Property:TileDescription
From Bodhicitta
This is a property of type Text.
B
Composed by the Buddhist Master Langri Tangpa (1054-1123), ''Eight Verses for Training the Mind'' is a highly revered text from the Mahayana Lojong (mind training) tradition. These instructions offer essential practices for cultivating the awakening mind of compassion, wisdom, and love. This eight-verse lojong enshrines the very heart of Dharma, revealing the true essence of the Mahayana path to liberation. Even a single line of this practice can be seen as encapsulating the entire teaching of the Buddha. For even a single statement of this mind training practice has the incredible power to help us subdue our self-oriented behavior and mental afflictions. The fundamental theme of mind training practice is the profound reorientation of our basic attitude, both toward our own self and toward our fellow human beings, as well as toward the events around us. The goal of mind training practice is the radical transformation of our thoughts, attitudes, and habits. Presently, we tend to cherish the welfare of our own self at the expense of all others. However, the mind training teaching challenges us to reverse this process. This involves a deep understanding of others as true friends, and the recognition that our true enemy lies inside of ourselves, not outside. [https://tushita.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/EightVerses.pdf Source Accessed Jan 30, 2025]) +
This commentary on ''Eight Verses on Mind Training'' is attributed to Chekawa in
the colophon at the end of the text, an attribution that is affirmed by Yeshé Döndrup in ''Treasury of Gems'' (p. 513). . . . The somewhat archaic literary style of the text suggests that this is one of the earliest commentaries on an explicit mind training text, if not the earliest. It is possible that Chekawa may have composed the work on the basis of oral teachings received from Langri Thangpa himself, the author of the ''Eight Verses'' root text. (Thupten Jinpa, ''Mind Training: The Great Collection'', 613n412) +
Read the full text of this work here on our website. +
Read the full text of this work here on our website. +
<i>blo sbyong tshig rkang brgyad pa'i rnam bshad don gsum rab tu gsal ba</i> [བློ་སྦྱོང་ཚིག་རྐང་བརྒྱད་པའི་རྣམ་བཤད་དོན་གསུམ་རབ་ཏུ་གསལ་བ།]. +
Read the full text of this work here on our website. +
<i>blo sbyong tshigs rkang brgyad ma lo rgyus dang bcas pa</i> [བློ་སྦྱོང་ཚིགས་རྐང་བརྒྱད་མ་ལོ་རྒྱུས་དང་བཅས་པ།]. [Eight Verses of Instruction for Developing a Good Heart, along with a Story about Them]. +
Read the full text of this work here on our website. +
This text, widely acclaimed as "The Great Public Explication" (''Tsogs bshad chen mo''), represents perhaps the most extensive early commentarial work of the mind training genre. Soon after its composition, the work appears to have assumed the status of a classic in this genre. Könchok Gyaltsen, one of the compilers of [''Blo sbyong brgya rtsa'', ''Mind Training: The Great Collection''], felt the need to compose what is effectively a companion to this classic, which he entitled ''Supplement to the "Oral Tradition"'' . . . Shönu Gyalchok, on the other hand, recognized Sangyé Gompa's text as a somewhat alternative reading to Chekawa's mainstream approach to ''Seven-Point Mind Training'' expounded in Sé Chilbu's commentary. In ''Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights'' (pp. 193-211), Shönu Gyalchok provides a detailed outline of ''Public Explication''<i>'</i>s presentation of the mind training instructions. In terms of literary style, although it frequently says "thus taught the master" (''zhes gsung ngo''), the work does not appear to be based on notes taken at an oral teaching. Rather, it seems to have been composed as an independent piece, and this is explicitly confirmed by the author's dedication, where he writes:
:Ratnaguru relied on his teacher's words;<br>I, too, have applied the meaning a little in my mind;<br>So through [showing the] interrelations, sequence, and essential instructions,<br>I here present this [instruction on] training the mind.
On the basis of this stanza, it is evident that the author's frequent statement "Thus taught the master" refers to his teacher Ratnaguru (mid twelfth-early thirteenth century), whose full name is Shangtön Chökyi Lama. Popularly known as Shang Ratnaguru, he held the abbotship of Narthang Monastery for ten years. According to Sönam Lhai Wangpo, ''History of the Precious Kadam Tradition'' (pp. 251b-255a), the author of our text, Sangyé Gompa, succeeded his teacher, Ratnaguru, to the abbotship of Narthang and, like his predecessor, held the seat for ten years. In addition to this influential work on mind training, he is also known to have composed a commentary on Atiśa's ''Bodhipathapradipa''. (Thupten Jinpa, ''Mind Training: The Great Collection'', 620n500)
Read the full text of this work here on our website. +
<i>blo sbyong yid bzhin gyi nor bu</i> [བློ་སྦྱོང་ཡིད་བཞིན་གྱི་ནོར་བུ།]. +
Read the full text of this work here on our website. +
<i>blo sbyong zhen pa bzhi bral gyi brgyud 'debs ngor chen rdo rje 'chang gis mdzad pa'i zhal skong</i> [བློ་སྦྱོང་ཞེན་པ་བཞི་བྲལ་གྱི་བརྒྱུད་འདེབས་ངོར་ཆེན་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་གིས་མཛད་པའི་ཞལ་སྐོང་གོང་མ་དང་ཅུང་ཟད་མི་འདྲ་བ།]. +
Blo sbyong zhen pa bzhi bral gyi brgyud 'debs ngor chen rdo rje 'chang gis mdzad pa'i zhal skong/Full text +
Read the full text of this work here on our website. +
Goram Sönam Senge, known often in his shorter names as Gowo Rapjampa or simply as Gorampa, was one of the most influential thinkers in the Sakya school during the fifteenth century. Unlike the works of his somewhat controversial contemporary, the brilliant Śākya Chokden, Gorampa's philosophical writings later became the standard textbooks for many of the monastic colleges of the Sakya school. His works, covering a vast area of classical Buddhist scholarship and running into thirteen large volumes, also became recognized as presenting the mainstream Sakya standpoint on many doctrinal and philosophical issues. It is difficult to discern whether it was Könchok Gyaltsen himself who included this short work of Gorampa in the [''Blo sbyong brgya rtsa'', ''Mind Training: The Great Collection''] or whether it was added later by a subsequent editor. For Könchok Gyaltsen himself gave the transmission of most of the mind training teachings to Gorampa. Gorampa's text appears in volume 8 of his collected works, which is volume 14 in the ''Collected Works of the Masters of Sakya School''. (Thupten Jinpa, ''Mind Training: The Great Collection'', 651n1028) +
Read the full text of this work here on our website. +
A commentary on དག་ཡིག་ངག་སྒྲོན། (''Lamp of Speech on Tibetan Grammar'') of Palkhang Lotsawa Ngawang Chokyi Gyatso, which is a Tibetan lexicon. +
Read the full text of this work here on our website. +
A Study of Bodhicitta +
Bodhi(sattva)caryāvatāra als Lehrschrift und Vorhaben: Zum Thema Ritual, Religion, Philosophie und Mystik im Buddhismus +
''Bodhi(sattva)caryāvatāra'' as a text and project: On the subject of ritual, religion, philosophy and mysticism in Buddhism by David Seyfort-Ruegg. +
