Garuda by Jocelyn Weimar

1. Fortunate kindred spirited sons: Listen carefully![1]

The victors[2] of the three times, past, present and future, without exception
Give teachings of the dharma-heap, uncountable teachings and
Although unfathomable and immeasurable, stretching till the infinite borders of the universe,
5. What they teach has in fact only one purpose:
To understand the mind that you are yourself.[3] Anything else, whatever, the conquerors do not talk about.

As an example: when the one root of the trunk all of a sudden is chopped off,
The uncountable leaves and twigs wither.
Likewise: when the one root of the dualistic mind is chopped off
10. Samsaric duality and all projections of the mind cease to exist.[4] Or: darkness in an empty house, although maintained for a thousand years,
Is cleared by a light, instantly.
Likewise: in the moment of complete understanding of the luminous clarity[5] of your own mind,
All sins and delusions you have accrued since many eons are purified.
15. Or: like the brilliant light, sun’s true essence,
Can’t get obscured during eons of darkness, black as soot,
Likewise: the luminosity, mind’s true essence,
Can’t get obscured during eons of delusional thinking.
Or: like the nature of the blue sky is beyond shape and colour,
20. And white or black clouds do not taint it,
Likewise the nature of the mind, he is beyond shape and colour, so
Virtues and sins, bad and good, do not spoil him.

But: although butter is already present in milk,
Only proper churning will produce it.
25. Likewise: the wanderers[6] through Samsara all have the seed of buddha-hood,
But they will not awake, unless they have gained experience through practice.
This is the core: when this is internalised through practice,
They all are liberated, whatever their capacities,
Clever or stupid, it does’t matter.
Even a herdsman is liberated in realising this.

30. When you have understood the luminous clarity,
This direct perception of your own mind, seeing-as-it-is,
You are not in need of the hollow rhetoric of so-called experts,
Because having tasted molasses,
You are not in need of having the taste of sugar explained to you.

He who does not understand this lives in delusion, although he might be a man of learning.
35. For, even though he may have become an expert in the Nine Vehicles,[7] He is like a narrator of tales from far away, what he has not seen,
And for him Buddha-hood is even further than the sky is from the earth.[8]

When you do not understand that this luminous clarity truly is your own mind,
During eons you may act according to the dharma rules,
40. And forever you may exercise patience,
But by this you will not rise from your place in Samsara.

Therefore you have to investigate the mind diligently.

Try another Song?

To Flight of the Garuda Song 9
To Flight of the Garuda Song 15
To Flight of the Garuda Song 17
To The Garuda