1 This introduction is adapted and expanded from my introduction to Mind Training: The Great Collection (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2006) to suit a wider readership. Those interested in more detailed understanding of the origins and development of the mind training instructions, as well as the diverse lineage of instructions on the famed Seven-Point Mind Training, please consult my introduction to that earlier volume as well as my annotations to the earliest commentary on the Seven-Point there.
2 The Dalai Lama’s lecture in Central Park can be found in Open Heart (New York: Little, Brown, 2002). Another commentary by the Dalai Lama on Eight Verses can be found in The Compassionate Life (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003).
3 For a clear and succinct explanation of the theoretical understanding of the process of such transformation of the mind and its basis, see H. H. the Dalai Lama, Transforming the Mind, trans. by Thupten Jinpa (London: Thorsons, 2000), pp. 1–19.
4 A lucid translation of this important Buddhist classic in English exists under the title Bodhicaryāvatāra in the Oxford World’s Classics series (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). This translation, undertaken by Andrew Skilton and Kate Crosby, was based on the extant Sanskrit version with comparison to the canonical Tibetan edition of the work. The translation also contains succinct summary of the key points at the beginning of each chapter, thus helping the modern reader become familiar with the structure of the individual chapters. The meditations on equalizing and exchanging of self and others are found in chapter 8 of this Buddhist classic.
5 A simple internet search on “mind training” or “Seven-Point Mind Training” yields numerous English translations of these root texts and also contemporary renderings of their lines in the form of spiritual slogans.
6 Thupten Jinpa, trans., Mind Training: The Great Collection, pp. 57–70.
7 Mind Training: The Great Collection, p. 317. Ostensibly composed as an epistle to an Indian king, Nāgārjuna’s (second century) Precious Garland presents the entire Mahayana path to full enlightenment. Sharawa refers specifically to the lines “May their negative karma ripen upon me. / May all my virtues ripen upon them.” (5:84cd) as a source of the mind training instruction on taking on others’ suffering and offering one’s own happiness to others.
8 As interest in understanding the more positive qualities of the human mind grows, truly secular programs for systematic training in compassion are being developed. I have personally been involved in the development of such a program at Stanford University entitled CCT (Compassion Cultivation Training).
9 Chapter 12 of the present volume is an exposition of Śākyaśrī’s mind training instruction as encapsulated in these four lines.
10 Quoted in Sangyé Gompa’s Public Explication of Mind Training (in Mind Training: The Great Collection, p. 399).
11 Dze chos. Mind Training: The Great Collection, p. 318.
12 For a critical examination of the role of Dharmarakṣita as Atiśa’s teacher, especially on the awakening mind, see the introduction by Michael Sweet and Leonard Zwilling in Geshe Lhundub Sopa et al., Peacock in the Poison Grove (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1996), pp. 4–8.
13 There are several “biographies” of Atiśa, the most well known being the Source of Teachings, which is attributed to Dromtönpa, as well as the Extensive Biography and the Standard Biography of Chim Namkha Drak. For a critical analysis of the tradition of Atiśa’s biographies, see Helmut Eimer, “The Development of the Biographical Tradition Concerning Atiśa (Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna),” The Journal of the Tibet Society, London 2 (1982): 41–51.
14 Shönu Gyalchok, one of the two compilers of Mind Training: The Great Collection, also writes that the Seven-Point Mind Training “is drawn from those composed by Atiśa with minor modifications of wording to help make them easier to understand. This is not an independently authored work.” Shönu Gyalchok, Mind Training: Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights (Delhi: Ngawang Topgyal, 1996), p. 96b. That the tradition of compiling the miscellaneous instructions of the Kadam masters existed very early in the history of the Kadam school is evidenced from the well-known Miscellaneous Sayings of the Kadam Masters, compiled and edited by Chegom Sherap Dorjé (twelfth century), an English translation of which can be found in Thupten Jinpa, trans., The Book of Kadam: The Core Texts, The Library of Tibetan Classics 2 (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2007), pp. 559–610.
15 Due to the divergences among the various redactions of the Seven-Point Mind Training, a student of Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo (1878–1941) requested that he produce a “critical” edition. Comparing the various extant redactions and on the basis of consultation with numerous commentaries, Phabongkha produced a version that is consonant with the approach of Tsongkhapa. A translation of this appears as an appendix to Phabongkha’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, trans. by Michael Richards (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2006), pp. 726–30.
