The Seven Points Bodhicitta Training
Geshe Chhekhapa Yeshi Dorji
Point 1: - Preliminaries: Preliminaries for the whole body Lo Jong practice
First practice the preliminaries.
1. Meditate on and become acquainted with the preciousness of human life.
2. Meditate on and familiarise yourself with the reality of death and impermanence.
3. Meditate on and become aware of karmic cause and effect.
4. Meditate on and learn the DUKHA of Samsara.
Training in the ultimate bodhicitta:
Preparing to meditate.
First take refuge in the three jewels. Cultivate motivation and ask for the blessings of masters and deities.
The practice of the seven branches of the accumulation of merit and the purification of negativity.
The offering of the mandala.
The 21 rounds of inhaling and exhaling breathing practice.
Main practice: Effective meditation with analytical, contemplative and one-pointed concentration.
Consider that all phenomena are like a dream.
Analyse the innate nature of the mind.
Acknowledging the non-existence of the remedy, which is one's own self, and freeing oneself by meditating into the empty state of recognition of Ultimate Reality.
To settle into the nature of the path in the state of the foundation of all phenomena, Dharmadhatu.
Concluding practice: Mindfulness practice accompanying the moments after meditation.
Be in an illusion state between sessions.
Conventional bodhichitta training:
Contemplation and post-contemplation;
Practice of giving one's own happiness and taking the pain of others, alternately.
Practice of giving and receiving through the inhalation and exhalation of breath.
Whenever the three toxic attitudes of craving, anger and ignorance arise towards the three respective objects, pleasant, unpleasant and neutral, the practice of Tong Len turns them into the three roots of virtue: detachment, compassion, and consciousness.
One trains with words, reciting the Lo Jong Prayer, the Eight Verses of Mental Training, mantras, etc., in order to constantly encourage this practice.
With regard to the order of taking suffering, you practice starting with your own future suffering, and this practice facilitates the ability to take the suffering of others.
Change of perspective of world observation:
When one realizes that the environment and its inhabitants are filled with negative forces, transform adverse circumstances and unfavorable conditions into a path to enlightenment through the practice of Lo Jong.
By practicing Bodhicitta:
By the Supreme Bodhicitta:
Whenever mental confusions arise due to wrong views, meditate on them as the four forms of Buddha (Ultimate Dharma-kaya as the vacuous nature of mind, Dharma-kaya of Wisdom as the conscious nature of mind, Sambhoka-kaya as the beauty of mind and Nirnama-kaya as the action of mind). The emptiness that is the supreme protection that removes obstacles.
The application of the four practices is the supreme method of purification and accumulation of merit;
Accumulating positivity.
The purification of negative force.
The transformation of sudden obstacles into a path:
Applying to meditate on whatever unexpected obstacles may arise along the way.
The essence of the quintessential teachings is the application of the five forces:
1. the force of intention; motivation, or positive intention.
2. the force of virtuous karma; collecting merit through positive action.
3. the force of familiarisation; habituation to the practice through constant application.
4. the force of the total elimination of all unnecessary superstructures; the immediate repudiation of negative actions from the heart.
5. the power of prayer; using inspirational thoughts and devotional prayers on a regular basis.
The application of the practice of PHO WA at the time of death:
The quintessential teaching for transferring the mind, or PHO WA Mahayana, consists of applying the five powers to be guarded with great care.
If you are able to focus all your Dharmic practice on the essential goal of ultimately liberating the mind from self-grasping.
If one is able to make oneself the primary witness to the purity of one's practice, instead of relying on an external witness.
When you check whether you are mature in the following qualities,
A being with a big heart, who thinks first and foremost of the welfare of others;
A great being trained to be constructive;
A great being who is able to endure difficulties and to overcome negativity;
A great being disciplined in fulfilling commitments;
A great yogi who is concerned with the goal of bodhichitta.
When one is able to maintain a constantly joyful mind, transforming adverse circumstances into favourable ones by practising lo jong.
(1-3) Always practice the three general points:
-Do not allow your Lo Jong practices to contradict other Dharma practices.
