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Milarepa
This
song is a further response by Milarepa to the physicians enquiry ....
called, The Fleeting Bubbles
Karma
and Suffering
"This
is indeed very helpful to mind," commented the physician, "but
please preach still further for me on the truth of Karma and the
suffering of birth, old age illness and death, thus enabling me to
gain a deeper conviction in Buddha dharma."
In response,
the Jestsun sang:
Please
listen to these words,
Dear friends here assembled.
When you
are young and vigorous
You ne'er think of old age coming,
But it approaches slow and sure
Like a seed growing underground.
When you
are strong and healthy
You ne'er think of sickness coming,
But it descends with sudden force
Like a stroke of lighting.
When involved
in worldly things
You ne'er think of death's approach.
Quick it comes like thunder
Crashing round your head.
Sickness,
old age and death
Ever meet each other
As do hands and mouth.
Waiting for his prey in ambush,
Yama is ready for his victim,
When disaster catches him.
Sparrows
fly in singles file. Like them,
Life, Death and Bardo follow one another.
Never apart from you
Are these three 'visitors'.
Thus thinking, fear you not
Your sinful deeds?
Like strong
arrows in ambush waiting,
Rebirth in Hell, as Hungry Ghost, or Beast
Is (the destiny) waiting to catch you.
If once into their traps you fall,
Hard will you find it to escape.
Do you
not fear the miseries
You experienced in the past?
Surely you will feel much pain
If misfortunes attack you?
The woes of life succeed one another
Like the sea's incessant waves---
One has barely passed, before
The next one takes its place.
Until you are liberated, pain
and pleasure come and go at random
Like passers-by encountered in the street.
Pleasures
are precarious,
Like bathing in the sun;
Transient, too, as snowstorms
Which come without warning.
Remembering these things,
Why not practise the Dharma? |
