Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa Masters

156 Timeless Rapture
None gives me lastingly useful guidance.
For such heart advice, I go to my master.
The time when this body, a heap of flesh and blood,
Will be destroyed is unpredictable.
I ask those who have nowhere to escape to after death
To focus their awareness within themselves.
In fear of death, I searched for a spiritual master.
I applied myself, as if touching my bone to rock, to every practice.
Now, when I die, my mind will be completely at ease.
Don’t you need to prepare such a comfortable mind?
The first, the moon’s phases and four seasons’ changes;
The second, shifting patterns of high and low classes, of wealth and
want;
And the third, negative changes in the country and region—
These three are the same instructor, who teaches that composite
phenomena are impermanent.
The first, work in the fields that never ends;
The second, unkind acts in return for kindness done;
The third, salty water that doesn’t quench thirst—
These three are the same instructor, who teaches that activity is senseless.
The first, hurly-burly of village busyness;
The second, insects’ insignificant occupations;
The third, ephemeral clouds that separate and circle—
These three are the same instructor, who teaches that cyclic life is
directionless.
The first, a rainbow’s formless appearance;
The second, a clear-sounding, nonlocalized echo;
The third, a nonexistent yet pleasant or troubling dream—
These three are the same instructor, who teaches that appearances
are the mind.