Life is fleeting. Wake up to Impermanence. Prayer by Rigdzin Godem

This beautiful prayer was revealed by the great terton Rigdzin Godem and was an important part of his practice, as it was for C.R. Lama. It is a reminder or encouragement to be aware of impermanence and so be focussed on upturning and emptying samsara.

James has translated it into English at various times in various ways, with the titles Encouragement on ImpermanenceWake up!, Call to impermanence and Wake up to Impermanence.  In Tibetan its title is Mi Tag Gyud Kul (མི་རྟག་རྒྱད་བསྐུལ).

Translated into English as ‘Life is fleeting’ in Dec 2020

Translated into English as ‘Wake up to impermanence’ in 2021

in German

in Hungarian

in Polish

in Portuguese

in Spanish

in Turkish

James has taught the prayer at the Eifel Spring retreat in 2010 and on Zoom, 7-8 May 2022.

It is translated and commented on in the book Being Guru Rinpoche, pp 192-206 and in the book Lotus Source pp 280-285. It is also pp 18-22 in the Padmasambhava Meditation and Recitation booklet.

Share this!