Thog ma dang bar dang tha mar dge ba'i smon lam

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ཐོག་མ་དང་བར་དང་ཐ་མར་དགེ་བའི་སྨོན་ལམ།
thog ma dang bar dang tha mar dge ba'i smon lam
The Prayer of the Virtuous Beginning, Middle, and End
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This aspirational prayer by Tsongkhapa encompasses the entire spiritual journey of a Mahāyāna practitioner, from initial aspirations through the cultivation of enlightenment. The prayer begins by invoking the blessing of the Three Jewels and requesting favorable rebirths with the precious human form necessary for practice. It expresses the aspiration to renounce worldly attachments, take monastic ordination, and remain pure in vows while dedicating oneself to the bodhisattva path for the benefit of all sentient beings. The prayer emphasizes the importance of authentic spiritual teachers, proper study and contemplation of the teachings (especially the Perfection of Wisdom), and avoiding false views and misleading guides. It petitions for the development of all six perfections—generosity, ethical discipline, patience, enthusiastic perseverance, meditative concentration, and wisdom—particularly requesting insight into emptiness united with compassion. The prayer concludes with the aspiration to generate genuine bodhicitta (the mind that cherishes others more than oneself), to benefit even those who cause harm, and ultimately to lead all beings to unsurpassable enlightenment through the power of these profound aspirations.
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thog ma dang bar dang tha mar dge ba'i smon lam [ཐོག་མ་དང་བར་དང་ཐ་མར་དགེ་བའི་སྨོན་ལམ།]. [The Prayer of the Virtuous Beginning, Middle, and End].
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Works related to this item
2 Full translations
The Thirty-Seven Practices of All Buddhas' Sons and The Prayer of the Virtuous Beginning, Middle, and End-front.jpg
Dhargyey, Geshe Ngawang, Sherpa Tulku, Khamlung Tulku, Alexander Berzin, and Jonathan Landaw, trans. and ed. The Thirty-Seven Practices of All Buddhas' Sons and the Prayer of the Virtuous, Beginning, Middle, and End. By Thogs med bzang po and Tsong kha pa. Rev. 2nd ed. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1975.
Books1975About this item
Revised translations of the Tibetan rGyal-sras lag-len so-bdun-ma by the Bodhisattva Thogs-med bzang-po and Thog-mtha'-ma by rJe Tzong-kha-pa prepared by the Translation Bureau of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.
The Thirty-Seven Practices of All Buddhas' Sons and The Prayer of the Virtuous Beginning, Middle, and End (1973)-front.jpg
Dhargyey, Geshe Ngawang, Sherpa Tulku, Khamlung Tulku, Alexander Berzin, and Jonathan Landaw, trans. and ed. The Thirty-Seven Practices of All Buddhas' Sons and the Prayer of the Virtuous, Beginning, Middle, and End. By Thogs med bzang po and Tsong kha pa. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1973.
Books1973About this item
Translations of the Tibetan rGyal-sras lag-len so-bdun-ma by the Bodhisattva Thogs-med bzang-po and Thog-mtha'-ma by rJe Tzong-kha-pa prepared by the Translation Bureau of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.
1 Related
Gyalse Thokme.jpg
Thogs med bzang po (ཐོགས་མེད་བཟང་པོ་). rgyal sras lag len so bdun ma [རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་སོ་བདུན་མ།]. [The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva].
Classical WorksAbout this item
Gyalse Tokme Zangpo's (1295–1369) highly influential work on Mind Training (blo sbyong) that outlines the training of a bodhisattva in a series of thirty-seven verses is still very popular today with Buddhist practitioners around the world. The colophon states: "This was composed at the Jewel Cave of Ngulchu by the monk Tokme [Zangpo], expounder of scripture and reasoning, for the benefit of myself and others." Since he gathered together all the paths of the bodhisattvas and composed them in the form of thirty-seven verses, the title is clearly fitting.
2 A topic of
The Thirty-Seven Practices of All Buddhas' Sons and The Prayer of the Virtuous Beginning, Middle, and End-front.jpg
Dhargyey, Geshe Ngawang, Sherpa Tulku, Khamlung Tulku, Alexander Berzin, and Jonathan Landaw, trans. and ed. The Thirty-Seven Practices of All Buddhas' Sons and the Prayer of the Virtuous, Beginning, Middle, and End. By Thogs med bzang po and Tsong kha pa. Rev. 2nd ed. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1975.
Books1975About this item
Revised translations of the Tibetan rGyal-sras lag-len so-bdun-ma by the Bodhisattva Thogs-med bzang-po and Thog-mtha'-ma by rJe Tzong-kha-pa prepared by the Translation Bureau of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.
The Thirty-Seven Practices of All Buddhas' Sons and The Prayer of the Virtuous Beginning, Middle, and End (1973)-front.jpg
Dhargyey, Geshe Ngawang, Sherpa Tulku, Khamlung Tulku, Alexander Berzin, and Jonathan Landaw, trans. and ed. The Thirty-Seven Practices of All Buddhas' Sons and the Prayer of the Virtuous, Beginning, Middle, and End. By Thogs med bzang po and Tsong kha pa. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1973.
Books1973About this item
Translations of the Tibetan rGyal-sras lag-len so-bdun-ma by the Bodhisattva Thogs-med bzang-po and Thog-mtha'-ma by rJe Tzong-kha-pa prepared by the Translation Bureau of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.



Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of the Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt महायान  Tib ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།  Ch 大乘  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Pāramitā - The six or ten types of practices which lead an individual to Buddhahood. The practice of perfections is particularly important in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which the entire path of the Bodhisattva to reach full enlightenment is included in the six or ten perfections. The six perfections are that of giving, of discipline, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The perfection of skill-in-means, aspirations, power, and pristine wisdom are added to them to make ten perfections. Skt पारमिता  Tib ཕར་ཕྱིན།;ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།  Ch 波羅蜜  

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Kṣānti - Patience is the ability to remain calm and composed when facing difficulties, suffering, or harm from others, without becoming angry or discouraged. Skt क्षान्ति  Tib བཟོད་པ་  Ch 忍;忍辱  

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Vīrya - Diligence is the joyful and consistent effort applied to virtuous actions and spiritual practice. It acts as the engine that drives progress and prevents laziness or discouragement on the path. Skt वीर्य  Tib བརྩོན་འགྲུས་  Ch 精進  

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Dhyāna - A state of deep, one-pointed concentration where the mind is stable, calm, and focused on a single object, serving as a foundation for developing wisdom. Skt ध्यान  Tib བསམ་གཏན་  Ch 禪;禪那;靜慮  

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Prajñā - One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding. Skt प्रज्ञा  Tib ཤེས་རབ་  Ch 般若  

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Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空;空門  

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Karuṇā - The profound wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. It is a core virtue in Buddhism and, in the Mahāyāna tradition, develops into 'great compassion' (mahākaruṇā), the driving force behind the pursuit of enlightenment for the benefit of others. Skt करुणा  Tib ཐུགས་རྗེ་  Ch 悲  

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Anumāna - Inference (Skt. anumāna; T. rjes dpag) is a way of knowing something indirectly, using logic and reasoning rather than direct experience. For example, if you see smoke rising from a distant mountain, you can infer that there is a fire there, even if you can't see the fire directly yourself. It's a key way to understand things that are hidden from our senses. It is used in the Buddhist tradition to gain insight into deeper levels of reality of self and phenomena. Skt अनुमान  Tib རྗེས་དཔག་  Ch 比量  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'
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