16 On the whole, the Geluk authors use the root text embedded in Hortön Namkha Pal’s Rays of the Sun, which accords with the tradition of Sangyé Gompa, while most non-Geluk authors use the root text embedded in Thokmé Sangpo’s commentary. In this latter text, the training in the ultimate awakening mind comes earlier.
17 For a translation of the core of this Book of Kadam as well as an account of the emergence of the teachings contained in it, see Thupten Jinpa, trans., The Book of Kadam.
18 “Faith” here refers to a profound faith in the law of karma.
19 The Tibetan term khenpo, translated here as “preceptor,” can also mean an abbot of a monastery. Here the term refers to spiritual masters who have conferred vows and precepts upon you.
20 “Both” here refers to the two ends of the spectrum of one’s fluctuating state, namely, self-importance (which arises when one’s state of mind is overly excited) and discouragement (which arises when one’s state of mind becomes too deflated).
21 The ten spiritual deeds or Dharma-related activities, are (1) inscribing the words of scripture, (2) making offerings to the buddhas and bodhisattvas, (3) giving charity, (4) listening to the Dharma, (5) upholding it, (6) reading it, (7) expounding it, (8) reciting it on a daily basis, (9) contemplating the meaning of the Dharma, (10) and meditating on its meaning.
22 The seven limbs are a set of practices that developed in the Mahayana tradition based on canonical sources. The seven are (1) performing prostrations, (2) making offerings, (3) declaring and purifying nonvirtue, (4) rejoicing in your own and others’ virtuous deeds, (5) appealing to the enlightened ones not to enter into nirvana, (6) supplicating the enlightened beings to turn the wheel of Dharma, and finally (7) dedicating all your virtues to the attainment of enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.
23 The two defilements are the two kinds of obscurations—the obscurations of the afflictions, which obstruct liberation, and the subtle obscurations to omniscience, which prevent buddhahood.
24 The Tibetan original uses the instrumental case after the “two,” giving the following reading: “Be upheld principally by the two witnesses.” However, we have chosen here to follow the more established reading, according to which we are advised to uphold our own self, rather than some other person, to be the most important witness to our thoughts and actions.
25 Serlingpa’s personal name is Dharmakīrti, which literally means “renowned in the Dharma.”
26 “Mantra” here refers to the entire system of Buddhist thought and practice known as Vajrayana, while “Perfection” refers to the general Mahayana tradition known as the sutra or “perfection” system.
27 The six parameters are part of a unique interpretive method that sets the conditions within which a correct reading of a Vajrayana text of the highest yoga class must take place. The six parameters consist of three sets of contrasts—provisional versus definitive, literal versus nonliteral, and finally that which has an implicit intent versus that which does not.
28 Tib. Dbyug pa gsum gyi phreng ba. This sutra does not appear to have been translated into Tibetan.
29 Sūtrālaṃkāra. There is no such entry under Aśvaghoṣa’s name in the Tengyur. However a Chinese translation of the text exists under the title Kie man louen.
30 This is Asaṅga’s (ca. fourth century) text entitled Bodhisattvabhūmi.
31 Vimalakīrtinirdeśasūtra, Chap. 7, 215a5. “Perishable composite” refers to the collection of the five aggregates—form, feeling, discrimination, mental formations, and consciousness—that together make up the existence of a person. Classical Buddhist texts often refer to the view of a self as the view of the perishable composite.
32 The three Kadam brothers are Potowa, Chengawa, and Puchungwa, who were principal disciples of Master Dromtönpa and later became the chief custodians of the three principal lineages of Kadam teachings.
33 This is a reference to Dromtönpa, who founded the famous Kadam monastery of Radreng, a site famed for juniper trees.
34 The “three scopes” are the framework within which Atiśa famously organized the teaching of the path to enlightenment in his seminal Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. The term scope relates to the capacity or the level of the aspirant, with the initial scope, or capacity, defined in terms of someone whose primary spiritual goal is to attain freedom from the fears of unfortunate rebirth. Persons of medium scope are those aspirants whose primary spiritual goal is freedom from unenlightened cyclic existence, or samsara. In contrast, the persons of great scope are those aspirants who seek full enlightenment for the benefit all beings. For a concise exposition of Atiśa’s Lamp, see Chapter 3 of the Dalai Lama’s Lighting the Way (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2004).
