A Guide To The Thirty Seven Practices Of A Bodhisattva

A fresh translation and commentary to Tibet's most famous text on living like a bodhisattva Who are bodhisattvas and what do they practice? In the fourteenth century, the Tibetan Buddhist master Gyalse Tokmé Zangpo answered these questions in a now classic teaching called the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva. This text, consisting of inspiring verses distilling the entire Mahayana path of compassion, continues to inspire modern-day Buddhist masters, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama. One of the most important commentaries on the Thirty-Seven Practices is by the twentieth-century master Dzatrul Ngawang Tenzin Norbu, known as the Buddha of Dza Rongphu, and is translated here along with associated meditation instructions for the first time. Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, who requested this translation by Christopher Stagg, provides an informative overview to the history of the text and commentary, introducing the reader to the world of one of Tibet's most widely studied texts.

Thirty-seven Practices of a Bodhisattva is an ancient text written in the 14th Century BCE by Tokme Zangpo, a Buddhist monk and scholar who was born in Puljung, south west of the Sakya Monastery in Tibet. Thirty-seven Practices seeks to make clear the day-to-day behavior of a Bodhisattva (an nlightened being on their way to attaining full Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings). It serves as a practical guide for those people seeking to travel the path of enlightenment. Though short in length, a person could spend a lifetime perfecting the practices. The work can be seen as a companion to Santideva's classic work the Bodhicaryavatara. While there are English translations of this text, they are a little difficult to understand for many readers living in the 21st Century. The mode of expression and the figures of speech are the product of that far-off time. This book faithfully re-expresses in modern day language the underlying message of the original text. Every effort has been made to preserve the underlying spirit of the message. This work respects the beauty of the original text, yet it brings the even greater beauty of the underlying message to a whole new audience in the modern world who might otherwise find the original text less than easy to fully understand. If you are embarking on the path to nlightenment, or just curious, this little book could be just the change agent you have been looking for. It is said to be one of the Dalai Lama's favorite texts.

A unique presentation of the Buddhist path by Chökyi Dragpa, the foremost Gelug disciple of the famed nineteenth-century Tibetan master Patrul Rinpoche. Illuminating the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva's quotations and direct instructions from realized sages of the past reinforce one another, subtly penetrating the mind and preparing it for meditation. This book, while fully accessible to newcomers, is especially powerful for serious, established practitioners. Illuminating the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva was previous published under the title Uniting Wisdom and Compassion.

Conveys the quintessence of the Mahayana path to perfection.

Ngulchu Gyalsas Thogmed Zangmo;s The Thirty Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva is one of Tibetan Buddhist's most popular texts, incorporated in the Mind Training text and also able to be explained according to the Lam Rim tradition. Its advice is timeless and its relevance is universal. This commentary by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as expounded during Kalachakra teachings at Bodh Gaya, is characterised by its clarity, practicality and profundity. Each stanza of the root text is elucidated precisely and in accessible language; in addition, His Holiness the Dalai Lama gives introductory talks at the start of each day of teaching in which he touches on every aspects of our daily lives. Thus, the contents of this book will be beneficial to Buddhist scholars and general readers alike

It can be hard for those of us living in the twenty-first century to see how fourteenth-century Buddhist teachings still apply. When you’re trying to figure out which cell phone plan to buy or brooding about something someone wrote about you on Facebook, lines like “While the enemy of your own anger is unsubdued, though you conquer external foes, they will only increase” can seem a little obscure. Thubten Chodron’s illuminating explication of Togmay Zangpo’s revered text, The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas, doesn’t just explain its profound meaning; in dozens of passages she lets her students and colleagues share first-person stories of the ways that its teachings have changed their lives. Some bear witness to dramatic transformations—making friends with an enemy prisoner-of-war, finding peace after the murder of a loved one—while others tell of smaller lessons, like waiting for something to happen or coping with a minor injury.

Brave, Generous, & Undefended is for all who desire freedom from confusion, self-absorption, and suffering. Rich with insight, humor, and fearless love, Barbara Du Bois’s fresh, direct heart-teachings on the timeless 37 Bodhisattva Practices encourage and guide seekers and practitioners at all levels, in any spiritual tradition. Composed in the 14th century by Tibetan teacher Tokme Zangpo, the 37 Bodhisattva Practices show clearly, and definitely, how to cultivate the expansive, freeing compassion and love that cut the tree of suffering at its root, for the benefit of others and ourselves. This is the way of the bodhisattva—one dedicated to the well-being, happiness, and liberation of all—and Brave, Generous, & Undefended is a profound teaching on living forth in ordinary life this highest of callings. The author, Barbara DuBois, a contemporary Western Dharma teacher, brings her energetic, penetrating wisdom from the heart to Tokme Zangpo’s classic text. The bodhisattva training contained in this book turn one’s self-absorption inside out, revealing the good heart that seeks ultimate freedom―for all. As a longtime practitioner, familiar with the tricks of conditioned mind and what it is hiding from, Du Bois includes and embraces us as participants in these intimate, dynamic discussions that vividly demonstrate the transformational power of the bodhisattva intention. Readers may find that arrows of love and truth pierce their illusions of self and separation, showing how, in the ever-present union of absolute and relative, we already are what we aspire to become: embodiments of truth and love. Her mind and my mind are one; whatever I know, she knows... I am asking all my friends to make sure you read this precious book. —His Eminence Garchen Triptrul Rinpoche, from the Foreword This profound yet practical book will inspire, support, guide, and invigorate beginning seekers and advanced practitioners in every tradition, as well as those without a formal spiritual focus or path. The author’s Dharma training and wisdom, together with her psychological, phenomenological, and sociological perspectives, are uniquely angled to illumine our most evident and our most hidden dilemmas and confusions―as well as the gifts we bring to the path of awakening and to all our companions on the way.

Reading the verses slowly, while contemplating their meaning, has a profoundly liberating effect on the mind. The poem invokes special positive states of mind, moving us from suffering and conflict to happiness and peace, and gradually introduces us to the entire path to attaining the supreme inner peace of enlightenment, the real meaning of our human life.