Theg pa chen po'i blo sbyong gi rtsa ba

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བློ་སྦྱོང་གི་རྩ་བ།

theg pa chen po'i blo sbyong gi rtsa ba

Root Lines of Mahāyāna Mind Training

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

That the mind training teaching originated in a scattered oral tradition of Atiśa's instructions appears to be recognized also by the author of what is effectively the earliest history of the Kadam tradition. In his History of the Precious Kadam Tradition, Tibetan author Sonam Lhai Wangpo (fifteenth century) lists four different categories of master Atiśa's teachings: (1) those pertaining to the stages of the path, (2) scattered sayings, (3) epistles, and finally (4) the various pith instructions. Within this fourfold division, the author lists the entire collection of mind training teachings as belonging to the second class, namely scattered sayings. It is probably also for this reason that the root lines on mind training do not appear among the works attributed to Atiśa in the Tengyur. For until these scattered sayings were compiled together into a coherent text, no such work called the Root Lines on Mind Training existed. Almost all Tibetan sources agree that Langri Thangpa, and later Chekawa, were responsible for bringing the "secret" mind trainings teaching into the wider public domain.

Following the organization of the root lines on mind training into the seven key points, the Seven-Point Mind Training effectively became the root text of Atiśa's mind training teachings. (Thupten Jinpa, Mind Training: The Great Collection, 11)

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theg pa chen po'i blo sbyong gi rtsa ba [ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བློ་སྦྱོང་གི་རྩ་བ།]. [Root Lines of Mahāyāna 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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