[1] They are useless in the sense meant by Milarepa when he came to
realize that human life ought never to be frittered away in the
spiritually profitless doings of this world. {See Tibet's Great Yogi
Milarepa, pp. 176-7, 179-80.} The ten aphorisms of this series
having been unintentionally omitted from our Tibetan manuscript
by the scribe, we have substituted for it an adaptation of our own,
based upon the doctrine of the worthlessness of worldly actions,
as thus enunciated by Milarepa, and upon which this category of "The
Ten Useless Things" is based.
(1) Our body being illusory and transitory, it is useless to
give over-much attention to it.
(2) Seeing that when we die we must depart empty-handed
and on the morrow after our death our corpse is expelled
from our own house, it is useless to labor and to suffer
privation in order to make for oneself a home in this world.
(3) Seeing that when we die our descendants [if spiritually
unenlightened] are unable to render us the least assistance,
it is useless for us to bequeath to them worldly [rather than
spiritual] riches, even out of love. [1]
[1] To fritter away the precious moments of life in heaping up the
perishable goods of this world, thinking thereby to benefit oneself
and one's family, is unwise. One's time on Earth ought to be given
to the winning of those riches which are imperishable and capable of
assisting one both in living, and in dying. It is the science of
accumulating riches of this character which parents should bequeath
to their children and not worldly riches merely intensify and prolong
their possessors' slavery to sangsaric existence. This precept is
emphasized by the fifth and sixth precepts, which follow.
(4) Seeing that when we die we must go on our way alone
and with kinsfolk or friends, it is useless to have devoted
time [which ought to have been dedicated to the winning of
Enlightenment] to their humoring and obliging, or in showering
loving affection upon them. [1]
[1] Time when devoted to kinsfolk and friends should be employed
not merely for the sake of showing them proper courtesy and loving
affection, but chiefly for the purpose of setting them upon the Path
of the Great Deliverance, whereby each living being is realized to be
one's relative. All conventional social relationships on the human
plane being illusory, it is useless for a yogin to dissipate the
precious moments of this incarnate existence solely on their account.
(5) Seeing that our descendants themselves are subject to
death and that whatever worldly goods we may bequeath to
them are certain to be lost eventually, it is useless to make
bequeaths of the things of this world.
(6) Seeing that when death comes one must relinquish
even one's own home, it is useless to devote life to the acquisition
of worldly things.
(7) Seeing that unfaithfulness to the religious vows will
result in one's going to the miserable states of existence, it is
useless to have entered the Order if one lives not a holy life.
(8) To have heard and thought about the Doctrine and not
practiced it and acquired spiritual powers to assist you at the
moments of death is useless.
(9) It is useless to have lived, even for a very long time,
with a spiritual preceptor if one is lacking in humility and
devotion and thus unable to develop spiritually.
(10) Seeing that all existing and apparent phenomena are
ever transient, changing, and unstable, and more especially
that the worldly life affords neither reality nor permanent
gain, it is useless to have devoted oneself to the profitless
doings of this world rather than to the seeking of Divine
Wisdom.
These are The Useless Things.
