Essential Mind Training (Jinpa 2011)
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Essential Mind Training: Tibetan Wisdom for Daily Life
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Description
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)
Citation
Jinpa, Thupten., trans. Essential Mind Training: Tibetan Wisdom for Daily Life. Tibetan Classics. Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 2011.
Table of contents
- Prefaceix
- Introduction1
- ATIŚA'S LEGACY21
- 1. Bodhisattva's Jewel Garland
- Atiśa25
- 2. Root Lines of Mahayana Mind Training
- Attributed to Atiśa31
- SEVEN POINTS35
- 3. Seven-Point Mind Training
- Chekawa Yeshé Dorjé39
- 4. A Commentary on the "Seven-Point Mind Training"
- Sé Chilbu Chökyi Gyaltsen43
- EIGHT VERSES103
- 5. Eight Verses on Mind Training
- Langri Thangpa107
- 6. A Commentary on "Eight Verses on Mind Training"
- Chekawa Yeshé Dorjé111
- EQUANIMITY127
- 7. Leveling Out All Conceptions
- Attributed ot Serlingpa131
- 8. A Commentary on "Leveling Out All Conceptions"
- Attributed to Atiśa135
- KARMIC JUSTICE143
- 9. Wheel of Sharp Weapons
- Attributed to Dharmarakṣita149
- A VAJRA SONG175
- 10. Melodies of an Adamantine Song: A Chanting Meditation on Mind Training
- Attributed to Maitrīyogi179
- TRANSFORMING ADVERSITY185
- 11. A Teaching on Taking Afflictions onto the Path187
- 12. Mind Training Taking Joys and Pains onto the Path189
- NEW ATTITUDES193
- 13. Sumpa Lotsāwas' Ear-Whispered Mind Training197
- 14. Bodhisatva Samantabhadra's Mind Training201
- 15. Mind Training Removing Obstacles211
- 16. Mahayana Mind Training Eliminating Future Adversities213
- FORMAL PRACTICES21
- 17. Mind Training in a Single Session
- Chim Namkha Drak223
- 18. Glorious Virvapas Mind Training
- Lo Lotsāwa231
- Notes239
- Glossary255
- Bibliography269
- Index of Names and Titles275
Interconnections
All 20Books 1Classical Works 19
18 Full translation of
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 Mahāyāna 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)
Blo sbyong don bdun ma. (Lojong Döndünma). In Tibetan, "Seven Points of Mind Training"; an influential Tibetan work in the blo sbyong ("mind training") genre. The work was composed by the Bka' gdams scholar 'Chad ka ba ye shes rdo rje, often known as Dge bshes Mchad kha ba, based on the tradition of generating bodhicitta known as "mind training" transmitted by the Bengali master Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna. It also follows the system laid out previously by Glang ri thang pa (Langri Tangpa) in his Blo sbyong tshig brgyad ma ("Eight Verses on Mind Training"). Comprised of a series of pithy instructions and meditative techniques, the Blo sbyong don bdun ma became influential in Tibet, with scholars from numerous traditions writing commentaries to it. According to the commentary of the nineteenth-century Tibetan polymath 'Jam mgon kong sprul, the seven points covered in the treatise are: (1) the preliminaries to mind training, which include the contemplations on the preciousness of human rebirth, the reality of death and impermanence, the shortcomings of saṃsāra, and the effects of karman; (2) the actual practice of training in bodhicitta; (3) transforming adverse conditions into the path of awakening; (4) utilizing the practice in one's entire life; (5) the evaluation of mind training; (6) the commitments of mind training; and (7) guidelines for mind training. (Source: "Blo sbyong don bdun ma." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 126–27. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Composed by the Buddhist Master Langri Tangpa (1054-1123), Eight Verses for Training the Mind is a highly revered text from the Mahayana Lojong (mind training) tradition. These instructions offer essential practices for cultivating the awakening mind of compassion, wisdom, and love. This eight-verse lojong enshrines the very heart of Dharma, revealing the true essence of the Mahayana path to liberation. Even a single line of this practice can be seen as encapsulating the entire teaching of the Buddha. For even a single statement of this mind training practice has the incredible power to help us subdue our self-oriented behavior and mental afflictions. The fundamental theme of mind training practice is the profound reorientation of our basic attitude, both toward our own self and toward our fellow human beings, as well as toward the events around us. The goal of mind training practice is the radical transformation of our thoughts, attitudes, and habits. Presently, we tend to cherish the welfare of our own self at the expense of all others. However, the mind training teaching challenges us to reverse this process. This involves a deep understanding of others as true friends, and the recognition that our true enemy lies inside of ourselves, not outside. Source Accessed Jan 30, 2025)
Bodhisattvamaṇyāvalī [alt. Bodhisattvamaṇevalī] (T. byang chub sems dpa'i nor bu'i phreng ba), or The Bodhisattva’s Garland of Jewels, is a lojong text attributed to Atiśa.
