The Four Thoughts that Change the Mind

LAMA KYEN! LAMA KYEN! LAMA KYEN!

O Lama! O Lama! O Lama!

From the blossoming lotus of faith at the center of my heart,

sole protector, gracious Lama, arise.

From the torment of harsh karma and defilements,

for my protection against miserable circumstances,

Dwell as the ornament of the Chakra of Great Bliss on the crown of my head.

Let there arise in me all recollection and mindfulness.

FOUR THOUGHTS THAT CHANGE THE MIND

1. Fortunate Human Life Difficult to Obtain

At this time, (1) hell, (2) hungry ghosts, (3) animals,

(4) long-lived gods, (5) barbarous people, (6) people with wrong views,

(7) a world in which no Buddha has appeared, and (8) stupid people

I have gained freedom by being liberated from these eight kinds of bondage.

(1) Being born as a human being, (2) possessing all the faculties, (3) born in a central land,

(4) not reverting to wrong-living, (5) having faith in Buddha’s doctrine:

I possess the five personal endowments. (1) The Buddha has appeared,

(2) He expounded the Dharma, (3) it is remaining, and (4) I have entered it,

(5) I have been accepted by a holy teacher: the five circumstantial endowments.

I have gained the opportunity of possessing all these factors.

But many uncertain circumstances will waste this life,

and I shall reach the next world (take rebirth).

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong and inferior path.

Gracious Lama, who is not different from them, please pay heed to me.

1.1. The Difficulty of Obtaining Fortunate Human Birth

At this time if I do not take advantage of this fortunate life,

afterwards I will not regain the basis for achieving liberation.

If I exhaust my merits in this life of happy beings,

after death I will wander in the lower realms as an inferior being.

I will not know what is virtue and what is evil, and will not hear the sound of the Dharma.

I will not meet a virtuous friend, and this is a great disaster.

If you think about the different numbers of sentient beings

(You can see that) to obtain human life is just barely possible.

Also we can see human beings doing evil, unreligious acts.

Those who act according to religion are (as numerous) as stars (seen) during the day.

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong and inferior path.

Gracious Lama, who is not different from them, please pay heed to me.

1.2. Eight Conditions of Bondage

Even if I obtain the jewel-island of the human body,

a good birth with an evil mind

is not a proper basis for earning liberation,

especially (1) to be caught by harmful influences, and (2) the arousing of the five poisons,

(3) disaster brought by bad Karma, and (4) distraction by laziness,

(5) being enslaved by others, (6) Dharma practice for mere protection from danger, (7) pretending to practice the Dharma,

(8) being foolish: the eight kinds of bondage from adventitious circumstances.

When these obstructions of Dharma occur to me,

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong path and inferior path.

Gracious Lama, who is not different from them, please pay heed to me.

1.3. Eight Kinds of Mental Bondage

(1) Having little revulsion, (2) lacking the jewel of faith,

(3) being bound by the lasso of desire and craving, (4) crude behavior,

(5) not refraining from sinful acts, (6) living by wrongful means,

(7) the precepts damaged, (8) the vows torn apart:

The eight kinds of mental bondage.

When these obstructions of Dharma occur to me,

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong and inferior path.

Gracious Lama, who is not different from them, please pay heed to me.

2. Impermanence of Life 

At present I am not tormented by suffering and illness,

I have not come under the control of others, such as being a slave.

So while I have this opportunity of independence,

if I waste this fortunate human life by idleness,

no question of retinue, wealth, or relations,

but this very body which I cherished

will be removed from bed and taken to a deserted place,

to be eaten by foxes, vultures and dogs. At that time

in the Bardo I will feel terrible fear.

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong and inferior path.

Gracious Lama, who is not different from them, please pay heed to me.

3. Karma: The Cause and Result of Action

The result of evil and virtuous karma will follow after me.

4. The Suffering of Samsara

4.1. The Suffering of Hell Beings

Especially if I am born in the realm of hell,

(1) on a ground of burning iron, (2) my body and head will be cut by instruments,

(3) split by saws and (4) crushed by burning hammers.

(5) I will cry for help, suffocating in a doorless (burning) iron house.

(6) Pierced by burning spears and (7) boiled in molten iron.

(8) I will burn in extremely hot fire: the eight (hot hells).

Amid snow mountains and freezing cold water,

in a place of terrible distress and fear, I will be blasted by blizzards,

beaten by very cold winds, my flesh will have

(1) blisters, (2) glaring wounds.

(3) I will bewail without ceasing, and

(4) by these feelings of unbearable suffering,

like a sick and dying man whose strength is exhausted,

(5) I will experience gasping, clenching of teeth, and (6) the cracking of the skin,

(7) flesh emerging from the wounds, (8) broad cracks of the skin: the eight (cold hells).

Likewise I shall experience being cut on a field of razors,

my body cut to pieces in a forest of swords;

trapped in disgusting mud; suffering in an expanse of unfordable hot ashes:

The sub-Hells and the changing Hells.

Trapped in doors, pillars, stoves, ropes, etc

always used and exploited: the scattered Hells.

When the cause of these eighteen hells,

powerful angry thoughts, arises,

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong and inferior path.

Gracious Lama, who is not different from them, please pay heed to me.

4.2. The Suffering of the Hungry Ghosts

In a poor and unpleasant land

where the names of wealth, food, and drink have never been known,

food and drink cannot be found for months and years. The bodies of hungry ghosts

are very feeble, and they are too exhausted to stand up: the three types of Hungry Ghosts.

The cause of their arising is miserliness.

4.3. The Suffering of Animals

In great fear of dying by being eaten by one another.

Exhausted by servitude and ignorant of what is good and bad to do.

Being tormented by endless sufferings,

of which the seed is the darkness of ignorance in which I am wandering.

O Guru (Padmasambhava), turn my mind towards the Dharma.

All-Knowing Lords (Longchenpa & Jigme Lingpa), let me not deviate into any wrong and inferior path.

RECOGNIZING ONE'S OWN FAULTS

I have entered the path of Dharma but do not restrain my wrong conduct.

I have entered the door of the Mahayana, but lack the thought of the benefit of others.

I have received the Four Empowerments but am not practicing the Developing and Perfecting Stages.

O Lama, protect me from this errant path.

Though the view is not realized, one acts in a crazy manner.

Though meditation wavers, clinging to hearsay;

Though one's conduct is wrong, ignoring one's faults;

O Lama, protect me from indifference to Dharma.

Even if death comes tomorrow, hankering after house, clothes and wealth.

Even though youth has long since passed away, lacking renunciation and revulsion.

Although little Dharma has been studied, boasting about one's scholarship.

O Lama, protect me from this ignorance.

Although they lead me into (harmful) circumstances, wishing for entertainments and pilgrimages.

Although staying in solitary places, the ordinary mind remains rigid like a tree.

Talking about discipline but not eradicating desire and hatred.

O Lama, protect me from these eight worldly dharmas.

Let me awaken quickly from this thick sleep.

Swiftly pull me out of this dark prison.