Blo sbyong mtshon cha 'khor lo

བློ་སྦྱོང་མཚོན་ཆ་འཁོར་ལོ།

blo sbyong mtshon cha 'khor lo

Mind Training: The Wheel of Sharp Weapons

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

Wheel of Sharp Weapons is an abbreviated title for The Wheel of Sharp Weapons Effectively Striking the Heart of the Foe. This text is often referenced as a detailed source for how the laws of karma play out in our lives; it reveals many specific effects and their causes. A poetic presentation, the wheel of sharp weapons can be visualized as something we throw out or propel, which then comes back to cut us, like a boomerang. In the same way, Dharmarakṣita explains, the nonvirtuous causes we create through our self-interested behavior come back to "cut us" in future lives as the ripening of the negative karma such actions create. This, he explains, is the source of all our pain and suffering. He admonishes that it is our own selfishness or self-cherishing that leads us to harm others, which in turn creates the negative karma or potential for future suffering. Our suffering is not a punishment, merely a self-created karmic result. In most verses, Dharmarakṣita also offers a suggested alternative virtuous or positive action to substitute for our previous nonvirtuous behavior, actions that will create positive karma and future pleasant conditions and happiness.

According to the Wheel of Sharp Weapons, the way to make an end of this cycle is to understand how this process comes about and how it is rooted in the grasping at a self or "I". When we contemplate how our actions, rooted in the sense of self and other, cause suffering, then we use these very negative actions we have done in the past as a contemplative "weapon" to attack self grasping, the real "foe" in our lives. Thus, the weapon which harms us is turned against the heart or source of our suffering, our "true enemy".

Despite the fact that Wheel of Sharp Weapons has come to be considered a Mahayana text, Dharmarakṣita is said to have subscribed to the Vaibhāṣika view. His authorship of the text is considered questionable by scholars for various reasons. (Adapted from Source April 25, 2025)

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Dharmarakṣita (དྷརྨ་རཀྴི་ཏ་). blo sbyong mtshon cha 'khor lo [བློ་སྦྱོང་མཚོན་ཆ་འཁོར་ལོ།]. [Mind Training: The Wheel of Sharp Weapons].

Recensions

Theg pa chen po blo sbyong brgya rtsa (Tibetan Classics)

A collection of mind training texts compiled by Zhönu Gyalchok and Müchen Sempa Chenpo Könchok Gyaltsen; critically edited by the Institute of Tibetan Classics.

Compiled in the fifteenth century, Mind Training: The Great Collection is the earliest anthology of a special genre of Tibetan literature known as "mind training," or lojong in Tibetan. The principal focus of these texts is the systematic cultivation of such altruistic thoughts and emotions as compassion, love, forbearance, and perseverance.

The mind-training teachings are highly revered by the Tibetan people for their pragmatism and down-to-earth advice on coping with the various challenges and hardships that unavoidably characterize everyday human existence. The volume contains forty-four individual texts, including the most important works of the mind training cycle, such as Serlingpa's well-known Leveling Out All Preconceptions, Atisha's Bodhisattva’s Jewel Garland, Langri Thangpa's Eight Verses on Training the Mind, and Chekawa's Seven-Point Mind Training together with the earliest commentaries on these seminal texts. (Source Accessed Apr 30, 2025)

Full translations

Essential Mind Training (Jinpa 2011)

The key to happiness is not the eradication of all problems but rather the development of a mind capable of transforming any problem into a cause of happiness. Essential Mind Training is full of guidance for cultivating new mental habits for mastering our thoughts and emotions.

This volume contains eighteen individual works selected from Mind Training: The Great Collection, the earliest compilation of mind-training (lojong) literature. The first volume of the historic Tibetan Classics series, Essential Mind Training includes both lesser-known and renowned classics such as Eight Verses on Mind Training and The Seven-Point Mind Training. These texts offer methods for practicing the golden rule of learning to love your neighbor as yourself and are full of practical and down-to-earth advice.

The techniques explained here, by enhancing our capacity for compassion, love, and perseverance, can give us the freedom to embrace the world. (Source: Wisdom Publications)

Book

Mind Training: The Great Collection

Compiled in the fifteenth century, Mind Training: The Great Collection is the earliest anthology of a special genre of Tibetan literature known as “mind training,” or lojong in Tibetan. The principal focus of these texts is the systematic cultivation of such altruistic thoughts and emotions as compassion, love, forbearance, and perseverance. The mind-training teachings are highly revered by the Tibetan people for their pragmatism and down-to-earth advice on coping with the various challenges and hardships that unavoidably characterize everyday human existence. The volume contains forty-four individual texts, including the most important works of the mind training cycle, such as Serlingpa's well-known Leveling Out All Preconceptions, Atisha's Bodhisattva's Jewel Garland, Langri Thangpa's Eight Verses on Training the Mind, and Chekawa's Seven-Point Mind Training together with the earliest commentaries on these seminal texts. An accurate and lyrical translation of these texts, many of which are in metered verse, marks an important contribution to the world's literary heritage, enriching its spiritual resources. (Source: Wisdom Publications)

Book

Peacock in the Poison Grove

Geshe Sopa offers insightful commentary on two of the earliest Tibetan texts that focus on mental training. Peacock in the Poison Grove presents powerful yogic methods of dispelling the selfish delusions of the ego and maintaining purity in our motives. Geshe Sopa's lucid explanations teach how we can fight the egocentric enemy within by realizing the truth of emptiness and by developing a compassionate, loving attitude toward others. (Source: Wisdom Publications)

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Member of

Blo sbyong brgya rtsa

Theg pa chen po blo sbyong rgya rtsa

Compiled by Shonu Gyalchok (ca. fourteenth-fifteenth centuries) and Konchok Gyaltsen (1388-1469)

Compiled in the fifteenth century, Mind Training: The Great Collection (Theg pa chen po blo sbyong rgya rtsa) represents the earliest anthology of a special genre of Tibetan spiritual literature known simply as "mind training" or lojong in Tibetan. Tibetans revere the mind training tradition for its pragmatic and down-to-earth advice, especially the teachings on "transforming adversities into favorable opportunities." This volume contains forty-three individual texts, including the most important works of the mind training cycle, such as Serlingpa's Leveling out All Conceptions, Atisa's Bodhisattva's Jewel Garland, Langri Thangpa's Eight Verses on Mind Training, and Chekawa's Seven-Point Mind Training, together with the earliest commentaries on these seminal texts as well as other independent works. These texts expound the systematic cultivation of such altruistic thoughts and emotions as compassion, love, forbearance, and perseverance. Central to this discipline are the diverse practices for combating our habitual self-centeredness and the afflictive emotions and way of being that arise from it. (Source: Mind Training: The Great Collection translated by Thupten Jinpa)

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Teachings

Peacock in the Poison Grove

Geshe Sopa offers insightful commentary on two of the earliest Tibetan texts that focus on mental training. Peacock in the Poison Grove presents powerful yogic methods of dispelling the selfish delusions of the ego and maintaining purity in our motives. Geshe Sopa's lucid explanations teach how we can fight the egocentric enemy within by realizing the truth of emptiness and by developing a compassionate, loving attitude toward others. (Source: Wisdom Publications)

Book

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