Translation of
Blo sbyong rma bya dug 'joms
One of the earliest Tibetan texts that focuses on mind training. This text presents powerful yogic methods of dispelling the selfish delusions of the ego and maintaining purity in our motives. Teaches how we can fight the egocentric enemy within by realizing the truth of emptiness and by developing a compassionate, loving attitude toward others.
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Blo sbyong mtshon cha 'khor lo
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)Text
Blo sbyong don bdun ma
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.)
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Blo sbyong tshig brgyad ma
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)Text
Bodhisattvamaṇyāvalī
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)Text
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)Text
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)Theg pa chen po'i blo sbyong gi rtsa ba
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)
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Blo sbyong thun brgyad ma
Although it is difficult to determine the author of this mind training work, both Thuken (CrystaI Mirror, p. 99) and Yeshé Döndrup (Treasury of Gems, p. 105) identify Dromtönpa as the source of the instruction on eight sessions of mind training. More importantly, the text itself refers to the instruction on eight sessions as "Dromtönpa's instruction." Since Khamlungpa specialized in the propagation of this instruction, this particular approach later came to be known as "Khamlungpa's eight sessions mind training." This instruction encapsulates a wonderful method for taking all aspects of everyday activities and experience into your meditative practice. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 606n348)
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Jo bo rjes mnyam med gser gling pa chos kyi grags pa dang mjal ba'i rnam thar
The full title of this work is The Liberating Story of Master Atiśa's Meeting with the Peerless Serlingpa Dharmakīrti (Jo bo rjes mnyam med gser gling pa chos kyi grags pa dang mjal ba'i rnam thar). Serlingpa literally means the "one from Serling," the Sanskrit for which is Suvarṇadvīpa, which in turn literally means a "land of gold" or an "island of gold." Modern scholars identify Suvarṇadvīpa as the Indonesian island of Sumatra. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 584n98)
Text
Bla ma'i rnal 'byor
Although the compilers of [the Blo sbyong brgya rtsa, Mind Training: The Great Collection] do not provide any information on the authorship of this guru yoga text, textual evidence suggests that this is a slightly abbreviated guru yoga instruction found in Shönu Gyalchok's Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights (pp. 23-27). All the passages of this guru yoga mind training are verbatim extracts from this latter work, including the concluding remark: "This guru yoga is drawn from my teacher's words and put into letter." That this is Shönu Gyalchok's work is reinforced by the lineage of the transmission given here, where we read the name of Puṇyaratna as the last to hold this lineage. "Puṇyaratna" is the Sanskritized version of the Tibetan name Sönam Rinchen, who was from Nup Chölung, a person who figures in another mind training text as the one who transmitted the lineage to Shönu Gyalchok. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 602n320)
Text
Gegs sel blo sbyong
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)
Text
Mchims kyi blo sbyong thun gcig ma
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)
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Rnam dag gtsug gi nor bu la jo bos gnang ba'i blo sbyong
The full title of this versified work as found in the Lhasa Shöl edition is Mind Training Bestowed to Namdak Tsuknor by Atiśa (Rnam dag gtzug nor la jo bos gnag ba'i blo
sbyong). Attribution of this short work to Atiśa is made both in the opening lines and in the colophon of the text and is accepted by Yeshé Döndrup in his Treasury of Gems, where he cites the entire piece in the section on the selection of works attributed to Atiśa. Shönu Gyalchok (Mind Training, p. 245) lists this work as
"Atiśa's Counsel to Namdak Tsuknor." . . . Interestingly, in terms of its theme and style, this oeuvre echoes a well-known Mahayana scripture entitled Samādhirāja, or King of Meditations (Toh 127 Kangyur, mdo sde, da). (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 610n390.Text
Blo sbyong rtog pa 'bur 'joms
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)
Text
Blo sbyong tshig brgyad ma lo rgyus dang bcas pa
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)
Text
Zhen pa bzhi bral gyi gdams ngag
As explicitly mentioned in this brief text, the four lines that present the core instruction of the practice of parting from the four clingings is traditionally recognized as a revelation from Mañjuśrī, the buddha of wisdom. Jamgön Amé, in his Lineages of the Sakya Family (Sa skya'i gdung rabs, p. 26), identifies Sachen Kunga Nyingpo as the "great Sakyapa," who experienced this vision of Mañjuśrī and received the revelation. Interestingly, Nupa Rikzin Drak . . . identifies Drakpa Gyaltsen as the origin of this instruction. The explanations of the origin of this instruction may have been added on by an editor or by Könchok Gyaltsen . . . who was himself an important member of the Sakya school. The four root lines of Parting from the Four Clingings appear in volume 4 of the Collected Works of Drakpa Gyaltsen, p. 297b. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 649n1010)
Text
Sdig sbyong man ngag
The compilers of [the Blo sbyong brgya rtsa, Mind Training: The Great Collection] provide no information on the authorship of this text nor do they provide us any indication of the source of the instruction presented here. Furthermore, this work does not feature in the list of mind training texts enumerated in the Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights by Shönu Gyalchok or Memorandum of Teachings Received by Longdöl Lama. The instruction in this short work is interesting in that it involves the recitation of the three syllables of Oṃ Āḥ Hūṃ. But since it pertains only to purification of negative karma and obscurations, its inclusion in an anthology of mind training texts is intriguing. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 603n325)
Text
Blo sbyong tshogs bshad ma
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.
