English translation by Nishijima Roshi:
“Buddhas are great human beings. [The Dharma] that great human beings realize is therefore called “the eight truths of a great human being.” To realize this Dharma is the cause of nirvana. It was the last preaching of our Original Master, Śākyamuni Buddha, on the night that he entered nirvana.

1) Small desire. (Not widely to chase after those among objects of the five desires that are as yet ungained, is called “small desire.”)
The Buddha said:
You bhikṣus should know that people of abundant desire abundantly seek gain, and so their suffering also is abundant. People of small desire, being free of seeking and free of desire, are free of this affliction. You should practice and learn small desire just for itself. Still more, small desire can give rise to all virtues: people of small desire never curry favor and bend in order to gain the minds of others. Further, they are not led by the sense organs. Those who practice small desire are level in mind; they are without worries and fears; when they come into contact with things they have latitude; and they are constantly free from dissatisfaction. Those who have small desire just have nirvana. This is called “small desire.”

2) To know satisfaction. (To take within limits from among things already gained is called “to know satisfaction.”)
The Buddha said:
If you bhikṣus desire to get rid of all kinds of suffering, you should reflect on knowing satisfaction. The practice of knowing satisfaction is the very place of abundance, joy, and peace. People who know satisfaction, even when lying on the ground, are still comfortable and joyful. Those who do not know satisfaction, even when living in a heavenly palace, are still not suited. Those who do not know satisfaction, even if rich, are poor. People who know satisfaction, even if poor, are rich. Those who do not know satisfaction are constantly led by the five desires; they are pitied by those who know satisfaction. This is called “to know satisfaction.””

3) To enjoy tranquility. (Departing from all kinds of noise and
living alone in an empty space is called “to enjoy tranquility.”)
The Buddha said:
If you bhikṣus wish to pursue tranquil and unintentional peace and joy, you should depart from noise and live alone in seclusion. People of quiet places are revered alike by the god Śakra and all the gods.
For this reason you should abandon your own groups and other groups, live alone in an empty space, and think of dissolving the root of suffering. Those who take pleasure in groups suffer many troubles—like a flock of birds gathering on a great tree and then worrying that it will wither or break. [Those] fettered by and attached to the world are immersed in many kinds of suffering—like an old elephant drowning in mud, unable to get out by itself. This is called “distancing.”

4) To practice diligence. (It is ceaselessly to endeavor to perform good works, and so it is called “devoted effort” — “devotion” without adulteration and “effort” without regression.)
The Buddha said:
If you bhikṣus practice diligence, nothing will be difficult. For this reason you should practice diligence—as a trickle of water that constantly flows is able to drill through rock. If the mind of a practitioner often tires and quits, that is like [a person] twirling a stick to start a fire and resting before it gets hot: although [the person] wishes to obtain fire, fire is unobtainable. This is called “diligence.”

5) Not to lose mindfulness. (It is also called “to keep right mindfulness.” To keep the Dharma and not to lose it is called “right mindfulness” and is also called “not to lose mindfulness.”)
The Buddha said:
For you bhikṣus who seek good counselors and seek their good auspices, there is nothing like not losing mindfulness. If people possess [the ability] not to lose mindfulness, the bandits of the afflictions are unable to invade them. For this reason, you constantly should regulate thoughts and keep them in their place in the mind. Those who lose mindfulness lose all virtues. If your power of mindfulness is solid and strong, even if you go among the bandits of the five desires you will not be harmed by them—it is like entering a battlefield clad in armor and having nothing to fear. This is called “not to lose mindfulness.”

6) To practice the balanced state of dhyāna. (To abide in the Dharma undisturbed is called “the balanced state of dhyāna.”)

