The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva (Sodargye 2016)

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The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva (Sodargye 2016)
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Gyalse Tokme Zangpo
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Khenpo Sodargye
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Khenposodargye.org
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Description

The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, composed by the renowned Tibetan master, Thogme Zangpo, is a great treatise that summarizes the entire bodhisattva path and provides excellent pith instructions for Mahayana practice. This text is not only popular in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, but is also studied and practiced by countless Buddhists from different parts of the world.

His Holiness Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche held this teaching in high esteem, having received it himself from different masters over 150 times. His Holiness frequently taught this text at Larung Gar and also when he visited monasteries or Dharma centers in various places. Depending on the time available, His Holiness would sometimes present the teaching in great detail and at other times very concisely, sometimes giving only the oral transmission. Often acting as His Holiness’ attendant and translator, Khenpo Sodargye received this teaching, including the oral transmission, more than 100 times from His Holiness Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche.

It is also this very text that created an auspicious condition for Khenpo Rinpoche’s Dharma activities in the Han regions of China. At the request of His Holiness Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche, Khenpo Sodargye translated this treatise into Chinese and gave teachings to Han Chinese Buddhists during their visit to Mount Wutai in 1987. Since that time, Khenpo Rinpoche’s Dharma activities have been profoundly vast and successful.

This treatise categorizes all of the practices of the Buddhist path into those of lesser, middling, and great beings, in successive order. This works as a practical guide for following the path of the bodhisattvas, verse by verse. As a training manual, this treatise enables bodhichitta to increase naturally and become stronger in our minds after we completely understand it. Even if one doesn’t understand its real meaning, just by hearing the verses word by word, one’s compassion and loving-kindness will naturally increase.

In this commentary, Khenpo Rinpoche gives a precise explanation of the practices in a systematic way. Accordingly, this will help practitioners who are determined to incorporate these practices into everyday life and traverse the bodhisattva path, in developing stability in their understanding and practice. (Source Accessed Mar 3, 2025)

Citation
Sodargye, Khenpo. The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas by Thogme Zangpo. (ebook) khenposodargye.org, 2016.
Publisher Link
https://khenposodargye.org/books/ebooks/the-thirty-seven-practices-of-a-bodhisattva/


Translation of

 
Rgyal sras lag len so bdun ma
Gyalse Tokme Zangpo's (1295 - 1369) highly influential work on Mind Training (blo sbyong) that outlines the training of a bodhisattva in a series of thirty-seven verses is still very popular today with Buddhist practitioners around the world. The colophon states: "This was composed at the Jewel Cave of Ngulchu by the monk Tokme [Zangpo], expounder of scripture and reasoning, for the benefit of myself and others." Since he gathered together all the paths of the bodhisattvas and composed them in the form of thirty-seven verses, the title is clearly fitting.
Text

Commentary of

 
Rgyal sras lag len so bdun ma
Gyalse Tokme Zangpo's (1295 - 1369) highly influential work on Mind Training (blo sbyong) that outlines the training of a bodhisattva in a series of thirty-seven verses is still very popular today with Buddhist practitioners around the world. The colophon states: "This was composed at the Jewel Cave of Ngulchu by the monk Tokme [Zangpo], expounder of scripture and reasoning, for the benefit of myself and others." Since he gathered together all the paths of the bodhisattvas and composed them in the form of thirty-seven verses, the title is clearly fitting.
Text

  • Root Text2
  • Commentary30
  • Opening31
  • The General Background31
  • The Title33
  • Homage35
  • Promise to Compose40
  • Thirty-Seven Practices
  • Practice 1: Giving Meaning to This Human Existence44
  • Practice 2: Abandoning Your Native Land54
  • Practice 3: Living in Solitary Places58
  • Practice 4: Giving up the Concerns of This Life62
  • Practice 5: Avoiding Unsuitable Friends67
  • Practice 6: Relying on a Spiritual Teacher74
  • Practice 7: Going for Refuge81
  • Practice 8: The Path for Beings of Lesser Capacity89
  • Practice 9 : The Path for Beings of Medium Capacity100
  • Practice 10: The Path for Beings of Superior Capacity106
  • Practice 11: Exchanging Oneself and Others113
  • Practice 12: How to Use Loss on the Path121
  • Practice 13: How to Use Suffering on the Path127
  • Practice 14: How to Use Disgrace on the Path133
  • Practice 15: How to Use Disparagement on the Path137
  • Practice 16: How to Use on the Path Being Wronged in Return for Kindness141
  • Practice 17: How to Use Humiliation on the Path146
  • Practice 18: How to Use Deprivation on the Path150
  • Practice 19: How to Use Prosperity on the Path154
  • Practice 20: How to Use Objects of Hatred on the Path157
  • Practice 21: How to Use Objects of Desire on the Path160
  • Practice 22: The Meditation Practice of Absolute Bodhichitta163
  • Practice 23: Abandoning Any Belief in the Objects of Desire as Truly Existing174
  • Practice 24: Abandoning Any Belief in the Objects of Aversion as Truly Existing177
  • Practice 25: Transcendent Generosity180
  • Practice 26: Transcendent Discipline185
  • Practice 27: Transcendent Patience190
  • Practice 28: Transcendent Diligence197
  • Practice 29: Transcendent Concentration201
  • Practice 30: Transcendent Wisdom206
  • Practice 31: Examining Oneself for One’s Own Defects and Giving Them Up211
  • Practice 32: Giving up Speaking of a Bodhisattva’s Faults217
  • Practice 33: Giving up Attachment to a Sponsor’s Property221
  • Practice 34: Giving up Harsh Speech225
  • Practice 35: How to Be Rid of the Negative Emotions228
  • Practice 36: Accomplishing Others’ Good with Mindfulness and Vigilance233
  • Practice 37: Dedicating the Merit to Perfect Enlightenment236
  • Concluding241
  • How and for Whom This Text Was Composed?241
  • The Unerring Nature of These Practices243
  • A Humble Prayer for Forgiveness245
  • Dedicating the Merit of Having Composed This Text247
  • The Colophon249


Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Karuṇā - Skt करुणा  Tib ཐུགས་རྗེ་  Ch 悲  

Go to the page with the definition of 'compassion'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattvas'

Gelek, Ngawang. Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 6; Patience. Transcription of Teachings, 2000–2002. Ann Arbor: Jewel Heart, 2010.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Patience'

Gelek, Ngawang. Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 8; Concentration. Transcription of Teachings, 2004. Ann Arbor: Jewel Heart, 2008.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Concentration'
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