Text
Jo bo la rnal 'byor ma gnyis kyis sems sbyong zhig ces gdams pa
This story of Atiśa's meeting with two yoginīs is found also in Chim Namkha Drak's (1210–85) well-known Biography of Master Atiśa (p. 95), which is probably the source used by the Tibetan editors of [Blo sbyong brgya rtsa, Mind Training: The Great Collection]. It is difficult to conclusively determine whether this story existed as an independent piece prior to the compilation of [the Blo sbyong brgya rtsa], as suggested by the presence of a lineage at the end of the text. My own guess is that Shönu Gyalchok . . . was responsible for creating this short excerpt as an independent piece. Whatever the case, it seems fairly safe to assume that the story of Atiśa's encounter with the two yoginīs is an old one, perhaps dating back to Atiśa himself. From the earliest biographical accounts of Atiśa's life, we know that Atiśa is believed to have experienced numerous visions of the goddess Tārā. In fact, according to these biographies, it is eventually at Tārā's urging that Atiśa finally consents to the behests of its Ngari rulers and visits Tibet. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 603n329)
Text
Kun dga' legs pa'i rin chen gyis mdzad pa'i zhen pa bzhi bral gyi khrid yig
As indicated in the brief section of the text pertaining to its lineage, our author was a student of the Sakya lamdré master Ngorchen Künga Sangpo, from whom he himself received the transmission of this instruction. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 652n1041)
Text
Nyon mongs pa lam du blangs pa'i chos
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)
Text
Blo sbyong zhen pa bzhi bral gyi khrid yig zab don gnad kyi lde'u mig
Goram Sönam Senge, known often in his shorter names as Gowo Rapjampa or simply as Gorampa, was one of the most influential thinkers in the Sakya school during the fifteenth century. Unlike the works of his somewhat controversial contemporary, the brilliant Śākya Chokden, Gorampa's philosophical writings later became the standard textbooks for many of the monastic colleges of the Sakya school. His works, covering a vast area of classical Buddhist scholarship and running into thirteen large volumes, also became recognized as presenting the mainstream Sakya standpoint on many doctrinal and philosophical issues. It is difficult to discern whether it was Könchok Gyaltsen himself who included this short work of Gorampa in the [Blo sbyong brgya rtsa, Mind Training: The Great Collection] or whether it was added later by a subsequent editor. For Könchok Gyaltsen himself gave the transmission of most of the mind training teachings to Gorampa. Gorampa's text appears in volume 8 of his collected works, which is volume 14 in the Collected Works of the Masters of Sakya School. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 651n1028)
Text
Nub pa rig 'dzin grags kyis mdzad pa'i zhen pa bzhi bral
This is a very concise exposition of parting from the four clingings. A unique feature of this teaching lies in the presentation of the instruction in terms of three factors: (1) what are to be relinquished, which are the specific kinds of clinging, (2) what serve as antidotes, which are the specific meditative practices, and (3) the corresponding results. . . . Jamgön Amé (Treasury of Wonders, p. 83) lists [Nupa Rikzin Drak] as an important student of the great Sakya master Drakpa Gyaltsen, suggesting that he was a contemporary of Sakya Paṇḍita. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 651n1026)
Text
Theg pa chen po'i blo sbyong ma 'ongs pa'i 'gal rkyen spong ba
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)
Text
Rten 'brel snying po'i khrid yig
There is no mention of this particular mind training instruction in Shönu Gyalchok's Compendium of WeII-Uttered Insights. However, Lechen Künga Gyaltsen's Lamp Illuminating the History of the Kadam Tradition (p. 8) identifies Dromtönpa as the origin of this instruction and asserts that Ngülchu Thokmé Sangpo wrote a guide on this instruction. The Treasury of Gems (p. 195), on the other hand, recognizes the instruction as being initially developed by the Kadam master Phuchungwa (1031-1106). Phuchungwa, whose actual name was Shönu Gyaltsen, was one of the three famous Kadam brothers and later became the source of the so-called Kadam lineage of pith instructions. It is intriguing to note, however, that in the brief presentation of the lineage of this instruction found at the end of this short work, the author of this text fails to include Phuchungwa on the list, which seems to support Lechen's statement that the instruction originated from Drontönpa rather than Phuchungwa. It is also difficult to speculate who the actual author of this work is. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 637n811)
Text
Sum pa lo tsA ba'i snyan brgyud kyi blo sbyong
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.
