Milarepa was Tibetan Jogin, poet and great student of Master Marpa.

The mantra is from the kagyu Milarepa ritual. Milarepa – His Teachings Milarepa Karma and Samsara

“This is indeed very helpful to my mind,” commented the physician, “but please preach still further for me on the truth of Karma and the suffering of birth, old age, illness and death, thus enabling me to gain a deeper conviction in Buddhadharma.” In response, Jetsun sang a song –

Please listen to these words,

Dear friends here assembled.

When you are young and vigorous

You ne’er think of old age coming,

But it approaches slow and sure

Like a seed growing underground.

When you are strong and healthy

You ne’er think of sickness coming,

But it descends with sudden force

Like a stroke of lightning.

When involved in worldly things

You ne’er think of death’s approach.

Quick it comes like thunder

Crashing round your head.

Sickness, old age and death

Ever meet each other

As do hands and mouth.

Waiting for his prey in ambush,

Yama is ready for his victim,

When disaster catches him.

Sparrows fly in single file. Like them,

Life, Death and Bardo follow one another.

Never apart from you

Are these three ‘visitors’.

Thus thinking, fear you not

Your sinful deeds?

Like strong arrows in ambush waiting,

Rebirth in Hell, as Hungry Ghost, or Beast

Is (the destiny) waiting to catch you.

If once into their traps you fall,

Hard will you find it to escape.

Do you not fear the miseries

You experienced in the past?

Surely you will feel much pain

If misfortunes attack you?

The woes of life succeed one another

Like the sea’s incessant waves –

One has barely passed, before

The next one takes its place.

Until you are liberated, pain

and pleasure come and go at random

Like passers-by encountered in the street.

Pleasures are precarious,

Like bathing in the sun;

Transient, too, as snowstorms

Which come without warning.

Remembering these things,

Why not practise the Dharma?

via Milarepa – YouTube.