the mundane right view,
and the foundation of all positive qualities.16
Whatever great being
has acquired this mundane right view
will not go to the realms of suffering
even for a thousand lives.
Having understood the profound way of the interdependence of cause and effect,
the master of living beings, the Buddha, taught the path of emancipation.
There is no one comparable to our teacher,
the great ascetic, the highest refuge.
Likewise, no one else has a doctrine that is superior
to the one realized and taught by him—
a doctrine, the essence of which is the noble Eightfold Path,
that is a great cloud of peaceful, cooling, and blissful nectar.
Because their minds have absorbed the nectar of Dharma to satiety,
this holiest of fields,17 the precious saṅgha,
the basis of all good qualities, which is like the moon,
cannot be compared to any other community.
The white parasol renowned as the three jewels
is the source of all the goodness of this world and of the state of final peace.
Those who rely on them with trust and faith
will go from bliss to bliss and reach the highest enlightenment. [139]
People who are frightened
mostly go for refuge to the mountains, forests,
gardens, and to the great trees
that serve as the site for spirit worship.
But those are not the chief sources of refuge.
You will not free yourself of all suffering
by relying on those for protection.
To go for refuge to the Buddha,
the Dharma, and the Saṅgha,
means to use one’s wisdom to examine
the four truths of the noble āryas,
who have reached the happiness of nirvāṇa—
the truths of suffering, the origin of suffering,
the transcendence of suffering,
and the noble Eightfold Path.
That is our true refuge.
Whoever relies on that refuge
will be liberated from suffering.
Out of his love and mercy, our supreme, incomparable teacher
took responsibility for all beings.
We too should train as he did to achieve
a state of immeasurable perfect qualities.
What self-reflective person would not want to generate
compassion for this mass of beings who, from beginningless time,
have been our mothers and fathers,
and who have been tormented, against their will, by the three types of suffering?
If you generate bodhicitta—the mind directed at enlightenment—
so as to bring beings as boundless as space
to a place of true happiness and beneficence, [140]
you will reach the other side of the ocean of good qualities.
Generating, from the start, the self-arisen mind,
the basis of enlightenment,
has been recommended innumerable times.
But even incomparable scholars cannot put this into words.18
1. The tradition of “the people’s Dharma” or michö (mi chos) generally refers to the customs that govern righteous conduct in society. The michö can also refer to a specific moral code set forth by the ancient kings of Tibet. For example, Songtsen Gampo (d. 649), who according to the Tibetan tradition was Tibet’s first Buddhist king, is said to have created a code of conduct for his people called the “sixteen pure Dharmas for the people” (mi chos gtsang ma bcu drug): (1) having faith in the divine three jewels; (2) seeking out and practicing the holy Dharma; (3) repaying the kindness of parents; (4) honoring the learned; (5) showing respect for elders and people of high lineage; (6) helping one’s neighbors and countrymen; (7) speaking truthfully and acting with humility; (8) being loyal to relatives and friends; (9) following in the footsteps of upright people and enduring in this; (10) moderation in food and wealth; (11) repaying those who have been kind; (12) repaying debts in a timely manner, and honesty in weights and measures; (13) not being too jealous of anyone; (14) ignoring bad advice and being independent; (15) speaking sweetly and not being verbose; (16) being far-sighted and having a broad outlook. Western scholars have questioned whether this code was in fact the work of Songtsen Gampo, but no one disputes that the tradition of michö is very old, since it is found among the Dunhuang documents. See appendix 1 concerning the michö in one such text, the Elder Brother’s Advice to the Younger Brother.
2. The verse is identical to Prajñāśataka, v. 98.
3. A human rebirth is considered very rare and difficult to obtain, but a human rebirth that possesses the so-called leisures (dal ba) and opportunities (’byor ba) is considered extraordinary. Once attained, people who do not take full advantage of it are said to squander a very rare opportunity for spiritual practice. Generally speaking, the leisures and opportunities refer to being born as a human being with all one’s faculties intact, and in a place and time that permits access to a buddha’s teachings. The leisures and opportunities are explained in great detail in the lam rim or “stages of the path” literature. See, for example, Tsong-kha-pa, The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, vol. 1, 117–128. In fact, most of what Mipham discusses in this chapter and the next is found in the lam rim literature—in texts like Tsongkhapa’s Great Treatise (Lam rim chen mo) and in Patrul Rinpoche’s Revelations of Guru Samantabhadra (Kun bzang bla ma’i zhal lung); Patrul Rinpoche, The Words of My Perfect Teacher. But many of these same topics—death and impermanence, the precious human rebirth, karma and the sufferings of the lower realms, compassion, the six perfections, and so forth—are also taken up in Nāgārjuna’s Ratnāvalī and Suhṛllekha; many of these topics are also treated in the Jantupoṣaṇabiṇḍu, vv. 46–71. This chapter covers the lam rim doctrines up to the generation of “the mind of enlightenment” or bodhicitta. The next chapter covers the rest of the path, basically the six perfections. Mipham even includes, as many lam rim texts do, a very brief summary of Tantra.
