SEVEN-POINT MIND TRAINING is perhaps the earliest work organizing the assortment of root lines on mind training attributed to Atiśa into a systematic framework of instruction and practice. Prior to the emergence of the Seven-Point, it appears that these root lines remained scattered, giving rise to at least several different compilations referred to as “the root lines on mind training.” In addition to the one above, Mind Training: The Great Collection includes another distinct set of such root lines.
As a simple comparison of the Seven-Point to the Root Lines on Mind Training above reveals, the two works are closely connected. In fact, some Tibetan authors make the point that Chekawa (1101–75) should be considered more as the compiler rather than the author of the Seven-Point, since all the key lines of that text, if not all, are attributable to Master Atiśa himself. Even the organization of the root lines into seven points is said to come from the instruction of Chekawa’s teacher Sharawa. From a very early stage, however, the famed Seven-Point came to be hailed as “Chekawa’s Seven-Point Mind Training.”
As noted in my general introduction, Chekawa’s discovery of the mind training instruction began with his intrigue upon hearing Eight Verses on Training the Mind, especially the lines “May I take upon myself the defeat / and offer to others the victory.” Having heard these lines, Chekawa went on to seek out the full teaching as well as its sources. This quest took him to Sharawa’s monastery, where one day he saw the master circumambulating a stupa. Laying down his shawl-like upper robe on the floor, Chekawa asked Sharawa to be seated so that he could request some instructions. Thus began Chekawa’s full discovery of the mind training instruction, which led to his presentation of it in seven points. After Langri Thangpa’s Eight Verses, Chekawa’s Seven-Point came to be the most well known and widely disseminated mind training teaching. Judging by the enormous volume of commentaries it attracted, it could be argued that the Seven-Point came to define what mind training is.
In terms of its literary genre, a unique characteristic of the lines of the Seven-Point is their pithy, aphoristic nature. Unlike Eight Verses, there are very few, if any, actual stanzas in the Seven-Point. Most of the lines are stand-alone maxims capturing an essential instruction or a specific spiritual practice. It’s no wonder, therefore, that today some contemporary Western teachers of Tibetan Buddhism refer to these lines of the Seven-Point as “slogans.” Furthermore, there is a certain orality to the lines in this text, as if they were meant to be recited aloud as you embark on the various practices presented in them. As the Seven-Point puts it, “In all actions, train by means of the words”; this constant use of maxims as an integral part of one’s spiritual practice is an important feature of the mind training approach.
We are fortunate to have, through the commentary of Sé Chilbu (1121–89), access to the earliest exposition of Chekawa’s Seven-Point Mind Training. That the author of this commentary studied and practiced at the feet of Master Chekawa for over two decades assures us that he knew the thoughts of his teacher quite intimately. In fact, there is no doubt in my mind that the commentary we have in our present anthology was compiled on the basis of lecture notes taken directly from Chekawa’s exposition of the seven points. For example, throughout this commentary, the author frequently inserts the verb sung (gsungs), which can be translated as “said” or “taught,” at the end of a sentence or paragraph. This is quite characteristic of a specific genre of Tibetan spiritual writing called sindri (zin bris), which are effectively lecture notes taken at a teaching or teachings and later compiled into a coherent text. So the verb “said” or “taught” at the end of a sentence or paragraph should be read as “the master taught” or “the master said,” and “master” here refers to Chekawa.
Master Chekawa, whose personal name was Yeshé Dorjé, was born in central Tibet in the first year of the twelfth century. Although he was inspired initially to pursue a nonmonastic yogi’s life and received teachings from Milarepa’s disciple Rechungpa, at twenty he took ordination and became a monk. The turning point in his spiritual career came when he first heard Eight Verses from the Kadam master Chakshingwa and, more specifically, when at thirty years old he met Sharawa. With the founding of the monastery of Cheka, from which the epithet Chekawa is derived, he appeared to have ensured the continuation of the lineage of his teachings. On the personal level, he combined life as a hermit with his duties as the head of a monastery.
Although most renowned for his Seven-Point Mind Training, Chekawa is known also for another set of mind training instructions, all aimed at taking adversities onto the path of enlightenment. These instructions entail (1) taking obstacles onto the path of enlightenment through the cultivation of patience, (2) taking suffering onto the path through equalizing and exchanging self and others, (3) taking adverse conditions onto the path through turning one’s adversaries into friends, (4) taking the afflictions onto the path through application of their relevant antidotes. In addition to his more practically oriented mind training works, Chekawa also composed one of the earliest works of the druptha genre, which contrasts the central tenets of various classical Indian philosophical systems.