Mind, why do you protect this body, appropriating it as your own? It is really separate from you, what good is it to you? Oh fool, if you do not consider as your own a pure wooden statue, why are you guarding this foul machine composed of impurities? First, with your own intellect, peel off this sheath of skin, and with the knife of wisdom loosen the flesh from the skeleton. Breaking the bones, look inside at the marrow and examine for yourself, "where is the essence here?" If searching carefully in this way, you do not see an essence here, then say why you are still protecting the body today. If you would not eat it, as impure as it is, and if you would not drink the blood not suck out the entrails, then what will you do with the body? However, it is proper to guard it for the sake of feeding the vultures and the jackets. This wretched body of humans is an instrument for action. Even though you protect it so, merciless death will snatch the body away and give it to the vultures. What will you do then?
You do not give clothing and such to a servant if you think he will not stay. The body will eat and pass away. Then why do you waste yourself? Therefore, mind, upon giving the body its wages, now serve your own needs, because not everything earned by a laborer should be given to him. Consider the body as a ship because it is the basis of coming and going. Set the body in motion at your will in order to accomplish the welfare of sentient beings. One who has become self-controlled in that way should always have a smiling face. One should give up frowning and grimacing, be the first to greet, and be a friend to the world. One should not inconsiderately and noisily throw around chairs and the like. One should not pound on the door, and one should always delight in silence. The crane, the cat, or the thief, moving silently and covertly, achieves its desired goal. A sage should always move in such a way.
One must respectfully accept the advice of those skilled in directing others and providing unsolicited aide. One should always be a pupil of everyone. One should express one's appreciation for all good words. Having seen someone engaging in virtue, one should cheer him on with praises. One should speak of other's good qualities in their absence and relate them again with satisfaction; and when one's own virtue is discussed, one should consider it as appreciation for good qualities. All endeavors are for the sake of satisfaction, which is difficult to obtain, even by means of wealth. So I will enjoy the pleasure of satisfaction in good qualities diligently accomplished by others. There will be no loss for me in this life, and there will be great happiness in the hereafter. But due to animosities, there is the suffering of aversion and great misery in the hereafter. In a soft and gentle voice one should speak sincere, coherent words that have clear meaning and are agreeable, pleasant to the ear, and rooted in compassion. One should always look straight at sentient beings as if drinking them in with the eyes, thinking, "relying on them alone, I shall attain Buddhahood." Great blessing arises from continuous yearning for the fields of virtues and kindness, and from an antidote with regard to those who are suffering. Skillful and vigorous, one should always do the work oneself. With respect to all works, one should not leave the opportunity to someone else. The perfections of generosity and so forth are progressively more and more lofty. One should not forsake a better one for the sake of a lesser, unless it is with accordance with the bridge of the Bodhisattva way of life. Realizing this, one should always strive for the benefit of others. Even that which is prohibited has been permitted for the compassionate one who foresees benefit. Sharing with those who have fallen into miserable states of existence, with those who have no protector, and with mendicants, one should eat moderately small proportions. Except for the three robes, one should give away everything.
For the sake of an insignificant benefit one should not harm the body that practices the sublime Dharma, for only in this way can one quickly fulfill the hopes of sentient beings.
Therefore, when the thought of compassion is impure, one should not sacrifice one's life, but it should be sacrificed when one's thought is unbiased. Thus, life must not be wasted.
One should not teach the profound and vast Dharma to the disrespectful, to a healthy person wearing a headdress, to a person with an umbrella, a stick, or a weapon, to one whose head is veiled, to those who are inadequate (whose minds are unprepared), nor to women in the absence of a man. One should pay equal respect to inferior and superior Dharmas. One should not expose a vessel of the vast Dharma to an inferior Dharma. Putting aside the Bodhisattva way of life one should not seduce them with Sutras and Mantras.
Flagrantly discarding a tooth-stick or spitting is undesirable and urinating or so forth in water or on land that is useable is contemptible. One should not eat with a full mouth, noisily, or with the mouth wide open. One should not sit with ones legs outstretched, and one should not rub one's hands together. One should not travel, lie, or sit alone with some one else's spouse. After observing and inquiring, one should forsake everything that does not please people. One should not point out anything with one's finger but should respectfully show the way with one's whole right hand. One should not call out to someone and wave one's arms when there is little urgency, instead should snap one's fingers or the like. Otherwise, one could lose composure.