4. Mātṛceta, Kaniṣkalekha, vv. 58–63, also contains advice to the king about when the Lord of Death comes calling. Leaving everything behind, the king’s fate is determined by his past karma, just as it is for everyone else. This is also the main teaching of a Mahāyāna scripture Instructions to the King (Rājadeśanāma Mahāyāna Sūtra, Dpe sdur ma ed., 550–57), the recipient of which was King Bimbisāra. The sūtra deals with impermanence and the certainty of death, the transience of the body, youth, fame, and wealth, and the suffering that ensues from engaging in negative deeds. After hearing this, the king asks whether there is any happiness at all. The Buddha replies that nirvāṇa is the highest happiness. Hearing all this, King Bimbisāra “renounces saṃsāra, gives up his kingdom ‘like spit,’ and dedicates himself to achieving nirvāṇa.” The Buddha concludes with this subhāṣita or elegant verse: “Of all footprints, the elephant’s is supreme. Of all flowers, the white lotus is supreme. Of all recognitions, the recognition of impermanence is supreme. Of all thoughts, renunciation is supreme.” Rājadeśanāma, Dpe sdur ma ed., 557.
5. Compare to Vararuci, Śatagāthā, v. 105; and to Prajñādaṇḍa, v. 324.
6. Amoghavarṣa, Vimalapraśnottara, v. 29: “What is unstable and quickly perishes? People’s youth, wealth, and lifespan.”
7. Compare to Prajñādaṇḍa, v. 214; to Vararuci, Śatagāthā, v. 102; and to Cāṇakya, Rājanītiśāstra, v. 8.14, which states, “In this world, life is unreliable. Wealth and youth are unreliable. Friendships are unreliable. Only righteousness, fame, and reputation are reliable.”
8. The source of the verse is likely Prajñādaṇḍa, v. 187. But compare also to Vararuci, Śatagāthā, v. 12; and to Sakya Paṇḍita, Sa skya legs bshad, v. 435.
9. The verse is essentially identical to Prajñādaṇḍa, v. 188, and to Vararuci, Śātagāthā, v. 13.
10. The verse is identical to Prajñādaṇḍa, v. 216, and to Vararuci, Śatagāthā, v. 104.
11. Amoghavarṣa, Vimalapraśnottara, v. 16: “What is to be feared in this life? Death, the end of life.”
12. The verse is almost identical to Cāṇakya, Rājanītiśāstra, v. 8.15.
13. These are the three forms of suffering listed and explained in many works: (1) suffering of suffering (ordinary pain, both physical and mental), (2) the suffering of change (things that on the surface appear to be pleasurable but that change into pain), and (3) the suffering that pervades all conditioned existence (the fundamental condition that leads to all of the other types of sufferings—having physical and mental “aggregates” that are produced by karma and mental afflictions).
14. Compare this verse to the Ways of the World (Vajjālaga) of the Jain scholar Jayavallabha: “Sons, relations, and even wealth desert a man, but there’s something that doesn’t—karma earned in previous lives.” Cited in T. R. Srinivasa Sharma et al, Ancient Indian Literature: An Anthology, vol. 2: 765–66.
15. Cāṇakya, Rājanītiśāstra, vv. 6.20–21: “Wherever the Lord of Death is, that is where you die. Wherever [the goddess] Śrī lives, that is where you find success. Wherever karma leads you, that is where you must go. Whatever acts—virtuous or nonvirtuous—you have done in the past, follow you, the actor.”
16. Nāgārjuna, Ratnāvalī, vv. 1.43–44, discusses this in both negative and positive terms. Nihilism, the denial of karmic causality, he states, is a wrong view. The belief that actions (karma) lead to an effect is the “right view.”
17. The saṅgha is called a field because when the seeds of virtuous actions are “planted” within it—for example, by giving alms to nuns and monks—they ripen into a harvest of happiness.
18. Mipham seems to be making reference here to the teachings of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, a practice aimed at generating the self-arisen mind (rang byung sems) or innate awareness (rig pa).