The singer is from Golog, the land of nomads, so when she sings her pronunciation is sometimes a little different. For example, she does not say ‘xiŋ’, tree, but ‘xaŋ’, or instead of ‘sin’, sister, they say ‘shrin’, but this is the nomads’ pronunciation. Remember also the a-jag group, who instead of ‘gnin’ say ‘gnan’, but it is not necessary for you to learn this. The title means ‘interdependence’, so therefore this is also an important teaching of the Buddha: we should understand that when there is ‘good’, it is always in relation to ‘bad’, ‘good’ alone does not exist. To understand this, there is also this song.

The meaning of this song is not profound like the previous one, but it is important all the same, because it explains interdependence. You should understand that in the relative condition everything is interdependent. For example, someone says, “Ah, I am innocent!” They feel innocent and argue with somebody else. If you have a problem with somebody, you can never feel that you are completely innocent, otherwise this problem would not exist, because when there is a problem, it is always linked to interdependence. Therefore, if you are practitioners, if you follow the teaching, instead of saying, “I’m innocent, he’s the guilty one”, first of all observe yourselves and discover what your error is, and then relax and in this way it becomes much easier. If you think that you are innocent and close your eyes, even if there is not a problem, the problem arises and becomes bigger. Interdependence means that when there is good, there is also bad. Good alone does not exist. You should know this when you are living in the relative condition. If you have knowledge of interdependence, problems gradually free themselves and, instead of developing, they decrease. For this reason, when Buddha explained the twelve origins of transmigration, he always spoke about interdependence. Here an example is given to help us understand.

The meaning is not very deep but it is also important to explain interdependence.

ཆུ་~ འདི་~དང་ གསེར་~མིག་ ཉ་~མོ་ གཉིས།
qu~ dì~dǎŋ sèr~mig ña~mo ñís
qu: water
dì-dǎŋ: this water, it can be a river or a small lake 
sèr-mig ña-mo: fish
Between the fish and this water

དུས་~ འབྲལ་~མེད་ འགོགས་~རྒྱུའི་ རེན་~འབྲེལ་ ཡོད།
dǔs~ dràl~med dròg~gyúi den~drèl yod
there is an interdependence, they cannot always be separated because if there is no water, there are no fish.

ཉ་~ གསེར་~མིག་ འདི་~ ཡི་~ རྐྱལ་~ ལམ་~ ལ།
ña~ sèr~mig dì~ yi~ gyal~ lam~ la
So that the fish can continue to live,

ཆུ་~དྭངས་~མོ་མེད་~ཀི་~ཐབས་~ཆགས་~ཡིན།
qu~ dǎŋ~mo med~ gi~ tab~ qag~ yin
if there is no water, the lives of the fish cannot continue.
So it says that the water and fish are interdependent and how they are linked.

*****

ཤིང་~ འདི་~དང་ ལྷ་~བྱ་ ཁུ་~བྱུག་ གཉིས།
xiŋ~ dì~dǎŋ lha~jyǎ ku~jyǔg ñís
It gives the example of the tree and the cuckoo: between the tree and the cuckoo

དུས་~ འབྲལ་~མེད་ འགོགས་~རྒྱུའི་ རེན་~འབྲེལ་ ཡོད།
dǔs~ dràl~med dròg~ gyúi den~drèl yod
there is interdependence, they cannot be separate.

བྱ་~ ཁུ་~བྱུག་ འདི་~ ཡི་~ འབབ་~ ས་~ ལ།
jyǎ~ ku~jyǔg dì~ yi~ bàb~ sa~ la
In order for the cuckoo to be able to rest and sing,

ཤིང་~ ལོན་~པ་ མེད་~ ཀི་~ ཐབས་~ ཆགས་~ ཡིན།
xiŋ~ jón~ba med~ gi~ tab~ qag~ yin
it is indispensable that there is this tree.
That is, the cuckoo cannot live only by flying all the time.

*****

གླུ་~ འདི་~དང་ འདིར་~ཚོགས་ ཁོམ་~པ་ གཉིས།
lú~ dì~dǎŋ dìr~cog trom~ba ñís
lú-dì: Between this song
dǎŋ dìr-cog trom-ba: and those who are listening

དུས་~ འབྲལ་~མེད་ འགོགས་~རྒྱུའི་ རེན་~འབྲེལ་ ཡོད།
dǔs~ dràl~med dròg~ gyúi den~drèl yod
there is interdependence.
If someone sings a lovely song, but nobody listens to it, it doesn’t make sense, therefore there should always be interdependence. It helps us understand that we live knowing this, and we don’t get too charged up when we are happy, and not too upset when we have problems. When we are sad about a bad period, don’t be too sad. The Tibetans say, “Yes, it is a difficult period, but we hope that it will change”. They don’t think that it is permanent. This is their philosophy.

སྐད་~ སན་~པོའི་ གླུ་~ དབྱངས་~ བཀུག་~ ས་~ ལ།
gad ñan~boi lú~ yáŋ~ gug~ sa~ la
The singer who sings with a lovely voice,

ཁོམ་~ ན་~ཟླ་ མེད་~ ཀི་~ ཐབས་~ ཆགས་~ ཡིན།
trom~ na~dá med~ gi~ tab~ qag~ yin
if there were no audience, there would be no sense in singing.
That is, it is necessary that somebody is there who is listening, who is interdependent. It gives examples that the idea of interdependence is important in the relative condition.