Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

How can attachment to news and gossip
Accomplish the voice’s power of true words?
If you’re able, recite secret mantras;
If not, it’s best to remain silent.
If you conform or try to please others with unvirtuous acts,
You might meditate, but your desire and anger will increase.
Such bonds are difficult to renounce, even if you intend to do so—
Cut them vigorously and leave them far behind.
When some slight experience arises,
If you cling to it as positive, demons will carry you away.
Like a person climbing a mountain who can tumble into a ravine,
It’s important to be careful during the ascent.
Don’t waste your spiritual masters’ oral counsel:
Cultivate the experience of what you’ve received.
Don’t become haughty or self-promoting;
If you meditate single-mindedly, feel content with that!
This song was sung in response to a request for advice from some meditators
in Latö Balung:
Namo Guru!
Sovereign master, my sole spiritual father, sufficient in yourself,
To you I continually pray.
Turn my disciple-children’s minds to the Teachings.
Bless them with realization of mind that embraces all space.
Now that all conducive circumstances are gathered
And you have met a qualified spiritual lord,
You receive many profound instructions:
Don’t waste them meaninglessly, I beseech you!
To trust this body, a heap of flesh and bones,
And to hold to it as lasting are wrong.
A Sea of Blessings 153