The four reminders (the four ordinary preliminaries)

(1) This human existence with all its freedoms and endowments is extremely difficult to attain.
It enables one to accomplish the meaning of one’s being.
Having attained such a precious existence,
If one does not accomplish benefit at this time,
How could one achieve this perfect treasure in the future?

(2) The three realms are as impermanent as autumn clouds.
The births and deaths of beings are like a dance performance.
Flashing by like lightning in the sky, the life span of beings
Races swiftly like a waterfall over a steep mountain.

(3) When the time comes for even a king to depart,
Neither his riches nor loved ones, relatives, and friends will follow.
Wherever beings abide, wherever they go,
Karma alone follows them like a shadow.

(4) Overpowered by existence, craving, and ignorance,
All beings—humans, gods, and beings of the three lower realms—
Circle unwittingly in the five realms of existence
Like the spinning of a potter’s wheel.
The three realms blaze with the sufferings of old age and sickness,
And there is no protector from the raging flames of death.
Born into cyclic existence, beings dwell continually in ignorance,
Circling like bees trapped in a jar.

Translated by Jetsün Dechen Paldrön and edited by the Dharmasri Translation Group, Baltimore, 2001

Source: Khandro Rinpoche. This Precious Life: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on the Path to Enlightenment. Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala Publications, 2003.