Text
Blo sbyong gsung bgros ma'i kha skong
These oral explanations of the Mahayana training of mind, which are found
elucidated clearly in Sangyé Gompa's Public Exposition, have been committed to letter as a supplement to the oral tradition by the hermit Könchok Gyaltsen. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 515)
Text
Theg pa chen po'i lugs kyi 'khon sbyong
Although the compilers of [the Blo sbyong brgya rtsa, Mind Training the Great Collection] do not provide any information on the authorship of this short work, the text is listed in both Shönu Gyalchok's Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights and Longdöl Lama's Useful List [of Texts]. The core instruction in this text is a meditative practice in which, on the basis of the Vajrasattva meditation, you purify grudges you might harbor toward others, as well as overcoming malevolent forces, harmful intentions, jealousy, and rivalry with others. You then train the mind so that you are able to view all sentient beings as your dear parents. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 603n328)
Text
Theg pa chen po'i blo sbyong gi rtsa ba mchan bsgrags ma
The Annotated Root Lines of Mahāyāna Mind Training is the fifth text in the collection of mind training texts compiled by Gzhon nu rgyal mchog and Muchen Sempa Chenpo Konchok Gyeltsen. No author is attributed to this text.
Text
A tsAr+ya gzugs ngan gyi gtam rgyud
Despite its title, this short text includes four different stories, or rather allusions to them. One is, of course, the story of the ugly mendicant: the second is an allusion to the story of an elderly couple who, when robbed, fail to take countermeasures; the third is Atiśas frequent meeting with a person of evil character; and finally is an allusion to the story of Langri Thangpa being falsely accused of transgressing the cardinal monastic precept of celibacy. Rather than being a coherent single text, the work is more like several extracts loosely compiled as a resource for teaching. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 615n451)
Text
Byang chub sems dpa' kun tu bzang po'i blo sbyong
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)
Text
Theg pa chen po'i blo sbyong
This is one of the most beautiful works of the mind training genre. Although both the homage and the end of the text explicitly acknowledge Chekawa (whom the author calls Maldrowa), intriguingly there is not a single allusion to Chekawa's seven-point mind training, nor any indication of the author's knowledge of Sé Chilbu's influential commentary on it. Furthermore, the explanations of the verses are provided in a seamless interconnected teaching, with no clear section divisions, while the root text . . . appears to be almost exactly identical to the Root Lines attributed to Atiśa. All this suggests that this commentarial mind training text either predates Sé Chilbu's commentary on Seven-Point Mind Training or that it represents a lineage of transmission different from Chekawa's influential seven-points approach.
The mention of Drakmarwa in the opening stanza may be a clue to its origin. Drakmarwa was a student of an influential Kadam teacher Jayülwa Shönu Ö (1075-1138), who was in turn a student of Chengawa, one of the three Kadam brothers. Drakmarwa's lineage is known as the "Kadam lineage of instructions." Chekawa, who is the source of the seven-point instruction, on the other hand, belongs to the lineage of Potowa through to Sharawa, the lineage known as the "Kadam lineage of treatises." Interestingly, in the brief account of Chekawa's discovery of the mind training instruction found in Sangyé Gompa's Public Explication, Chekawa is reported as naming Shang Drakmarwa as a possible source when searching for the instruction. This suggests that Drakmarwa was already established as an authoritative Kadam teacher while Chekawa was on his quest.
