Advice

Here, "lost" renders mdo med, which can connote, "lost," "directionless," etc. Here we use the more personal pronoun "you" instead of the third person plural in the Tibetan "these [who]" ('di tsho).  ↩

"Don't procrastinate" renders ha'o mi byed, which is not found in lexicons, but can be inferred to mean some form of "don't take it easy." Ha is often onomatopoeic and relates to laughing or the sound of exhalation.  ↩

"A lion…who lacks qualities" renders gnyis med seng ge—lit. "lion without both (learning and accomplishment or worldly and spiritual qualities)." This seems to be an expression for a practitioner who has not developed deep and authentic knowledge, meditation, and conduct. Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo uses the same phrase in his lo rgyus shel gyi phreng ba, where he says, bshad sgrub gnyis med seng ge'i gzugs brnyan gyis ("The [false] appearance of a lion who is without either study or practice…"). The point seems to be that a lion's lifestyle looks a bit like that of a yogi since it stays alone in the mountains; however, it does not have the qualities of learning and meditation that a yogi should have.  ↩

Corrupting gifts" (dkor) is an important term for money and wealth offered to a lama with the expectation of spiritual services in return. Such exchanges can be extremely insidious, trapping the lama in karmically heavy responsibilities. Tulku Arik famously stayed in strict retreat for most of his life to avoid such entanglements.  ↩

The Tibetan says more literally but awkwardly in English "connected by food and clothing and the like," presumably referring to the animals one harms by eating meat and wearing animal products. These two lines seem to be generally related to the teaching of Right Livelihood—the attention a Buddhist owes to their economic behavior.  ↩

The poem's terse six-syllable meter make the grammar of this passage opaque, as no clear relation between lines one and two is signaled by a particle. In such cases, usually apposition must be supposed, suggesting the two lines are restatements of the same idea. In line two,"heavy karma bearing down…" renders rang ltag 'ong las che ba—lit., own+neck+come+karma/action+big. This has the sense of karmic consequence breathing down one's neck or nipping at one's heels in ominous pursuit.  ↩

The Tibetan says most literally "the morning after the time of death." In context, this seems to suggest the period after the bardo of the moment of death ('chi kha'i bar do) in which the elements of one's body go through stages of dissolution, and the stage is set for consciousness to enter to bardo of dharmatā (chos nyid kyi bar do), which is referred to in the following lines. The expression "tear at your chest in despair" has the elements chest+fingernails+not+put, which should be understood figuratively here since it is referring to the disembodied or partially disembodied consciousness about to transition from the bardo of the moment of death to the bardo of dharmatā and then the bardo of becoming (srid pa'i bar do).  ↩

A reference to the bardo of dharmatā in which the three kāyas appear to the disembodied consciousness and provide an opportunity for liberation through their recognition.  ↩

The "three ways of not being ashamed of oneself" (ma khrel gsum) are associated with Yoga Tantra samaya commitments and are here related to the meditative confidence a practitioner should have when entering the bardo of dharmatā. They are: (1) to not be ashamed in the presence of the yidam deity, (2) to not be ashamed in the presence of one’s master and spiritual companions, and (3) to not be ashamed in the presence of one’s own mind. [TC 247]  ↩