Byang chub sems kyi bstod pa rin chen sgron ma/Full text
From Bodhicitta
< Texts | Byang chub sems kyi bstod pa rin chen sgron maTexts/Byang chub sems kyi bstod pa rin chen sgron ma/Full text
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་བསྟོད་པ་རིན་ཆེན་སྒྲོན་མ།
The Jewel Lamp: A Praise of Bodhicitta
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Description
The Jewel Lamp: A Praise of Bodhicitta is a text by Khunu Rinpoche (Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen, 1894–1977) composed in classical Tibetan verse. The work was written in 1959 and consists of 356 verses that Khunu Rinpoche wrote in a diary, composing one verse a day for approximately a year. The text extols bodhicitta—the altruistic intention to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, which is considered the heart of Mahāyāna Buddhist practice.
The text presents bodhicitta as the most precious quality one can develop, using extensive poetic imagery and metaphors to describe its benefits and supreme importance. Khunu Rinpoche draws on traditional Buddhist sources while offering his own devotional perspective on this central concept.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who was a student of Khunu Rinpoche, has been particularly devoted to this text. He received the oral transmission directly from Khunu Rinpoche himself, noting it was "the first teaching I received from him." The Dalai Lama has taught from The Jewel Lamp on multiple occasions, including extended teachings in Sydney, Australia in 2013. The work is valued for its clarity, inspirational quality, and its role in preserving the emphasis on compassion and altruism in Tibetan Buddhist practice. It has been translated into English and is studied within Tibetan Buddhist communities as both a teaching text and a source of contemplation on compassionate motivation.| Reference | Khu nu bla ma bstan 'dzin rgyal mtshan (ཁུ་ནུ་བླ་མ་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱལ་མཚན་). byang chub sems kyi bstod pa rin chen sgron ma [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་བསྟོད་པ་རིན་ཆེན་སྒྲོན་མ།]. [The Jewel Lamp: A Praise of Bodhicitta]. |
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| People | Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen |
