The Changeless Nature

2 The Changeless Naturewherever possible. Priority was accorded to the task of not addinganything to the original terms employed and therefore poetical gracehad to wait its opportunity in the ante-room of chance. The mainreason for using rhyme at all was to create phrases that might stick inthe memory that much more easily.In this century during which Buddhism is appearing in the westernworld, there will surely be many efforts to translate the scriptures. Asthe decades go by, the better will replace the worse and I look forwardto the appearance of a poetic translation worthy of Maitreya andAsanga. In this work, the versification follows the Sanskrit originaland for this I am indebted to Jikido Takasaki's researches. Inanticipation of the introduction of several Sanskrit terms, which haveno direct equivalent in English, into the English language, no efforthas been made to translate them here and the reader is asked to bearwith a handful of common terms, such as buddha and bodhisattva,until they become familiar concepts.My respect and thanks to Dharma-Arya the Venerable Akong Rinpoche,whose kindness has inspired and made possible this edition.Kenneth Holmes,Kagyu Samye-Ling,August 1985.