35 Literally, “chamber of divinities” (lhai khangpa; spelled lha’i khang pa), where the practitioner would have images of revered beings, such as the Buddha, installed on the altar. The abbreviated form of this word, lhakhang, is often translated in English as “temple.”
36 “Master” here refers to Chekawa, Sé Chilbu’s teacher.
37 The “basis-of-all,” or kunshi, is a technical term that is the translation of the Sanskrit word ālaya, a term that has close association with the notion of store consciousness (ālayavijñāna) of the Mind Only school. In the context of the Seven-Point Mind Training, the term is explained differently by different authors, some taking it to refer to an uncontrived natural state of the mind, others taking it to refer to emptiness, the ultimate nature of reality.
38 On the seven limbs, see note 22.
39 A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 8:120, 28a5.
40 A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 8:131, 28b4.
41 A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 8:136, 28b7.
42 The metaphor implied here is that of grabbing a dog by its snout.
43 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 5:70, 13a1.
44 The “great lord of the ten levels” is the Buddha, who has perfected all ten bodhisattva levels (bhūmi) of purification and development.
45 The “five poisons” of the mind are the afflictions of attachment, anger, delusion, pride, and jealousy.
46 Bhūripa’s Extensive Daily Confessions of Cakrasaṃvara Practice, 95a4.
47 The “four everyday activities” are the four physical activities a monk typically engages in on a daily basis: traveling, strolling, lying down, and sitting.
48 Dharmakīrti, Thorough Exposition of Valid Cognition 2:221, 116a1.
49 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 8:113, 28a1.
50 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 8:155, 29b3.
51 In Tibetan society this facial expression conveys determination and courage in the face of an enemy’s challenge. Warriors from the Gesar epic are often depicted with this expression during battle.
52 A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 4:34, 9a7. The last line differs slightly from the version in the Dergé canon.
53 This is probably an old Tibetan saying. A slightly different version of this saying reads: “Living on the head yet throwing mud into the eyes.” The saying describes the ingratitude of someone who deliberately harms those from whom he or she has received benefits.
54 A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 8:129–30, 28b3.
55 In Tibetan folk belief, the hooting of owls is considered a bad omen, an intimation of misfortune to come, such as the death of a loved one.
56 A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 8:154, 29b:3.
57 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 8:169, 30a4.
58 I have failed to locate the source of this enumeration system. The classification of afflictions into six root and twenty derivative ones is found in Vasubandhu’s (ca. fourth century) classic Treasury of Higher Knowledge (Abhidharmakośa).
59 A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 8:121, 28a5. I have followed the canonical reading of the first line here.
60 Shawo Gangpa was a student of the famous Kadam master Gönpawa Wangchuk Gyaltsen (1016–82), who was, in turn, a prominent student of both Atiśa and Dromtönpa.
61 The spiritual mentor Ben refers to Ben Gungyal, a student of the Kadam master Gönpawa. This saying is one of the most well known by him that is cited in many other Tibetan texts.
62 This metaphor is found in Nāgārjuna’s Friendly Letter 69cd, 43b7. Lokesh Chandra provides kolāsita as the Sanskrit equivalent of the Tibetan word rgya shug gi tshig gu. Since I have failed to identify what this tree is supposed to be, I have left its Sanskrit name in my translation here.
63 Condensed Perfection of Wisdom in Stanzas, 12b6. “Elemental spirits” are nonhuman agents, sometimes thought to cause energy imbalances and illness, according to ancient Indian and Tibetan medical systems.
64 The Tibetan word dzené (dze nad), which is often translated as “leprosy,” might also be referring to another highly contagious skin disease. This illness appears to have been a major health concern during the time of the early Kadam teachers in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the central and southern regions of Tibet.
65 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 3:12abd and 13d, 7a3.
66 The first two lines of this stanza do not appear in Atiśa’s Root Lines and are also absent in many subsequent editions of the Seven-Point Mind Training.
67 Vajra Peak Tantra, 205b2.
68 In other words, like these impossible phenomena, one’s obstructions are baseless.
69 I have failed to discern what list this is.
70 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 6:21b, 15a7.
71 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 6:21c, 15a7.
72 The “four powers” are basic elements common to all practices for purifying negative actions: the generation of a sincere regret, reliance on the Three Jewels, the performance of the ritual, and the resolve to not repeat the action.
