Recensions
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)Full translations
Advice from a Spiritual Friend
The commentary to the Seven Point Thought Transformation was given by the venerable Geshe Rabten, a holder of the direct oral transmission and an accomplished meditation master from Sera monastic university, formerly near Lhasa in Tibet. He is at present the abbot of Rikon monastery in Switzerland. Geshe Rabten's teaching was translated by the venerable Gonsar Tulku and was given to a group of western disciples in Dharamsala, India, in June, 1973. A translation of this has been prepared in French by Georges Driessens of the "Centre d'etudes Tibetaines", 6 Bd. d'Indochine, 75019, Paris.
The commentary to the Jewel Rosary of an Awakening Warrior was given by the most learned Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey and translated by the venerable Sherpa Tulku. It was given in October, 1973, at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, and is published here with the kind permission of its director, Mr. Gyatsho Tshering.
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Atiśa Dīpamkara: Illuminator of the Awakened Mind
This book contains useful translations of parts of eleven of Atiśa's works, along with an introduction to the times and places of his life, with a succinct biography.
Few figures in the history of Buddhism in Tibet have had as far-reaching and profound an influence as the Indian scholar and adept Atiśa Dīpaṃkara (982–1054). Originally from Bengal, Atiśa was a tantric Buddhist master during Vajrayana Buddhism’s flowering in India and traveled extensively, eventually spending the remaining twelve years of his life revitalizing Buddhism in Tibet. Revered by all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism, Atiśa and his students founded what came to be known as the Kadam school, whose teachings have influenced countless Buddhist masters. These teachings, cherished by all major traditions, are preserved by the Geluk in particular, the school of the Dalai Lamas.
Although Atiśa was an influential practitioner and scholar of Tantra, he is best known for introducing many of the core Mahayana teachings that are widely practiced throughout the Tibetan Buddhist world, including the Stages of the Path to Awakening and Mind Training (lojong), as well as having contributed to highly influential commentaries on Madhyamaka that synthesize various schools of thought. This succinct biography of Atiśa’s life, together with a collection of translations, represents for the first time the full range of Atiśa’s contribution to Buddhism. As the most comprehensive work available on this essential Buddhist figure, this book is an indispensable resource for scholars and Buddhist practitioners alike. (Source: Shambhala Publications)Book
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
Kadam: Stages of the Path, Mind Training and Esoteric Practice - Part 1 (Engle 2024)
Details of the 18 texts translated here can be seen on the Damngak Dzo website here. The Treasury of Precious Instructions by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye, one of Tibet’s greatest Buddhist masters, is a shining jewel of Tibetan literature, presenting essential teachings from the entire spectrum of practice lineages that existed in Tibet. In its eighteen volumes, Kongtrul brings together some of the most important texts on key topics of Buddhist thought and practice as well as authoring significant new sections of his own.
The third volume of this series covers the teachings and practices of the Kadam lineage. This tradition is based on the teachings of the Indian master Atiśa, who traveled to Tibet in the early eleventh century and stayed for twelve years transmitting teachings that would be embraced by many traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. The three categories of teachings covered here and in the fourth volume of the series—Stages of the Path, Mind Training, and esoteric instructions—correspond to three root texts: Atiśa’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, the aphorisms of the Seven-Point Mind Training, and Atiśa’s Bodhisattva’s Jewel Garland. This volume also contains ritual texts on the bodhisattva vow conferral, as well as commentaries by Tsongkhapa, Tāranātha, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, and Jamgön Kongtrul, himself. The fourth volume of The Treasury of Precious Instructions series extends these commentaries and includes material on the esoteric instructions known as the Sixteen Drops. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
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Mind Training: The Great Collection
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)
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Member of
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
Teachings
H.E. Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche: The Bodhisattva's Garland of Jewels by Atisha - Part 1
The Bodhisattva's Garland of Jewels by Atisha (Bodhisattvamaņyāvalī, Changchub Sempé Norbu Trengwa)
A summer course at Benchen Phunstok Ling, Allmuthen, Belgium by His Eminence Drubwang Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche in 2013.
Teaching session (one)
