Blo sbyong tshogs bshad ma
From Bodhicitta
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བློ་སྦྱོང་ཚོགས་བཤད་མ།
blo sbyong tshogs bshad ma
Public Explication of Mind Training
Text
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Description
This text, widely acclaimed as "The Great Public Explication" (Tsogs bshad chen mo), represents perhaps the most extensive early commentarial work of the mind training genre. Soon after its composition, the work appears to have assumed the status of a classic in this genre. Könchok Gyaltsen, one of the compilers of [Blo sbyong brgya rtsa, Mind Training: The Great Collection], felt the need to compose what is effectively a companion to this classic, which he entitled Supplement to the "Oral Tradition" . . . Shönu Gyalchok, on the other hand, recognized Sangyé Gompa's text as a somewhat alternative reading to Chekawa's mainstream approach to Seven-Point Mind Training expounded in Sé Chilbu's commentary. In Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights (pp. 193-211), Shönu Gyalchok provides a detailed outline of Public Explication's presentation of the mind training instructions. In terms of literary style, although it frequently says "thus taught the master" (zhes gsung ngo), the work does not appear to be based on notes taken at an oral teaching. Rather, it seems to have been composed as an independent piece, and this is explicitly confirmed by the author's dedication, where he writes:
- Ratnaguru relied on his teacher's words;
I, too, have applied the meaning a little in my mind;
So through [showing the] interrelations, sequence, and essential instructions,
I here present this [instruction on] training the mind.
Reference
blo sbyong tshogs bshad ma [བློ་སྦྱོང་ཚོགས་བཤད་མ།]. [Public Explication of Mind Training].
Interconnections
1 Recensions
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)1 Full translations
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)
1 Member of
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)