The Lhasa edition of the Tibetan original of this work unfortunately suffers from a number of spelling corruptions . . . Given the absence of any textual support, it is difficult to speculate who the author of this eloquent work might be. The conciseness of its literary style, the extremely practical approach, and the frequent use of archaic Tibetan all seem to confirm its antiquity. Most probably the work was composed by a student of both Drakmarwa and Chekawa. So we can confidently date the text in the latter part of twelfth century at the earliest. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 617–18n472)Text
Blo sbyong rtog pa 'bur 'joms kyi 'grel pa
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)
Text
Blo sbyong don bdun ma'i 'grel pa
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)
Text
Skyid sdug lam 'khyer gyi blo sbyong
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)
Text
Blo sbyong sems dpa'i rim pa
This work, as noted by Shönu Gyalchok (Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights, p. 48), is generally attributed to Serlingpa, Atiśa's principal teacher on the awakening mind. Interestingly, the nineteenth-century Mongolian author Yeshé Döndrup (Treasury of Gems, p. 48) attributes this text to Maitrīyogi. On the basis of intratextual considerations . . . the case for the first attribution appears stronger. This said, without additional textual evidence, the question of authorship of this poem must remain open. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 599–600n303)
Text
Dpal ldan bir wa ba'i blo sbyong
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)
Text
Blo sbyong gyer sgom rdo rje'i glu dbyangs
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)
Text
Rgyal ba yang dgon pa'i gdams ngag
Gyalwa Yangönpa (1213-58), whose actual name was Gyaltsen Pal, was a highly eclectic master who received teachings from all the principal spiritual lineages of his time, including Kadam, Dzokchen, Kagyü mahāmudrā, Sakya path and fruits, and the cutting-off teachings of chöd. His teachers included the famous Sakya Paṇḍita, Godrakpa, and most importantly, the great Drukpa Kagyü master Götsangpa Gönpo Dorjé (1189-1258). Yangönpa is most remembered for his vast collection of experiential songs and the cycle of three works collectively known as "A Trilogy of Hermetic Teachings," (ri chos skor gsum). It is interesting that Könchok Gyaltsen, the editor of [Blo sbyong brgya rtsa, Mind Training: the Great Collection] chose to include this piece from Yangönpa . . . Strictly speaking, this work does not belong to the mind training genre, though the resonance of Kadam instructions, especially from the well-known "Miscellaneous Sayings of Kadam Masters" is unmistakably discernible in some of the lists found here. The Tibetan text of this short piece found in the Lhasa Shöl edition, the basis of the critical edition on which this translation is based, has been compared and corrected against Yangönpa's own Collected Works. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 636-37n808)
Text
Jo bo'i blo sbyong don bdun ma
Curiously, in the lineage of its transmission, the impression is given that this particular instruction was conferred by Atiśa on Gönpawa, with no mention of Dromtönpa as an intermediary, as is the case for most of the mind training instructions. Without further textual sources, especially works attributed to Gönpawa, it is extremely difficult to determine the earliest source of this particular instruction. As for its authorship, my own guess is that Könchok Gyaltsen himself may have penned it, at least in its present form as found in [the Blo sbyong brgya rtsa, Mind Training: The Great Collection]. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 608n373)
Text
Ku su lu'i tshogs gsog gi blo sbyong
In Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights (p. 245), Shönu Gyalchok states that this is the practice of training in the awakening mind according to the secret mantra system that the two yoginīs Tārā and Bhṛkuṭī conferred on Atiśa, when he encountered them in the sky to the east of Bodhgaya stupa. This story is recounted in . . . Two Yoginīs' Admonition to Atiśa to Train His Mind [Jo bo la rnal 'byor ma gnyis kyis sems sbyong zhig ces gdams pa]. The present text is probably the one Longdöl Lama refers to as Secret Mantra Mind Training in his list (A Useful List [of Texts], p. 316). The central practice echoes the well-known practice of offering one's body found in the "cutting off" (chö, spelled chod) tradition of Machik Lapdrön. It is difficult to determine what source Shönu Gyalchok is using to attribute this instruction to Atiśa. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 603–4n331)
Text
Zhen pa bzhi bral gyi gdams pa
Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen's instructions on Sachen Kunga Nyingpo's four line verse on mind training known as Parting from the Four Attachments. A succinct biography of this important Sakya master, who was one of the five founding fathers of the Sakya school, can
be found in Jamgön Amé's Treasury of Wonders: The Lineages of the Sakya Family, pp. 69-84. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 649n1011)
Text
Sa skya paN+Di ta kun dga' rgyal mtshan gyis mdzad pa'i zhen pa bzhi bral gyi gdams ngag
This short instruction on the parting from the four clingings is found in volume 12 of the Collected Works of the Masters of the Sakya School, p. 223b. The author, whose personal name is Kunga Gyaltsen was not only one of the five founding fathers of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, but he was one of the greatest luminaries in the history of Tibetan Buddhist thought. A clear and extensive biography of Sakya Paṇḍita can be found in Jamgön Amé's Treasury of Wonders, pp. 85-149. A brief account of his life written by his student, Martön Chökyi Gyalpo, can be read in English translation in Cyrus Stearns's Luminous Lives, pp. 159-67. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 650n1023)
Text
Jo bo rjes rgyal srid spangs nas thar pa sgrub pa'i rnam par thar pa
Biography of Atiśa copmposed by his student Dromtönpa Gyalwa Jungne. It has an alternative title, The Qualities of My Teacher, Which Are the Source of Dharma, and begins with a short ode that also appears as the first entry in the Father Teachings, volume 1 of The Book of Kadam, and that is probably where the editors of the Mind Training: The Great Collection got it for our present anthology. (Source: Thupten Jinpa, trans. and ed., Mind Training: The Great Collection. Compiled by Shönu Gyalchok and Könchok Gyaltsen (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2006), 581n40)
Text
Contains chapter or part
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
