Dpal ldan bir wa ba'i blo sbyong

དཔལ་ལྡན་བིར་ཝ་བའི་བློ་སྦྱོང་།

dpal ldan bir wa ba'i blo sbyong

Glorious Virvapa's Mind Training

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

Though attributed to Lo Lotsāwa, the source of the mind training instruction presented here is identified in its "colophon" as one Darpaṇa Ācārya, who, in turn, was presenting the thought of the Indian mystic Virvapa. The text cites first an eight-line quotation and later a six-line quote from Virvapa, which form the "root text" for this work. The instructions are organized within what the author calls the "yoga of unparalleled compassion" and the "yoga of root cause."

It is difficult to identify who this Indian master Virvapa is. The Tengyur contains two entries attributed to one Birbapa (Toh 1744 and Toh 2280), which may be the same person as our Virvapa. If so, then this is probably in fact Virūpa-the author of the famous Vajra Lines on the Path and Its Fruits, which is the primary root text for the cycle of teachings known as lamdré, or path and its fruits. Virūpa is generally recognized to be the same person as the eighth-century Nalanda Buddhist monk-scholar Dharmapāla. As for Darpaṇa Ācārya, there is an extremely short section on him in The Blue Annals (pp. 1045-46), where the only substantive information given is that he is the author of an important work on the rite of initiation entitled Kriyāsamuccaya (Toh 3305 Tengyur, rgyud 'grel). Lo Lotsāwa, the author of this text, was a Tibetan translator who was born sometime in the latter part of twelfth century. He traveled to Nepal and India and received extensive teachings from many Indian masters. The translations of a number of Vajrayana works are attributed to him. Intriguingly, neither Darpaṇa Ācārya nor the Tibetan lotsāwa (translator) appear in the lineage of this instruction. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 612n406)

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dpal ldan bir wa ba'i blo sbyong [དཔལ་ལྡན་བིར་ཝ་བའི་བློ་སྦྱོང་།]. [Glorious Virvapa's Mind Training].

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

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

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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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)

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