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

62 ThePreciousScrollofIncenseMountain,Part1
If one calmly thinks of all the affairs of past and of present,
Even a reputation that rises to heaven turns out to be empty.
Day in, day out their thunderous shouts wish you myriad
years—
When King Yama summons you, not one makes himself heard!
A garden hut is a better abode than your palace of yellow gold,
A hempen cassock is a smarter dress than a gown of brocade.
Merit, fame, and power wane: snow melting in boiling water!
Grasp the opportunity to change your ways: practice cultivation.
As long as you still have your breath, you can widely employ it,
But on the day Impermanence arrives, all affairs come to an end. 39
The civil arts of a literary scholar will all have been in vain,
The martial skills of a military man will have been useless too.
Even though your name was listed on the golden placard,
Your brocade gown and jade belt will have become empty.
I’d rather practice cultivation in the clear breeze by moonlight;
If you study the Way after you get old, it’s hard to achieve the fruit.
If I married a prince consort, it would be like being buried alive
In the prison of the earth, with not a single means of escape.
I know that my two sisters are marrying a prince consort,
But my only ambition in this life is to achieve buddhahood.
Whether a civil official or a military officer—I want neither,
Because what I want with all my heart is to become a nun!’’
Marvelous Goodness replied to her father: ‘‘Even though there may
be loyal servants and filial sons, brave volunteers and human men,
how can they replace you in the hour of one’s death? My heart is
pained by the sufferings of hell. Our attachment to life is the cause,
and our attachment to desires is the condition. Cause and condition
intermingle, and we die ten thousand times to be reborn ten thousand
times, changing our head and replacing our face as we wander
and roam on the six roads without any hope of deliverance. 40 But as
soon as one cuts off attachments and desires, one can achieve buddhahood,
and thereby able to vastly manifest [different bodily forms
throughout the universe], one can meet [the needs] and bring benefit
to all sentient beings so that we all together ascend the shore of
Enlightenment!’’
A spark from stone, a flash of lightning: it’s hard to set a term,
So start cultivating as quick as hell, as early here is still too late.