-Don't allow egregious behaviour resulting from misapplication of Lo Jong practices.
-Don't allow your Lo Jong practice to be one-sided.
4. Transform your inner quality, but externally maintain behaviour in harmony with other Dharma friends.
5. Do not talk about the negative aspects of others.
6. Even if you see the faults of others, do not think about them.
7. Practice the antidote to the most disturbing emotions in the first place.
8. Give up the expectation of worldly achievements such as fame, respect and other material objects.
9. Do not allow poisonous attitudes such as obsession with external objects and covetousness to be mixed with Dharma practices.
10. Not to resent harmful actions against oneself.
12. Never respond to any harmful action with the same attitude.
13. Not to commit actions that cause harm to the body and mind of others.
14. Do not blame others for one's own mistakes and wrong actions, as if transferring the burden of a dzo to an ox.
15. Abandon all intentions and actions of possessing the wealth of the community for oneself alone.
16. Avoid practising Lo Jong with the expectation of gaining small benefits, or even to ward off the harm of negative spirits.
17. Do not let the practice of Lo Jong become a source of food and satisfaction for the ego.
18. Do not wish others to suffer in order to nourish your own happiness.
1. Perform all yogas with the single intention of benefiting others, including the yoga of eating, because all forms of daily mindfulness practice must be performed with the single intention of selflessness.
2. All practices to remove obstacles and intensify realisations should be done with the attitude of equating and exchanging oneself for others.
3. Apply the two actions at the beginning and at the end: Each practice should begin with the motivation of bodhicitta and end with devotion to the welfare of others and appropriate prayers.
4. In life one may encounter desirable or undesirable conditions, but all should be welcomed in the practice of Lo Jong.
5. All Dharma commitments in general and Lo Jong commitments in particular should be kept, even at the cost of one's life.
6. Whenever negative thoughts arise, they should be immediately confronted with positive thoughts as an antidote that can eliminate and eradicate them.
7. One should learn to cultivate the right causes and conditions, such as relying on teachers and relaxing the mind, and only the indispensable material requirements.
8. Do not abandon the respect and inspiration of spiritual masters, the appreciation of the practice of Lo Jong and the observance of the commitments of Pratimoksha, Bodhisattva and Mantrayana.
9. Body, speech and mind must be inseparable in the virtuous mind,
10. One must practise Lo Jong with an attitude of impartiality towards all.
11. One should learn that everything that can be perceived should be covered by the practice of Lo Jong.
12. Practice Lo Jong to develop loving kindness towards all, even those who are averse to one's way of being.
13. Learn to meditate on Lo Jong regardless of favourable or unfavourable situations.
14. One should learn to practice Lo Jong by concentrating on the essentials.
15. One should not fall into misunderstandings by misinterpreting things regarding faith, patience, compassion, pure vision, motivation, appreciation, intentions, etc.
16. One should maintain the practice without interruption.
17. One should engage in the practice by concentrating with the heart, without arrogance and conceit.
18. One should learn to eliminate negative thoughts and actions by means of thorough analysis and investigation, rather than by means of uncritical, unthinking, blind faith.
19. Do not boast when you have done good things by repeatedly emphasising them and receiving rewards for them.
20. Do not feel or express dissatisfaction when someone makes an inadequate or unsatisfactory remark about you.
21. Do not show yourself to be short-tempered and unstable in carrying out Dharma practice.
22. Do not glorify your Dharma practice in order to gain fame and reward.
Thus you are transformed into the path to enlightenment,
this time as degeneration (Kali yug) increases.
This is what the teaching is all about,
The quintessential nectar of the Serlingpa lineage.
The awakening of karmic residue from previous training,
My admiration for this practice has been on the increase.
Therefore I have endured suffering and infamy.
I have received the instruction to tame myself.
I have no regrets, even in the event of my death now.
This is the ancient tradition of the Seven Points of Bodhicitta Mental Training, composed by Geshe Kadampa Chhekhapa on the essence of the teaching on the practice of Bodhicitta received from Geshe Kadampa Drom Tonpa Gyalwai Jubgney, the principal disciple of Master Atisha Dipamkara Shree Gyana.