73 The Tibetan text of this saying from Langri Thangpa is somewhat oblique. What it seems to be stating is that, without the prior cessation of bondage to hopes and fears, simply training in differentiating between friends and enemies and relating to others as friends would be too difficult, analogous to straightening a crooked tree.
74 On the ten spiritual activities, see note 21.
75 Readers will notice that the order of the five powers in this section is different from the one presented immediately before. While the former presents the standard sequence of the five powers, here the sequence is that of transferring consciousness at the time of death.
76 “Gifts of the deceased” (spong thag), literally, the “mark of renunciation,” are articles belonging to a deceased person that are offered to a lama or a monastery, or sometimes to the poor, when requests for the performance of the death ritual are made. It became customary in Tibet, especially for dedicated religious practitioners, to make such offerings even before death. This is to encourage acceptance of the reality of your death so that you can let go of attachment to your possessions and concentrate on meditative practice, such as mind training, with increased urgency.
77 The meaning of this sentence is obscure. It may be an allusion to a Tibetan “death deception” (’chi bslu) ritual, where a dough likeness of a sick person is outfitted with make-believe possessions, including, among other things, cloth from the person’s clothes. If this interpretation is correct, the author is here underlining that the offerings being made to “embodiments of kindness,” namely one’s spiritual teachers, monastic community, and so on, should be real possessions, not facsimiles.
78 That is, the mind’s ultimate nature, emptiness, is not subject to transference at the time of death.
79 This peculiar expression indicates a visceral strength of single-pointed perseverance in spiritual practice.
80 These are two contrasting sets of four things that are often the source of much of our emotional reaction of joy and pain: (1) receiving gifts, (2) fame, (3) praise, and (4) pleasure versus (1) receiving nothing, (2) disrepute, (3) criticism, and (4) pain. Reacting to one set with joy and the other with distress is characterized in the Buddhist texts as being under the power of “eight worldly concerns.”
81 A harmful tree brings misfortune to one who chops it down. All the behaviors listed here are, in one way or another, considered risky and transgressive. The point is that the practitioner of mind training should not flaunt his or her courage and sense of invincibility.
82 Atiśa, Bodhisattva’s Jewel Garland, stanzas 17c and 13d respectively; see Chapter 1 of the present volume.
83 Nāgārjuna, Precious Garland 3:74, 117a5.
84 The commentary does not make explicit the correlation between the two methods of applying antidotes—investigation and close analysis—and the present and future afflictions. It is clear, however, that “investigation”—discerning the affliction most dominant in your mind and striving to diminish its force—relates to present afflictions, and “close analysis”—the detailed casual analysis of the afflictions upon which you strive to prevent their arising in the first place—relates to future afflictions.
85 The English word boastfulness does not fully convey the Tibetan word yü (yud). Yü, strongly abhorred in Tibetan culture, refers to deliberate, excessive expectation of recognition for some beneficial or kind act one has performed. It might involve constantly reminding others of the act done, or certain attitudes or bodily expressions that draw attention to it. Since yü comes from craving recognition, it involves self-cherishing, which is a key target of attack for the practitioner of mind training. There is a well-known Tibetan saying: “For he who boasts of his acts, no recognition is due” (las byas yud can la byas ngo med).
86 Radrengpa here refers to Dromtönpa, the principal student of Atiśa and founder of Radreng Monastery near Lhasa.
87 Chakshingwa was a principal student of Gya Chakriwa, who was in turn an important student of Langri Thangpa. This would place Chakshingwa sometime in the early part of the twelfth century.
88 A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 4:17, 8b5.
89 This story appears in Mind Training: The Great Collection as Chapter 31, “The Story of the Repulsive Mendicant.” The story tells of an ugly mendicant who was hanging around a tavern somewhere in central India when the local Buddhist monastery needed someone to rebuff the constant challenges to debate from non-Buddhist scholars. The monks learned from the local tavern lady of this odd-looking mendi-cant, who always uttered a strange word whenever she threw leftover beer at him. This mendicant turned out to be highly learned, and he helped the monastery to rise to the debate challenge.
90 Condensed Perfection of Wisdom in Stanzas, 19a6.
91 Maitreya, Ornament of Mahayana Sutras 10:81cd, 12a4. The Tengyur reads slightly differently.
92 Walking toward a destination, going for a stroll, sleeping, and sitting—these are referred to as the four everyday activities in the earliest Buddhist scriptures, especially those that relate to the monastic vows.