According to Thupten Jinpa,
"Although this text appears in the Tengyur (Toh 3951) as a self-standing work, it also exists almost in its entirety in another of Atiśa's works, entitled Letter of Unblemished Precious Jewels (Toh 4188), a letter sent by Atiśa to the Indian Bengali royalty Nayapāla from Nepal. Noting this, the Tibetan historian Pawo Tsuklak Trengwa asserts that Bodhisattva's Jewel Garland may actually have been compiled by Dromtönpa by drawing from Atiśa's writings. See his Joyful Feast for the Learned (Mkas pa'i dga' ston), p. 709." (Source Accessed Mar 14, 2025)That the mind training teaching originated in a scattered oral tradition of Atiśa's instructions appears to be recognized also by the author of what is effectively the earliest history of the Kadam tradition. In his History of the Precious Kadam Tradition, Tibetan author Sonam Lhai Wangpo (fifteenth century) lists four different categories of master Atiśa's teachings: (1) those pertaining to the stages of the path, (2) scattered sayings, (3) epistles, and finally (4) the various pith instructions. Within this fourfold division, the author lists the entire collection of mind training teachings as belonging to the second class, namely scattered sayings. It is probably also for this reason that the root lines on mind training do not appear among the works attributed to Atiśa in the Tengyur. For until these scattered sayings were compiled together into a coherent text, no such work called the Root Lines on Mind Training existed. Almost all Tibetan sources agree that Langri Thangpa, and later Chekawa, were responsible for bringing the "secret" mind trainings teaching into the wider public domain.
Following the organization of the root lines on mind training into the seven key points, the Seven-Point Mind Training effectively became the root text of Atiśa's mind training teachings. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 11)
The entire text of this short mind training instruction is found in Shönu Gyalchok (Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights, pp. 221-22). Until further textual evidence surfaces, it is difficult to hazard any speculation on the possible authorship of this work. Interestingly, this text provides no information on the lineage of the instruction. In fact, according to Shönu Gyalchok, this and the next entry in [the Blo sbyong brgya rtsa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, i.e., Theg pa chen po'i blo sbyong ma 'ongs pa'i 'gal rkyen spong ba, Mahayana Mind Training Eliminating Future Adversities] form a single work. This is probably the mind training text referred to in Longdöl Lama (A Useful List [of Texts]), p. 316) as Mind Training with Four Appendixes. My personal opinion based on the current sources is that this work may have been composed by Shönu Gyalchok himself on the basis of specific instructions extracted from a larger work on mind training by earlier Kadam teachers. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 607n367)
In the Lhasa edition of the Tibetan original, there is no title for this text. In its place, the editor provides the following brief note: "This is the mind training of Chim. I have received the oral transmission." This is then followed by an additional note that reads, "I do not have the oral transmission for this: I must search for it again." This second note was probably inserted by a later editor. . . . Shönu Gyalchok (Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights, p. 245) also refers to this short work as "the mind training composed by the great Chim."
