A free and resourceful and fully equipped human body
That's freed of the eight unfree states is not easy to get

To get to the heart of this free and resourceful occasion
And get past the pleasures of life is not easy to do

To see what is wrong with phenomena of samsara
And accomplish nirvana is not something easy to do

Although one might practice true Dharma extensively
The purest conducive conditions don't easily join

A lama who masters instructions and scriptures and logic
And has a compassionate heart is not easy to find

A student with faith who does not get fed up or exhausted
And is able to actually practice, not easy to find

A practice environment blessed with the proper conditions
Free of all hazard and fear is not easy to find

Friends with the same motivation and way to apply it
Whose thinking6 accords with your own are not easy to find

A body that's able to work with its pain and its illness
And do all you bid it is not something easy to find

Although you might get every one of these factors together
To practice with one-pointed mind is not easy to do

These are nine things which are difficult factors to come by
They're difficult, but— it's these difficult things you must do

Under the guidance of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, translated and arranged by Jim Scott, Cha’n Centre, Tenerife, Canary Islands, July 1995, Tibetan page 285. Translation copyright 2012, Jim Scott