93 A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 4:44, 9b7.
94 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 4:32, 9a6.
95 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 4:33, 9a7.
96 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 4:30–31, 9a:5.
97 As the subsequent paragraph alludes, countering the afflictions through conduct refers to refraining from their external expression in body and speech. Countering them through meditation means meditation on the three scopes of the stages of the path (lam rim) teaching. Countering them through view refers to seeing the emptiness of these afflictions, their lack of any solid, real object of reference.
98 A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 4:46d, 10a1.
99 It is difficult to determine what “the king Asaṅga” refers to. It is probably an allusion to a story from the scriptures.
100 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 10:56, 40a:3.
101 Nāgārjuna, Commentary on the Awakening Mind 106, 42a:7. The wording of these lines is slightly different in the Tengyur.
102 This sentence is somewhat obscure. Probably the author means that to take the defeat upon yourself means to avoid adding to your negative karma by retaliating in response to harm.
103 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 6:111, 19a2.
104 A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 6:2, 14b4.
105 This is the first of the three aspects of forbearance, the practices of which are explained in detail by Śāntideva in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. The remaining two are the forbearance of voluntarily accepting suffering and the forbearance that results from reflecting on the teachings.
106 This appears to be a slight variation of the first two lines of Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland 5:83. In Nāgārjuna’s text, the lines read, “May their negativity ripen upon me, / and may my virtues ripen upon them.”
107 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 6:42, 16a5.
108 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 6:47, 16b1.
109 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 3:16, 7a5.
110 Source unidentified.
111 Bde ba’i klu. This text was not identified and the quote was not located in the Tengyur, though a text of the same title is attributed to Atiśa in another text.
112 “Definite goodness” (nges legs) refers to the attainments of nirvana and buddhahood.
113 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 8:131, 28b4.
114 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 9:152–53, 36b4.
115 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 9:154ab, 36b6.
116 That is, we take the first two noble truths, suffering and its causes, of all sentient beings on to ourselves, and with respect to the two remaining noble truths—cessation and the path—we imagine giving away our potential realizations of these two to all beings.
117 Rahul Sankrityayan asserts that Serlingpa was “famous for his scholarship throughout the Buddhist world.” See P. V. Bapat, ed., 2500 Years of Buddhism (Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 1959), p. 202. The noted early twentieth-century Tibetan author and historian Gendün Chöphel opines that Serlingpa probably held the title of Dharma King (dharmarāja), a title often held by senior figures in the Southeast Asian Buddhist tradition.
118 The translation of this root text is based on the version found in Yeshé Döndrup’s Treasury of Gems (pp. 41–42), which its author asserts is a critical edition based on consultation with the commentary found in our present volume. He maintains that the version of this root text found in at least two editions of the Great Collection—a handwritten edition and a Mongolian blockprint edition—and also the version found in Sumpa Yeshé Paljor’s (1704–88) collected works, all suffer from corruptions of spelling.
119 This list of four antidotes differs slightly in different texts. Some editions list the third as “a charm bringing closure to your miseries,” which is probably incorrect, an error perpetuated by a corrupt spelling.
120 The act of sealing your practice with meditation on emptiness is a common Mahayana practice. For example, according to Mahayana teaching, the practice of each and every one of the six perfections must be completed with a meditation on the emptiness of what are known as the three factors—the object of the action, the agent, and the action itself. This ensures that your spiritual practice does not fall prey to the deeply ingrained tendency to grasp at things as possessing some kind of enduring reality, thus reinforcing your bondage to cyclic existence. The four acts of sealing referred to in this text, however—casting away, letting go, dismantling, and letting be—appear to be a unique approach.
121 It is difficult to assess the true authorship of this commentarial work. However, if the attribution to Serlingpa of its root text is valid, it is conceivable that Atiśa gave commentaries, or at least explanations, of the instructions contained in the root stanzas. Although the opening two paragraphs of this text are clearly not by Atiśa, as to the main body of the text, I will follow the traditional attribution of this commentary to Master Atiśa.
122 Source unidentified.
123 True Union Tantra, 158a3. These two lines are found also in the Magical Net Tantra,131a3. They are also cited by Atiśa in his Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, 240b2.
