Buddha Earth Witness Mudra, statue, gold over wood, San Francisco International Airport, California, USA

Buddha Earth Witness Mudra, statue, gold over wood, San Francisco International Airport, California, USA, a photo by Wonderlane on Flickr.

These are the final days of the genuine Dharma taught by the Buddha. The Buddha’s teachings will continue to exist in their natural condition for just over a thousand more years.

I have talked about the good teachings
Of our most loving teacher and the Arhats.
Other people, learned authors of explanatory works,
Land Lords, translators,
And people accustomed to good sayings
Have already,
As if they were the sun,
Shone forth these teachings without error.

Few people talk about the Sage’s words these days.
When they do talk about them
It’s only because they want attention.
Most people hate the teachings.

Some people get into [the teachings],
But they prefer to denigrate them.
They turn against what they have studied.
They turn the teachings,
Which are better than gold,
Into antiques.
These people are tortured by emotional illness,
But they don’t use medicine.
Kye Ma’o, the pain is really frightening.
Kye Ma’o, what a waste.
We reach out to give medicine,
But we can’t do it all.
We have to keep trying
To reveal the purpose of this life
For what it is.

Presently,
The gardens in central [India] are growing heretics.
A lot of the teachings in this snowy mountain range
Are mere similitudes of the Dharma.
The evil doing kings in these frontiers
Are destroying the libraries.
Kyi Hud! They are destroying the teachings.
I’m starting to get serious, right now.

I say these things, but very few listen to me.
In an effort to cut through my exacerbating this
In my own mind
I have quit with talking
So that I can just do this.
It might not turn out to help everyone,
But I want to contemplate the good teachings for myself.
If a few people hear what I say it will help them.
These are the final days of the teachings.
This is what I am doing in them.

By the merit there is in composing this
Admission at the Dharma’s Gate
May living beings enter it!
May they reach the peaks of the tenth level!

The layman Sonam Tsemo, whose intellect is difficult to fathom, wrote this work: Admission at Dharma’s Gate. It is well written. It is finished.

WORDS OF THE SAKYA MASTERS
Translation from the Tibetan by Chris Wilkinson