Other translations:

The Authentic Way to Approach Dharma

All you fortunate genuine people, I'd like to ask you this:

This life is deceiving, don't you understand?
And material things are illusion, don't you understand?
And samsaric existence is peace, don't you understand?
And all happiness is a dream, don't you understand?
Criticism and praise are echoes, don't you understand?
Appearances are your mind, don't you understand?
And your own mind is Buddha, don't you understand?
And Buddha is Dharmakaya, don't you understand?
Dharmakaya is Dharmata, don't you understand?
And when you realize this, whatever appears is mind.
Throughout the day and night, look at your mind.
When you look at your mind, you don't see anything.
When you don't see anything, let go and relax.
If you ask for my opinion about Mahamudra:
It's just mind's basic nature, and nothing more than that.
The knower cannot be found—settle right into that.
Equipoise and post-meditation are inseparable,
So I don't have any levels or stages of meditation.
Whatever it is that's appearing, it is empty of itself,
And cling to it or not, its emptiness does not change.

With certainty in view, I taste the unborn,
And realization follows in meditation,
So practices of karmamudra, nadi, prana and bindu,
Reciting secret mantras and meditating on devas,
Abiding in Brahma's four levels, and other practices
Are just methods for entering the practice of Mahayana,
And if you meditate on them with clinging and fixation,
You can try and try, but you won't abandon attachment and anger's root.
So it's better to know all appearances are just your own mind,
And mind itself is empty, that's what you should know.
When you join this understanding with your experiences,
Then ethics, offering, and so forth—all the positive deeds
Are, without exception, perfectly complete.             (x 2)


Sung by Milarepa to the teacher Shakya Guna to advice him not to be attached to the fame, comforts and hapiness of this life, and not to fixate on conventional terms. Tibetan page 300.
Under the guidance of Dechen Rangdrol, translated by Ari Goldfield, Karma Shedrup Ling, Siggerudvein, Ski, Norway, June 1, 2003. Translation copyright 2012, Ari Goldfield.