E ma ho!
Now you have got what's so hard to get
The precious freedoms and advantages
This one life alone means so little
So why be so obsessed with it?
If to do some good for yourself and others too
You listen to Dharma, and then reflect
Then you are so fortunate–
This is what it means to be lucky.
This life is quite impermanent
It will definitely disappear
You think everything will stay just as it is–
How to come out from this confusion into the clear?
Cut the root of samsara's confused appearances
By meditating on the meaning of what you've heard
If you do this, you are so fortunate--
This is what it means to be lucky.
If you do good, you'll be happy
If you do bad, you'll suffer pain.
Think well about how karma works
And you'll gain certainty that it's an unfailing law.
If then you act in a rightful way
Doing what you should do and giving up the rest
Then you are so fortunate–
This is what it means to be lucky.
The nature of samsara is the three sufferings
When you know this in your heart, and it's not just something
you say
And so you can free yourself and others from samsara's ocean
You cut off suffering right at the root
If you can do that, then you are so fortunate–
This is what it means to be lucky.
Meditating on impermanence
Cuts off attachment to this life
Thinking over and over of samsara's suffering
Makes you realize how worthless samsara is
This gives you the determination
To strive for nirvana's liberation
If you do that, you are so fortunate--
This is what it means to be lucky.
Knowing samsara's cause is belief in 'I'
You know its remedy to be selflessness
So if you apply scripture and reasoning
To gain certainty that there is no self
And if you meditate on selflessness, you're so fortunate–
This is what it means to be lucky.
All beings have been your father and mother
Knowing this you train your mind in love and compassion
This makes you stop worrying so much
About your own comfort and happiness
When you give rise to supreme bodhicitta–
This is what it means to be lucky.
Everything in samsara and nirvana,
Without exception, is neither one nor many
So all phenomena are empty of essence
And knowing that, if you meditate on profound emptiness
Then you are so fortunate–
This is what it means to be lucky.
Meditating on emptiness cuts the root of existence
Love and compassion free you from the extreme of peace
When you bring together wisdom and means
That are stuck in neither existence nor peace's extremes
Then you are so fortunate–
This is what it means to be lucky.
When you've made the Mahayana path your sturdy base
And you know so excellently
The way that the totality of appearance
Is an infinite expanse of purity
Then the four empowerments
Will ripen your continuum
When you practice profound creation and completion–
This is what it means to be lucky.
The fruit of this creation and completion
Must ripen at the appropriate time
This depends on your pure vision
Of your vajra brothers and sisters--it must increase!
So if pure vision dawns in your mind–
This is what it means to be lucky.
Another reason you might be lucky–
The freedoms and resources, this excellent base
Is hard to find, and what's harder than that
Is using it to practice Dharma correctly
So if you are on the path of correct practice–
This is what it means to be lucky.
Knowing what it means to be lucky
Day and night, without distraction
In order to accomplish great benefit
For the teachings and for all beings
May all of us practice
The Dharma of the lucky ones.
On December 27, 1997, in the Garden of Translation near the
Great Stupa of Boudhanath, Nepal, this was spoken
extemporaneously by the one only called "Khenpo," Tsultrim
Gyamtso. Translated by Ari Goldfield.