Homage to great compassion.
          Homage to all spiritual masters.
          Homage to the deities of devotion.

          Abandon all doubts and cherish
          exertion for accomplishing the practice.
          Abandon sleepiness, dullness and laziness
          and always exert enthusiastic effort.

5         With recollection, alertness and watchfulness
          always guard every door of the senses.
          Three times during the day and night, again and again
          investigate your mental continuum.
          Proclaim your own faults

10      and seek not mistakes in others.
          Hide your own good qualities
          but proclaim the good qualities of others.
          Reject acquisitions and honours
          and always reject desire for fame.

15      Desire little, be content
          and repay acts of kindness.
          Meditate on love and compassion
          and stabilize the awakening mind.
          Avoid the ten unwholesome actions

20      and always stabilize your faith.
          Conquer anger and arrogance
          and possess a humble mind.
          Avoid wrong livelihoods
          and live a life of truth (dharma).

25      Abandon all worldly possessions
          and be adorned by the gems of superiors.
          Abandon all frivolities
          and abide in solitude.
          Abandon all senseless talk

30      and always control your speech.
          When seeing your master or teacher
          perform services with respect.
          Towards a person having the eye of the doctrine
          and towards sentient beings who are beginners

35      develop the recognition of them as teachers.
          When seeing any sentient beings, develop
          the recognition of them as parents and children.
          Abandon misleading friends
          and rely on virtuous spiritual companions.

40      Abandon minds of anger and unhappiness
          and wherever you go be happy.
          Abandon attachment to everything
          and abide free from attachment.
          Attachment will never procure you a happy rebirth;

45      it kills the life of liberation.
          Wherever you see practices (leading to) happiness,
          always exert effort in them.
          Whatever you have started to do,
          accomplish that very thing first.

50      Do everything well in this way,
          otherwise nothing will be achieved.
          Always be apart from liking evil.
          Whenever a pompous mind arises,
          flatten such arrogance.

55      Recall the teachings of your master.
          When a cowardly mind arises,
          praise the sublimity of the mind.
          Whenever objects of attraction or aversion arise,
          meditate on the emptiness of both;

60      view them as illusions and emanations.
          When hearing any offensive words,
          view them as an echo.
          When your body is afflicted by harm,
          view this as your previous actions.

65      Abide well in solitude, beyond town limits,
          like the corpses of wild game.
          Be by yourself, conceal yourself
          and dwell without attachment.
          Always stabilize (awareness of) your yidam and,

70      whenever laziness or lassitude arise,
          enumerate these faults to yourself
          and feel remorse from your heart.
          If you see others,
          speak calmly and sincerely.

75      Avoid a wrathful and frowning expression
          and always remain cheerful.
          When seeing others, continuously
          be pleased to give without being miserly.
          Discard all jealousy.

80      To protect the mind of another,
          avoid all conflict
          and always have patience.
          Do not be a flatterer or fickle,
          but always be capable of remaining steadfast.

85      Avoid belittling others and
          remain respectful in your manners.
          When giving advice to others,
          have compassion and thoughts for their benefit.
          Do not disparage spiritual doctrines

90      and be intent on whichever you admire.
          Through the door of the ten dharma practices,
          exert an effort throughout both day and night.
          Whatever virtues are collected during the three times,
          dedicate them for the unsurpassable great awakening.

95      Distribute your merit for all sentient beings.
          Always offer the seven-limbed prayer
          and great aspirations for the path.
          If you act in this way, the two accumulations
          of merit and wisdom will be accomplished.

100    Also, with the eradication of the two obscurations,
          thus fulfilling the purpose of having gained a human form,
          unsurpassable full awakening will be achieved.
          The gem of faith, the gem of ethics,
          the gem of generosity, the gem of hearing,

105    the gem of consideration,
          the gem of shame and the gem of intelligence:
          these are the seven supreme gems.
          These seven gems are never exhausted.
          Do not tell this to non-humans.

110    Examine your speech when amidst many people.
          Examine your mind when living alone.

This has been composed by the Indian master Dipamkara Shrijnana, the Glorious
Illuminator, the Essence of Primordial Awareness.

Translated from the Tibetan by Sherpa Tulku and Brian Beresford, for Wisdom
Publications, London.