The main sources of Lo Jong's teachings are Buddha's Avatamsaka Sutra, Nagarjuna's Ratnavali and Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara.
The text of Lo Jong's Seven Points of Mental Training is presented in a number of versions due to the different sources of transcription and the different lineages of transmission.
However, this translation is based on one of the oldest versions and has been translated in the simplest language to make it understandable to ordinary practitioners. Furthermore, this translation focuses on meaning rather than literal interpretation.
༄༅། །སྙིང་རྗོ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་ཕྱག་
༡༽དང་པོ་སྔོན་འགྲོ་དག་ལ་བསླབ། །
༢༽ཆོས་རྣམས་རྨི་ལམ་ལྟ་བུ་བསམ།
།མ་སྐྱེས་རིག་པའི་གཤིས་ལ་དཔྱད། །གཉེན་པོ་ཉིད་ཀྱང་རང་སར་གྲོལ།
།ངོ་བོ་ཀུན་གཞིའི་ངང་ལ་བཞག །ཐུན་མཚམས་སྒྱུ་མའི་སྐྱེས་བུ་བྱ
༣༽སྣོད་བཅུད་སྡིག་པས་གང་བའི་ཚེ། །རྐྱེན་ངན་བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་དུ་བསྒྱུ
༤༽མན་ངག་སྙིང་པོ་མདོར་བསྡུས་པ། །སྟོབས་ལྔ་དག་ལ་སྦྱར་བར་བྱ། །ཐེག་ཆེན་འཕོ་བའི་གདམས་ངག་ནི། །སྟོབས་ལྔ་ཉིད་ཡིན་སྤྱོད་ལམ་གཅེ
༥༽ཆོས་ཀུན་དགོས་པ་གཅིག་ཏུ་འདུས། །དཔང་པོ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་གཙོ་བོར་གཟུང༌
༦༽སྤྱི་དོན་གསུམ་ལ་རྟག་ཏུ་བསླབ། །འདུན་པ་བསྒྱུར་ལ་རང་སོར་བཞག །ཡན་ལག་ཉམས་པར་བརྗོད་མི་བྱ། །གཞན་ཕྱོགས་གང་ཡང་མི་བསམ་མོ། །ཉོན་མོངས་གང་ཆེ་སྔོན་ལ་སྦྱང༌། །འབྲས་བུའི་རེ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་སྤངས། །དུག་ཅན་གྱི་ཟས་སྤངས། གཞུང་བཟང་པོ་མ་བསྟེན། ཤག་ངན་མ་རྒོད། འཕྲང་མ་བསྒུག གནད་ལ་མི་དབབ། མཛོ་ཁལ་གླང་ལ་མི་འབྱོ། མགྱོགས་ཀྱི་རྩེ་མི་གཏོད། གཏོ་ལོག་མི་བྱ། ལྷ་བདུད་དུ་མི་དབབ། སྐྱིད་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་ཏུ་སྡུག་མ་ཚོལ། །
༧༽རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཐམས་ཅད་གཅིག་གིས་བྱ
སྙིགས་མ་ལྔ་པོ་བདོ་བ་འདི།
།བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་དུ་བསྒྱུར་བ་ཡིན། །མན་ངག་བདུད་རྩིའི་སྙིང་པོ་འདི།
།གསེར་གླིང་པ་ནས་བརྒྱུད་པ་ཡིན། །སྔོན་སྦྱངས་ལས་ཀྱི་འཕྲོ་སད་པས།
།རང་གི་མོས་པ་མང་བའི་རྒྱུས། །སྡུག་བསྔལ་གཏམ་ངན་ཁྱད་བསད་ནས།
།བདག་འཛིན་འདུལ་བའི་གདམས་ངག་ཞུ
2. Another version of The 7 Points of Mind Traning English translation
Homage to great compassion.
The essence of this nectar of secret instruction
Is transmitted from the master from Sumatra.
Revealing the features of the doctrine to engender
respect for the instruction
You should understand the significance of this instruction
As like a diamond, the sun and a medicinal tree.
