Two Precious Scroll Narratives of Guanyin and Her ... - Khamkoo

108 ThePreciousScrollofIncenseMountain,Part2
Finest garments of gauze and brocade clothe gore and pus.
Once your three inches of breath are cut off, gone like a dream,
Your dead body, bloated and rotten, will be a hill of maggots.
What is achieved by fame and glory in this human world?
Once you close your eyes, all becomes deepest darkness.
Your beloved wife and children are birds sharing a forest, 6
On the road to the Yellow Springs you will not meet them.
If you did not cultivate while alive, your despair is in vain,
Once you’re dead, you will not hear of the empty banquets.
A golden casket, a silver chest: buried under green grass,
Sacrifices in spring and autumn: expressing earthly love.
Each and every one wants to play a tune of a thousand years,
Each and every one craves and schemes to live to a hundred.
Alas, the heart of the people of this world is never satisfied,
But on the day death arrives, all one’s affairs come to an end.
Even a skeleton is still more aware of its true buddha-nature,
For a skeleton will to the end never marry another skeleton.
Today I have seen through the outward casing of the skeleton:
It’s dismissed, it’s sent away, and I am now my own master!’’
The princess said: ‘‘The oceans may dry out and Mt. Tai may collapse,
but my dedication to the Way will only progress and never
waver. Right now the moment has arrived to forget my body for
the sake of the Dharma. How could I have any feelings of craving
or fear? You are not going to tell me that this body will not die and
that we will stay forever in this world? My only wish is to die
quickly so I may transcend the three worlds and escape from the
six ways. All human beings are from birth the most spiritually gifted
[of all sentient creatures]. When people are deluded they are called
the profane, but as soon as one is enlightened he becomes a buddha.
All who sacrifice body and heart achieve buddhahood. But if I
would marry a husband, I would suffer his restrictions and impositions.
What would be the sense of that! You all will have to experience
the hour of your death. At that time there is no one on whom
you can rely, and there is not a place where you can hide. You have
to practice cultivation from the earliest moment so as to ferry yourself
across [the sea of suffering]. That’s the only way to avoid the
sufferings of hell!’’ When the imperial concubines heard her words,
they were dumbstruck and didn’t know what to say, and feeling
downcast they left.