The Buddha said:
If you bhikṣus regulate the mind, the mind will then exist in the balanced state. Because the mind exists in the balanced state you will be able to know the Dharma form of the arising and vanishing of the world. For this reason you constantly should be diligent in practicing all forms of balance. When a person gets the balanced state, the mind does not dissipate. It is like a household that values water attentively repairing a dike. Practitioners also are like that. For the sake of the water of wisdom, we attentively practice the balanced state of dhyāna and prevent [the water of wisdom] from leaking away. This is called “the balanced state.”

7) To practice wisdom. (To engender hearing, thinking, practice, and experience is called “wisdom.”)

The Buddha said:
If you bhikṣus have wisdom, then you will be without greed and attachment. By constantly reflecting on and observing yourself, you will prevent [wisdom] from being lost. This is just to be able, within my Dharma, to attain liberation. If you are not so, already you are different from people of the truthand also different from those clothed in white; there is nothing to call you. Truly, wisdom is a sturdy ship in which to cross the ocean of aging, sickness, and death. Again, it is a great bright torch for the darkness of ignorance, it is good medicine for all sick people, and it is a sharp ax to fell the trees of anguish. For this reason, you should hear, consider, and practice wisdom and thereby develop yourself. If a human being possesses the light of wisdom, he or she is—although with eyes of flesh—a human being of clear vision. This is called “wisdom.”

8) Not to engage in idle discussion. (To experience, to go beyond discrimination, is called “not to engage in idle discussion.” To perfectly realize real form is just not to engage in idle discussion.)

The Buddha said:
If you bhikṣus engage in all kinds of idle discussion your mind will be disturbed. Although you have left family life, still you will be unable to get free. For this reason, bhikṣus, you should immediately throw away disturbing idle discussion. If you wish to attain the joy of serenity you should just inhibit well the fault of idle discussion. This is called “not to engage in idle discussion.”

These are the eight truths of a great human being. Each is equipped with the eight, and so there may be sixty-four. When we extend them, they may be countless. If we abridge them, they are sixty-four. “They are the last preaching of Great Master Śākyamuni; they are the instruction of the Great Vehicle; and they are the [Buddha’s] supreme swan song, in the middle of the night of the fifteenth day of the second month.” After this, he does not preach the Dharma again, and finally he passes into parinirvāṇa.

The Buddha said:
You bhikṣus constantly should endeavor, with undivided mind, to pursue the truth of liberation. All the dharmas of the world, moving and unmoving, without exception are perishing and unstable forms. Let yourselves stop for a while, and talk no more. Time must pass, and I am going to die. This is my last instruction.

Therefore, disciples of the Tathāgata unfailingly learn this [instruction].
Those who do not practice and learn it, and who do not know it, are not the
Buddha’s disciples. It is the Tathāgata’s right Dharma-eye treasury and fine
mind of nirvana. Nevertheless, today many do not know it and few have seen
or heard it; it is due to the trickery of demons that they do not know. Again,
those lacking in long-accumulated good roots neither hear nor see [this instruction]. During the bygone days of the right Dharma and the imitative Dharma, all disciples of the Buddha knew it. They practiced it and learned it in experience. Now there is not one or two among a thousand bhikṣus who knows the eight truths of a great human being. It is pitiful. There is nothing even to compare to the insidious degeneration of [these] decadent times. While the Tathāgata’s right Dharma is now [still] permeating the great-thousandfold [world], while the immaculate Dharma has not yet disappeared, we should learn it without delay. Do not be slack or lazy. To meet the Buddha-Dharma, even in countless kalpas, is hard. To receive a human body also is hard. Even in receiving the human body, human bodies on the three continents are better. Human bodies on the southern continent are best of all—because they meet Buddha, hear the Dharma, leave family life, and attain the truth. People who died prior to the Tathāgata’s parinirvāṇa neither heard nor learned these eight truths of a great human being. That now we are seeing and hearing them, and learning them, is due to long-accumulated good roots. In learning them now, in developing them life by life and arriving without fail at the supreme [truth of] bodhi, and in preaching them for living beings, may we become the same as Śākyamuni Buddha; may there be no differences.