Rgyal sras lag len so bdun ma/Full text
From Bodhicitta
རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་སོ་བདུན་མ།
The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva
FULL TEXT
Description
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.
| Reference | 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]. |
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| People | Gyalse Tokme Zangpo |
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Gyalsey Tokmey Zangpo (རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཐོགས་མེད་བཟང་པོ་, 1295-1369) wrote The Thirty Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva (རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་སོ་བདུན་མ།) in the fourteenth century, and it is still one of the most popular short texts for Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in any country. His succinct, simple verses of advice summarize the essence of the Mahayana Buddhist path. Here, master translators Khenpo Gawang and Gerry Wiener provide the text in a bilingual presentation with Tibetan and English on the same page, making it useful for both practitioners and students of Tibetan language.
The work presents a practical guide to living as a bodhisattva—someone dedicated to achieving enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. The text begins with an homage to Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, and then systematically outlines thirty-seven practices organized around the graduated path to enlightenment. These practices move from foundational teachings—such as recognizing the preciousness of human existence and leaving behind worldly attachments—through the development of bodhichitta (the mind of enlightenment), and culminate in the perfection of the six perfections (transcendent virtues): generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom.
