Translation of
Blo sbyong nyi ma'i 'od zer
The Mind Training Like the Rays of the Sun exemplifies Tsongkhapa's presentation of mind training. The author, Namkha Pel, as he mentions in his introduction, received the lineage of the explanation of the Seven Point Mind Training, which is the fundamental text here, from various sources including Je Rinpoche, his principal teacher. What is distinctive about this presentation is that he has managed to combine both the mind training instructions as they are recorded in Geshey Chekawa's text with the pattern of the Stages of the Path. (Adapted from Source Mar 26, 2025)
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Teaching on
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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