This time of the five degenerations will then be transformed
Into the path to the fully awakened state.
The actual instruction for guiding the disciple
is given in seven points
1. Explaining the preliminaries as a basis for the practice
First, train in the preliminaries.
2. The actual practice, training in the awakening mind
(a) How to train in the ultimate awakening mind
(b) How to train in the conventional awakening mind
(According to most of the older records, the training in the ultimate awakening mind is dealt with first. However, according to our own tradition, following the gentle protector Tsongkhapa, as contained in such works as the Mind Training like the Rays of the Sun, Ornament for Losang’s Thought, The Essential Nectar and Keutsang’s Root Words, the order is reversed for special reasons.)
(b) Training in the conventional awakening mind
Banish the one to blame for everything,
Meditate on the great kindness of all beings.
Practice a combination of giving and taking.
Giving and taking should be practiced alternately
And you should begin by taking from yourself.
These two should be made to ride on the breath.Concerning the three objects, three poisons and three virtues,
The instruction to be followed, in short,
Is to be mindful of the practice in general,
By taking these words to heart in all activities.
(a) Training in the ultimate awakening mind
When stability has been attained, impart the secret teaching:
Consider all phenomena as like dreams,
Examine the nature of unborn awareness.
The remedy itself is released in its own place,
Place the essence of the path on the nature of the basis of all.In the period between sessions, be a creator of illusions.
3. Transforming adverse circumstances into the path to enlightenment
When the environment and its inhabitants overflow with unwholesomeness,
Transform adverse circumstances into the path to enlightenment.
Apply meditation immediately at every opportunity.
The supreme method is accompanied by the four practices.
4. The integrated practice of a single lifetime
In brief, the essence of the instruction is
To train in the five powers.
The five powers themselves are the Great Vehicle’s
Precept on the transference of consciousness.
Cultivate these paths of practice.
5. The measure of having trained the mind
Integrate all the teachings into one thought,
Primary importance should be given to the two witnesses,
Constantly cultivate only a peaceful mind.
The measure of a trained mind is that it has turned away,
There are five great marks of a trained mind.
The trained (mind) retains control even when distracted.
6. The commitments of mind training
1. Don’t go against the mind training you promised to observe,
2. Don’t be reckless in your practice,
3. Don’t be partial, always train in the three general points,
4. Transform your attitude but maintain your natural behavior,
5. Don’t speak of others’ incomplete qualities,
6. Don’t concern yourself with others’ business,
7. Train to counter whichever disturbing emotion is greatest,
8. Give up every hope of reward,
9. Avoid poisonous food,
10. Don’t maintain misplaced loyalty,
11. Don’t make sarcastic remarks,
12. Don’t lie in ambush,
13. Don’t strike at the vital point,
14. Don’t burden an ox with the load of a dzo,
15. Don’t abuse the practice,
16. Don’t sprint to win the race,
17. Don’t turn gods into devils,
18. Don’t seek others’ misery as a means to happiness.
7. The precepts of mind training
1. Every yoga should be performed as one,
2. All errors are to be amended by one means,
3. There are two activities—at beginning and end,
4. Whichever occurs, be patient with both,
5. Guard both at the cost of your life,
6. Train in the three difficulties,
7. Seek for the three principal causes,
8. Don’t let three factors weaken,
9. Never be parted from the three possessions,
10. Train consistently without partiality,
11. Value an encompassing and far-reaching practice,
12. Train consistently to deal with difficult situations,
13. Don’t rely on other conditions,
14. Engage in the principal practices right now,
15. Don’t apply a wrong understanding,
16. Don’t be sporadic,
17. Practice unflinchingly,
18. Release investigation and analysis,
19. Don’t be boastful,
20. Don’t be short-tempered,
21. Don’t make a short-lived attempt,
22. Don’t expect gratitude.
This is concluded with a quotation from Geshe Chekawa, who had an experience of the awakening mind:
My manifold aspirations have given rise
To humiliating criticism and suffering,
But, having received instructions for taming the misconception of self,
Even if I have to die, I have no regrets.
