Nyala Pema Dündul

Advice on Abandoning the Eight Worldly Concerns

by Nyala Pema Dündul (1816-1872)

A ho! Listen well, all you fortunate, supreme disciples of excellent karma!

Gain and loss, happiness and unhappiness,
Fame and insignificance, praise and blame—
These are what we call “the eight worldly concerns.”

Those who cling to the duality of good and bad, and feel pleasure and frustration,
Can not even be called practitioners of non-dual self-liberation!
They are bound by the chains of attachment to the eight worldly concerns.

Whatever happens, whether it appears good or bad, pleasurable or painful,
Recognize it to be just like the ten similes of illusion!
And, in a state of perfection, transcending the ordinary mind, and beyond words, thought and description,
Rest in the expanse of the view, beyond the limitations of hope and fear!

This advice on abandoning the eight worldly concerns,
Was put together by the old beggar called Padma,
For a group of students who had requested it repeatedly.

Through this, may my followers, yogis intent upon enlightenment,
Be free from even so much as a single thought
That is deceived by the mara of the eight worldly concerns!

| Translated by Gyurme Avertin and Adam Pearcey, Rigpa Translations, 2013. http://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/nyala-pema-dundul/advice-on-abandoning-the-eight-worldly-concerns, http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Nyala_Pema_D%C3%BCndul