Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

118 Timeless Rapture
Toward profound instructions that are beyond doubt,
You need unswerving diligence.
For this short life in which you can’t remain,
You need unconfused priorities.
To remain in isolated retreat,
You need continually increasing tolerance of hardship.
To integrate whatever arises with meditation,
You need profound instructions in alchemy.
For uncontrived, self-manifest conduct,
You need to release the eight worldly concerns in their own ground.
For the result to arise of itself, spontaneously present,
You need to free hope and fear in their own ground.
To achieve enlightenment in one lifetime,
You need unceasing respect and devotion.
To see the spiritual master as the body of ultimate enlightenment,
You need to free wrong views in their own ground.
To help beings by taming their minds,
You need immeasurable great compassion.
This short song of the twelve necessities
Provides favorable conditions for accomplishment.
When the protector of beings, Sangyé Tönpa, considered demonstrating
departure for the eastern pure land, Strewn Flowers, he sang his disciples
this song, which captures the essence of his oral counsel:
Spiritual masters, deities, dakinis, and protectors:
May you protect me as your child with immeasurable compassion!