Chim Namkha Drak was one of the most well-known Kadam masters of [the] thirteenth century. A student of the famous Kadam teacher Sangyé Gompa, the author of Public Explication of Mind Training . . . , Chim became the seventh abbot of Narthang Monastery, occupying the throne for thirty-six years. His students include, among others, the renowned Chomden Rikral and the Sakya patriarch Phakmodrupa, who later became the ruler of Tibet. Among his most famous works are the "Standard Biography of Atiśa" (which can be found in The Book of Kadam), a commentary on Atiśa's Bodhipathapradīpa (Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment), and an exposition of Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa, the latter two no longer extant. A succinct biography of Chim can be found in Lechen Künga Gyaltsen's Lamp Illuminating the History of the Kadam Tradition, p. 255a-b. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 609–10n384)
The translation of this root text is based on the version found in Yeshé Döndrup's Treasury of Gems (pp. 41-42), which its author asserts is a critical edition based on consultation with the commentary found in [the Blo sbyong brgya rtsa, Mind Training: The Great Collection]. He maintains
that the version of this root text found in at least two editions of the Great Collection—a handwritten edition and a Mongolian blockprint edition—and also the version found in Sumpa Yeshé Paljor's collected works, all suffer from corruptions of spelling. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 601n315)
This commentary on Eight Verses on Mind Training is attributed to Chekawa in
the colophon at the end of the text, an attribution that is affirmed by Yeshé Döndrup in Treasury of Gems (p. 513). . . . The somewhat archaic literary style of the text suggests that this is one of the earliest commentaries on an explicit mind training text, if not the earliest. It is possible that Chekawa may have composed the work on the basis of oral teachings received from Langri Thangpa himself, the author of the Eight Verses root text. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 613n412)
It is unfortunate that the compilers of [the Blo sbyong brgya rtsa, Mind Training: the Great Collection] do not provide any information concerning the authorship of this work or the source of the instructions presented here. Since the text is briefly referred to in Shönu Gyalchok's Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights (p. 245), it is unlikely that either Shönu Gyalchok or Könchok Gyaltsen themselves wrote this piece. Future research may shed light on who is the "teacher" referred to in the colophon of this work.
The core instruction in this text relates to the mind training practice of taking, undertaken here in relation to others' afflictions, and to dismantling the solidity of the afflictions by contemplating their empty nature. As stated in the opening paragraph, the instruction for taking afflictions onto the path presented here is non-Vajrayana in its orientation. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 602n319)
As in the case of . . . Mind Training Removing Obstacles [Gegs sel blo sbyong], the entire text of this short work is also found in Shönu Gyalchok (Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights, pp. 222-29). . . . [T]his and the [Gegs sel blo sbyong] appear to form a single text, and Shönu Gyalchok himself may have been the actual author. Interestingly, in the colophon of this second work, there is the short statement that the instructions contained here stem from Atiśa, but no further information of the subsequent lineage of its transmission is given. The key concern in this text appears to be to ensure how best to prevent future circumstances from undermining one's mind training practice, and more importantly, how best to prevent the arising of afflictions before they reach a potentially destructive level. Furthermore, unlike other mind training texts, here the practice of giving and taking, tonglen, which is the heart of mind training, is presented in the concluding section of the instruction as part of the benefits. This is done on the basis of a four-line stanza, the source of which I have so far failed to identify. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 607–8n368)
Shönu Gyalchok (Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights, p. 245) identifies the root text of this work to be the following four-line stanza, which he attributes to Sumpa Lotsāwa (c. twelfth century):
- If you can tolerate anything, whatever you do brings happiness;
If your mind rests where it's placed, you can journey anywhere;
If your mind is fused with Dharma, it's okay even if you die;
If you have recognized the mind as unborn, there is no death.