124 Candrakīrti, Entering the Middle Way 6:117, 210a1.
125 The four enlightened factors are the four enumerated in the first stanza of the root text.
126 See note 119 above.
127 For the three kinds of forbearance, see note 105 above.
128 On sealing spiritual practice with emptiness, see note 120 above.
129 This last sentence is effectively the colophon of this commentary on Leveling Out All Conceptions, and therefore the actual body of the text concludes here. The remaining part is composed of several citations from sutras and tantras, all of which underline the point that great compassion is the core practice of a bodhisattva, whose sole aspiration is to bring about the welfare of other sentient beings. These citations may have been added later by a Tibetan editor, perhaps Könchok Gyaltsen himself.
130 Heart of Amoghapāśa Sutra, 281a1.
131 Buddhaśrījñāna, Drop of Freedom, 48b2.
132 Buddhaśrījñāna, Drop of Freedom, 48b5.
133 Perfectly Gathering the Qualities [of Avalokiteśvara] Sutra, 84a5.
134 A second text in Mind Training: The Great Collection entitled Peacock’s Neutralizing of Poison is attributed to the same author and is similar in language and style.
135 In producing my translation of Wheel of Sharp Weapons, I had access to three different editions of the text. One is the version found in the original Tibetan volume of Mind Training: The Great Collection. The second was embedded in a lengthy commentary produced from the lecture notes taken from a teaching by the noted Geluk master Trichen Tenpa Rapgyé (1759–1815). The final version appeared in an anthology of Kadam teachings entitled Treausury of Gems, compiled by the nineteenth-century Mongolian author Yeshé Döndrup. Those interested in the philological comments on the variant readings between these different editions of the text may consult my notes in Mind Training: The Great Collection. Readers should also note that the numbering of the verses does not exist in the original and has been introduced for the convenience of translation. In organizing the lines of the poem into stanzas and introducing numbers for them, I have consulted primarily Trichen Tenpa Rapgyé’s commentary and the topical outlines found in Losang Tamdrin’s Annotations. In finalizing my translation, I benefited from the translation by Geshe Lhundub Sopa and Michael Sweet in Peacock in the Poison Grove, as well as the much earlier translation of the Wheel of Sharp Weapons published by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.
136 Literally, “enemy of Yama,” the lord of death in the Buddhist pantheon. Yamāntaka is a wrathful meditation deity often said to be a manifestation of Mañjuśrī, the buddha of wisdom.
137 “Insights of learning and so on” refers to the three levels of understanding described in classical Buddhist texts: understanding derived from (1) learning, (2) critical reflection, and (3) meditation.
138 My reading of this line, substantially different from Sopa et al., is based on Trichen’s Notes (p. 36a). Trichen reads the line to demonstrate the contradiction between someone who aspires for material resources, which according to Buddhist teachings come about as a consequence of giving, yet indulges in such negative acts as stealing and extortion.
139 The Tibetan terms I have translated here as “divination” and “shamanism” are mo and bon. Although the term bon later became established as the name of Tibet’s pre-Buddhist religion, the term can also simply refer to some form of village shamanism or animism. This idea of not relying on mo and bon appears to be an important theme in the early Kadam writings. For to do so is, according to the Kadam masters, to contradict the Buddhist practice of seeking refuge only in the Three Jewels.
140 The Tibetan sa mtha’, which literally means “remote areas,” connotes areas that are outside the bounds of Dharma civilization. Hence my choice of the term “wilderness.”
141 This is a sarcastic remark. In actual fact, clairvoyance can only arise from prolonged meditation practice.
142 Here “well-spoken words” (legs bshad) refers to the teachings of the Buddha and their subsequent commentarial treatises.
143 These two lines resonate very closely with two famous lines from the Seven-Point Mind Training.
144 “Existence and pacification” refers to the well-known Buddhist dichotomy of samsara (cyclic existence) and nirvana (its pacification).
145 The three wisdoms are the understandings mentioned above in note 137.
146 This last line suggests that the above song was sung as a self-exhortation by Maitrīyogi.
147 “Pure trainees” here refers to those bodhisattvas who have gained direct insight into emptiness, have attained the state of a noble one (ārya), and are, as a consequence, on one of the ten bodhisattva levels (bhūmi). “Purity” here connotes the bodhisattvas’ transcendence of bondage to karma, for—following their direct realization of emptiness—they are no longer subject to the law of karma. According to the Mahayana scriptures, the Buddha’s embodiment as enjoyment body is visible only to those sentient beings who are on the bodhisattva levels.
