Books/The Thirty Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva (Khenpo Gawang)/Bilingual

The Thirty Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva (Khenpo Gawang)

རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་སོ་བདུན་མ།

Gyalse Tokme Zangpotrans.Khenpo Gawang

Bilingual Presentation

Bilingual

Gyalsey Tokmey Zangpo (རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཐོགས་མེད་བཟང་པོ་, 1295-1369) wrote The Thirty Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva (རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་སོ་བདུན་མ།) in the fourteenth century, and it is still one of the most popular short texts for Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in any country. His succinct, simple verses of advice summarize the essence of the Mahayana Buddhist path. Here, master translators Khenpo Gawang and Gerry Wiener provide the text in a bilingual presentation with Tibetan and English on the same page, making it useful for both practitioners and students of Tibetan language. The work presents a practical guide to living as a bodhisattva—someone dedicated to achieving enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. The text begins with an homage to Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, and then systematically outlines thirty-seven practices organized around the graduated path to enlightenment. These practices move from foundational teachings—such as recognizing the preciousness of human existence and leaving behind worldly attachments—through the development of bodhichitta (the mind of enlightenment), and culminate in the perfection of the six perfections (transcendent virtues): generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom.

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  

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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  

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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  

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Karuṇā - The profound wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. It is a core virtue in Buddhism and, in the Mahāyāna tradition, develops into 'great compassion' (mahākaruṇā), the driving force behind the pursuit of enlightenment for the benefit of others. Skt करुणा  Tib ཐུགས་རྗེ་  Ch 悲  

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Kṣānti - Patience is the ability to remain calm and composed when facing difficulties, suffering, or harm from others, without becoming angry or discouraged. Skt क्षान्ति  Tib བཟོད་པ་  Ch 忍;忍辱  

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Vīrya - Diligence is the joyful and consistent effort applied to virtuous actions and spiritual practice. It acts as the engine that drives progress and prevents laziness or discouragement on the path. Skt वीर्य  Tib བརྩོན་འགྲུས་  Ch 精進  

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Prajñā - One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding. Skt प्रज्ञा  Tib ཤེས་རབ་  Ch 般若  

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