Shönu Gyalchok (Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights, p. 216) lists this work alongside Eight Sessions Mind Training as representing supplemental instructions to the practice of giving and taking by means of training the mind in the conventional awakening mind. Although he identifies the cultivation of the three thoughts—the expansive thought, the resolute thought, and the diamondlike thought—to be the core instruction of this work, he does not provide any information on the authorship of this text or on the origin of the instructions presented in it. Judging by its literary style, especially the frequent use of the expression "it was taught" (gsungs, which I have translated here as "the master said"), we can safely conclude that this text belongs to the genre of sindri (spelled zin bris), lecture notes taken at an oral teaching. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 605n339)
Though this is clearly a commentary on a verse text entitled Leveling Out AII Conceptions, in the Lhasa edition of the Tibetan original, interestingly, no title is provided at the beginning of this text. In the short colophon at the end of the text, however, this commentary is presented as being composed, or at least narrated, by Atiśa on the basis of receiving the instructions directly from his teacher Serlingpa. It is difficult to assess the true authorship of this commentarial work. However, if the attribution to Serlingpa of its root text, Leveling Out All Conceptions, is valid, it is conceivable that Atiśa gave commentaries, or at least explanations, of the instructions contained in the root stanzas. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 616n459)
As noted by the Mongolian Buddhist author Yeshe Dhondrup (1792-1855) in his Treasury of Gems, p. 434, this work represents the earliest commentary on the highly influential mind training work entitled Seven-Point Mind Training. Although in the original version of the [Blo sbyong brgya rtsa, Mind Training: The Great Collection] anthology . . . no name is given for the authorship of this commentary . . . its author is without doubt Chekawa's own student, Sé Chilbu Chökyi Gyaltsen. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 589n155)
This is a fascinating short text on mind training that employs the well-known Vajrayana meditation of taking death, intermediate state, and rebirth onto the path as the three buddha bodies. The text provides an instruction on how to apply this three-buddha-bodies meditation for the specifically mind training objective of taking everyday experience as one's spiritual path. Interestingly, the root text of this instruction, which Shönu Gyalchok (Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights, p. 245) identifies as the four-line stanza attributed to Kashmiri master Śākyaśrī (1127-1225), does not allude to any association with this Vajrayana method. It is probable that the present work, which is essentially an exposition of Śākyaśrī's four lines, was composed by the Tibetan translator Trophu Jampa Pal, who is listed in the text as the inheritor of the lineage of this instruction from the Kashmiri master. Since no work of Trophu's survives today to my knowledge, this attribution must remain only a hypothesis. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 604n335)
Though attributed to Lo Lotsāwa, the source of the mind training instruction presented here is identified in its "colophon" as one Darpaṇa Ācārya, who, in turn, was presenting the thought of the Indian mystic Virvapa. The text cites first an eight-line quotation and later a six-line quote from Virvapa, which form the "root text" for this work. The instructions are organized within what the author calls the "yoga of unparalleled compassion" and the "yoga of root cause."
It is difficult to identify who this Indian master Virvapa is. The Tengyur contains two entries attributed to one Birbapa (Toh 1744 and Toh 2280), which may be the same person as our Virvapa. If so, then this is probably in fact Virūpa-the author of the famous Vajra Lines on the Path and Its Fruits, which is the primary root text for the cycle of teachings known as lamdré, or path and its fruits. Virūpa is generally recognized to be the same person as the eighth-century Nalanda Buddhist monk-scholar Dharmapāla. As for Darpaṇa Ācārya, there is an extremely short section on him in The Blue Annals (pp. 1045-46), where the only substantive information given is that he is the author of an important work on the rite of initiation entitled Kriyāsamuccaya (Toh 3305 Tengyur, rgyud 'grel). Lo Lotsāwa, the author of this text, was a Tibetan translator who was born sometime in the latter part of twelfth century. He traveled to Nepal and India and received extensive teachings from many Indian masters. The translations of a number of Vajrayana works are attributed to him. Intriguingly, neither Darpaṇa Ācārya nor the Tibetan lotsāwa (translator) appear in the lineage of this instruction. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 612n406)
The Tibetan term gyerwa (spelled gyer ba), means "to chant something in songs, or sing something as a song." So I have translated the expression gyergom (spelled gyer sgom) as a "chanting meditation." Although the Tibetan edition of this work, as found in [the Blo sbyong brgya rtsa, Mind Training: The Great Perfection], does not provide any note on its authorship, the Tibetan tradition generally attributes this short text to one Maitrīyogi, literally "a yogi of loving-kindness," who is recognized as one of the three principal teachers of Atiśa on mind training. Ostensibly, the work is a series of ecstatic, spontaneous songs sung in a dialogical structure by Maitrīyogi and Maitreya, the future Buddha. There is, however, a third voice, namely that of an interlocutor. This is probably the voice of the person who first compiled the songs together to weave them into a single narrative. Unfortunately, the identity of our editor remains anonymous. Although Tibetan authors identify Maitrīyogi as the younger of the two Kusalī brothers, Kusalī" is probably a degeneration of Koṣala, the Tibetan equivalent of which is Gewachen (spelled: dge ba can), the name Yeshé Döndrup (Treasury of Gems, p. 481 gives to Kusalī Jr. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 599n300)
1 Partial translation 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)1 Chapter or part of
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)
