[From a collection of songs translated by Yeshe Gyamtso and published by KTD Publications (2007) as the Treasury of Eloquence: The Songs of Barway Dorje. Posted with permission. Copyright 2007 Karma Triyana Dharmachakra & Peter O’Hearn. All Rights Reserved.]
Composed in a Crowd of Playful Youths While
Wandering Through the Town of Kundröl in
Upper Ga
The sky-jewel of the guru’s blessing
Has appeared in the lotus garden of disciples.
As I have followers it’s time to sing tunes.
I do have some fine honey of instruction.
I’ve heard the good news of a perfect spring.
Beings of the six types are like a herd of beasts.
Spiritual friends are like herders protecting them.
Kleshas are like a mountain blizzard.
The three bad migrations are like talk of wolves.
Herders, cast aside sleep and distraction!
Bring your herds to the pasture of worthy virtue.
There, they can graze on rich grass and flowers.
They will bleat the MANI’s six syllables.
They will lie down in the pasture of well-used leisure
and resources.
Shout the KI and SO of holy dharma.
The unfortunate, like pigs, will flee from you, herders.
They will eat filth, trash, and mud.
They will disturb others with their grunting.
They’ll wander off a precipice in search of wealth.
Stop them with stones of compassion.
They’ll run as a group from the horns of impartiality.
When the sun of dharma rises they’ll run into the rocks.
When the rain of dharma falls they’ll hide in caves.
Their tongues crave the salt of kleshas.
They are filled with restlessness.
Hit them with a stone from the sling of means and knowledge.
When they see the herder they play with him.
They lie and say they’ve seen what they’ve not.
Like infants they don’t understand what they see.
They are in conflict with goodness; such is behavior in
bad times.
They lie and say they’ve heard what they’ve not.
The vulgar don’t understand what they hear.
Benevolent talk is impossible anywhere.
It would be better to recite MANI.
This unaltered child, Barway Dorje,
Lacks the glamour to please everyone.
I’ve made a few benevolent aspirations.
Whether connected to me by good or bad,
Those with faith, pray to me.
Those without faith, denigrate me.
My bodhichitta makes no distinction between these.
I don’t discriminate between good and bad among my parents.
I generated bodhichitta in front of my guru.
Young men and women, sing this song.
It bears the interdependence of liberating this whole land.
I composed this in the midst of a group of young people who were
singing in the town of Kundröl in Upper Ga. Virtue!
