The pure action of my body and my mind
My virtuous deeds and those of all sentient beings
Are like clear streams flowing from the Snow Mountain
--devoid of the defilements of the Three Circles
May they flow freely into the great ocean--
the ocean of the Buddha's Four Bodies.

The pure action of body and mind and the virtuous deeds of sentient beings exist (pure in essence) only if one realizes that the action, the doer, and the receiver (The Three Circles) are alike empty and void. The unimpeded realization of this enables one to merge with (obtain) the Four Bodies of Buddha, or the three-in-one--the Dharmakaya, the Sambhogakaya, the Nirmanakaya, in the all-encompassing (Tantric) Body of Universal Essence.

3

Until I attain the Four Bodies of Buddha,
May even the name of Samsaric miseries sins
Be unheard in all my future lives
While I the happy Dharma-Oceans.

It is a long journey from sentient being to Buddhahood. Even a diligent and well-gifted person, after strenuous efforts, may not attain Buddhahood in one lifetime, even though he depends on Mahamudra which is considered an "Abrupt" or "Sudden Enlightenment" teaching like that of Zen. Therefore, in Buddhist countries, people are made mindful of this and taught to pray for auspicious conditions and favorable environments in their future incarnations.

4

May faith, intelligence, diligence and leisure,
Good Gurus and the essential teachings come to me,
May I practice rightly without stumbling and hindrances--
The blessings of Dharma filling my future lives.

Mahamudra is not just philosophical. Without faith, intelligence, diligence, favorable environment, and skilled teachers there would be no base for its study and practice and no result for sentient beings still existing in the realm of causation.

5

The Holy and Wisdom reckonings liberate me from ignorance
The pith-instructions destroy my dark doubts forever
Through the light from meditation, vividly and unmistakenly, I behold Reality
Increase, O Light of the Three Wisdoms!

Buddha taught that to judge rightly one should rely on the admonishments of the Sutras and on one's own innate reason (the Holy and Wisdom reckonings). By not leaning blindly on just one or the other, one is less likely to err.

Some doubts can be dispelled through intellectual reasoning, but more subtle and deeply intrenched doubts cannot be eliminated through reasoning or study of the Sutras. These can only be destroyed by the "pith-instructions"--the clear, precise, practical instructions given by one's own Guru.