148 These are the first two lines of the Kashmiri master Śākyaśrībhadra’s single-stanza root text. For a brief account of this Kashmiri master, especially his activity in Tibet, see Gö Lotsāwa’s Blue Annals, vol. 2 (Sichuan: Minorities Press, 1984), pp. 1237–49; English translation by George Roerich: The Blue Annals (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988), pp. 1062–73.
149 “Impure trainees” here refers to all the spiritual aspirants who have not yet gained direct realization of emptiness and thus are not free from bondage to karma.
150 Gö Lotsāwa, Blue Annals, vol. 1, pp. 469–70; English translation: pp. 388–89.
151 This relates to a classic Mahayana formulation of three distinct types of compassion and loving-kindness, presented, for example, in the opening verses of Candrakīrti’s Entering the Middle Way. The first, focusing on sentient beings, refers to the form of compassion that arises simply on the basis of taking suffering sentient beings as its focus. The second, focusing on mere phenomena, refers to a slightly more advanced form of compassion, where in addition to focusing on suffering, the person is also aware of the mere phenomenal natures of these suffering beings. Finally, compassion with objectless focus refers to an even more advanced level where the person is aware of the empty nature of the beings while being compassionate toward their suffering. This last form is totally free from any degree of objectification or clinging, thus is referred to as compassion of objectless focus, or nonreferential compassion.
152 Samantabhadra’s expansive aspirations and vows, cited here, are probably drawn from the well-known work entitled Vows of Good Conduct, which is sometimes identified as the final section of the Flower Ornament Scripture. The recitation of this prayer, which has attracted commentaries from numerous Tibetan authors, is highly popular in Tibetan Buddhist communities, including the laity, and is often recited at funerals as well.
153 The obscurations of karma, of afflictions, and of subtle knowledge.
154 This echoes Śāntideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 1:40.
155 For a detailed description of these factors, see the English translation of Tsongkhapa’s The Great Treatise, vol. 2 (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2002), pp. 76–80.
156 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 1:9, 2a5.
157 A disciple of the Buddha renowned for the stability of his mindfulness and his effectiveness in spreading the teachings.
158 This is probably a typographical error and should be Neusurpa, who was a principal disciple of Gönpawa.
159 It is difficult to say when the well-known myth of the Mongol taming a tiger evolved in Tibet. It is a popular theme in Tibetan murals.
160 Shönu Gyalchok (Compendium of Well-Uttered Insights, p. 226) lists this second purpose as “the great successor to misery” (sdug gi mjug mthud chen po), consistent with Leveling Out All Conceptions (see page 132 above), which is probably one of the earliest sources of this concept. However, in his concluding sentence of this section below, Shönu Gyalchok refers to this as “the closure to misery,” agreeing with the version here.
161 The original Tibetan for these two expressions, which I have translated as to “let go as best as I can” and to “let go so that it is wiped clean” is gans legs la thong and byug legs la thong. These expressions are somewhat opaque, so my translations are only suggestive.
162 “The three noble beings”—śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas—are called “noble” (ārya) because they have gained the direct realization of emptiness. The subtle obscuration to knowledge is the final barrier preventing their full enlightenment.
163 The wording of this line is slightly different in the Root Lines, where it reads, “When stability is attained, reveal the secret.” Furthermore, as noted in my annotations to the Root Lines, it is not found in Chekawa’s Seven-Point Mind Training.
164 The six directions are the four cardinal directions—east, south, west, and north—and above and below. This alludes to a well-known reductive analysis found in Vasubandhu’s Twenty Verses (stanza 12) in which he critiques the concept of indivisible atoms. At the heart of the argument is the assertion that, even at the subtle-particle level, a material object will possess at least these six directional perspectives, which implies, at least conceptually, that the object in question remains divisible.
165 Saraha, Songs of the Treasury of Dohas, 73a4.
166 These two expressions—“continuum of compassion” and “its rationale”—appear to be vocabulary specific to this mind training instruction and are elaborated below.
167 I introduced these numbers to help the reader identify what the text later refers to as the five rationales for cultivating compassion toward those who harm you.
168 This appears to be a citation from Bhūripa’s Extensive Daily Confessions of Cakrasaṃvara [Practice], 95a4.
169 This, too, appears to be a citation from Bhūripa’s Extensive Daily Confessions of Cakrasaṃvara [Practice], 95a4. This and the line above appear in numerous works on mind training.