King Trisong Deutsen offered a mandala of gold

King Trisong Deutsen offered a mandala of gold to the great master Padmakara and said: How amazing! Great master, I beg you to teach the method of practice that shows that there is no conflict between the lesser and the greater vehicles.

The master replied: Emaho, great king, it is rare to repeatedly be born as a king in a perfect human body endowed with merit, so it is important to govern the kingdom of Dharma.

You may keep a strict rule regarding mundane activities but it brings harm to all beings, so it is important to train in bodhichitta.

You may cherish this illusory body with great fondness, but the time of death lies uncertain. Your white hairs and wrinkles are omens of death, so it is important to feel weariness and exert yourself in the remedies, the practice of Dharma.

The cause for entering the path of liberation is to keep a sense of shame and modesty, shunning misdeeds, so it is important to observe the vows and precepts without impairing them.

Sentient beings are the object of compassion, so be free from prejudice towards new acquaintances. It is important to bring all of your retinue, subjects and relatives to the Dharma and to support them.

One can never accumulate enough things such as food and wealth, so it is important to use them for the sake of the Dharma without letting them be wasted by becoming food for enemies and ghosts.

Without faith and devotion one does not receive the essence of the oral instructions, so it is important to honor and serve the lineage masters with faith, devotion and trust.

It is the master who shows you the wisdom of buddhahood present within yourself, so it is important to request the oral instructions from a master endowed with the hearing lineage and then put them into practice.

You don’t receive the blessings when you let your body, speech and mind remain ordinary, so it is important to concentrate your body, speech and mind on being deity, mantra and the innate state beyond concepts.

If you pursue ordinary deeds your body, speech and mind will run wild in worldly experience, so it is important to skillfully give up bad company and keep to mountain retreats.

Your parents, brothers, sons and consorts are all like passing travelers. You will not remain together, so it is important to give up attachment and refrain from female company, the root of samsara.

All the achievements, honor and fame of this life are the cause for distraction and obstacles, so it is important to give up preoccupation with this life and completely renounce the eight worldly concerns.

All your present experiences, the manifold feelings of pleasure and pain, are superficial and unreal, so it is important to recognize that all that appears and exists is devoid of independent existence, just like a magical apparition or a dream.

The mind is like an untamed horse running wild wherever it pleases, so it is important to always place mindfulness and conscientiousness on guard.

The nature of your mind, which cannot be pinpointed, is itself innate, self-existing and original wakefulness; it is important to look into yourself and recognize your nature.

When grasping hold of the mind it does not remain, so it is important to relax body and mind from within while leaving the attention in its natural state.

All tampering and fabrication is your thoughts’ double delusion, so it is important to relax rampant thought activity while letting it be liberated in its natural state.

All effort and attempts to accomplish are tied by the rope of ambition, so it is important to allow [your thinking] to be cleared in itself, free from effort and ambition.

You do not attain buddhahood while harboring hope or fear, so it is important to resolve that the empty and nonarising nature of mind is beyond a buddhahood to be attained or a samsara to fall into.

Emaho, listen, king! If you practice like this you will not have any conflict between the greater or lesser vehicles, between Mantra or the Philosophical vehicles, or the causal and resultant vehicles, so, great king, keep that in mind.

At the end of this age, great king, you will cut the stream of rebirth and bring samsara to an end. The original wakefulness of buddhahood will dawn within you and you will unceasingly accomplish the welfare of beings. Conceal these teachings as precious treasures!

Hearing this advice on the union of development and completion, the king was overjoyed and made numerous prostrations and circumambulations and scattered gold dust.

This was the oral instruction on important advice that contradicts none of the general vehicles.

Seal of treasure.
Seal of concealment.
Seal of entrustment.

Padmasambhava - Advice From the Lotus Born. - Rangjung Yeshe Publications.