On to Lines of Experience Verse 11
Zealous and pure devotion with your thoughts and actions to your Guru,
who shows you the path to Enlightenment, when properly done is the root
cause resulting in the fulfillment of whatever good aims you may be pursuing
for this and future lives (18).
(Once you have seen that this is so and you have already accepted the Dharma
by taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha (19)),
you should then please your Guru by offering him your practice of complete
obedience concerning the path to Enlightenment, which you would not abandon
even at the cost of your life.
I, who actually have traveled a true path that leads to Enlightenment,
have had the experience of doing just that. If you would also seek Liberation,
please cultivate Guru-devotion in this same way.
The human form endowed with the eight liberties for Dharma study (20)
is superior to the wish-fulfilling gem (21),
(for although nagas (22)
wear such gems around their neck, they are of no use to them for attaining
Liberation from samsara. Only the attainment of a suitable human form presents
the opportunity of having a vehicle with which it is possible to reach
Enlightenment. Moreover,) it is only this one time (23)
that you obtain a form like this. Such a form, so difficult to acquire,
(affords you an opportunity) that can easily be lost, passing in a flash
like lightning in the sky. Thinking about how (easily this can happen at
any time), and understanding that all activities of the samsaric world
are like threshed husks of grain (in that worldly activities do not employ
the human body for its essential value as an instrument for the attainment
of Enlightenment), you must try to take advantage of the essential (significance
of having obtained such a body) at all times, day and night.
I, who actually have traveled a true path that leads to Enlightenment,
have had the experience of doing just that. If you would also seek Liberation,
please cultivate yourself in the same way.
