AMONG THE FIRST indigenious Tibetan works on mind training to capture the heart of spiritual aspirants in the land of snows is undoubtedly the beautifully concise and moving verse text known as Eight Verses on Mind Training. Sometimes referred to also as Langthangpa’s Eight Verses, the thirty-two lines of this short work encapsulate powerfully the depth of the altruistic ideal and commitment of a spiritual aspirant who is dedicated to the pursuit of bringing about the ultimate welfare of all sentient beings.
Beginning with the critical question of how to view others with a sense of deep gratitude, the text plunges immediately into the heart of the matter—namely, the challenge of how to transform our habitual self-centeredness into a standpoint of valuing and cherishing the welfare of others.
In stanza 2, the author then deals with the more specific question of how to implement this principle of cherishing others’ welfare. A key to this, we are told, lies in adopting an appropriate outlook toward self and others, an outlook that shuns viewing others as somehow inferior.
Stanza 3 tells us that, in order for us mind training practioners to put our spiritual ideals into practice, we need first and foremost to find a way to deal with the perennial challenge posed by our habitual afflictive states of mind. Here, Langri Thangpa emphasizes the need to cultivate and apply in our thoughts and behavior faculties such as mindfulness, greater self-awareness, and heedfulness.
In stanzas 4, 5, and 6, this advice on how to deal with our afflictions is taken further, with special attention given to particular types of people: beings of unpleasant character, those oppressed with negativity, those who treat us wrongly for no good reason, and finally those who disappoint us—people, in other words, who trigger powerful negative reactions in us. These lines clearly resonate with Śāntideva’s famous advice to view our enemies as spiritual teachers, for they provide us the rare opportunity to practice the virtue of patience, or forbearance.
Stanza 7 sums up the key principle of mind training—transforming of our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors to be more other-regarding and altruistic. This is done on the basis of presenting the contemplative practice of tonglen (giving and taking), which entails mentally taking upon ourselves all the sufferings of others and their causes, while offering to others our happiness and its causes.
Finally, in stanza 8, we find the instruction on how to ensure that all of the above spiritual exercises do not become sullied by the motives and underlying states of mind driven by self-centered, mundane concerns. The exercises should be grounded instead in an understanding of the deeper nature of reality, so that, finally, free from clinging, we attain genuine freedom from bondage.
In this volume, we provide two slightly different versions of the famed eight verses. First is the “original” version that is embedded in Chekawa’s commentary, while the second can be referred to as the “revised” version. The primary difference lies, in the original Tibetan, in the key verb at the end of each stanza. In the original text, we find the phrase “I will train myself to” in relation to practices outlined in each of the eight stanzas. In contrast, the revised version has the phrase “May I,” thus transforming the contents of each stanza into a prayer of aspiration rather than a vow to practice. This change was introduced in the twelfth century, soon after the composition of the text, by Sangchenpa. Since the later, revised version is used by all Tibetan teachers today, we have provided this popular version of the text as well.
Langri Thangpa (1054–1123), whose personal name was Dorjé Sengé, was a senior disciple of the Kadam master Potowa Rinchen Sal (1031–1105), one of the three Kadam brothers. He founded Langthang Monastery in Phenpo in central southern Tibet in 1093, which is said to have attracted around two thousand monks during his own lifetime. As noted in my general introduction, Langri Thangpa is famed for the depth of his constant contemplation of the sufferings of all sentient beings, such that he would often be seen with tears rolling down his face. According to the earliest sources, it is Langri Thangpa who first introduced the tradition of sharing the mind training teachings with a wider audience as opposed to the smaller teacher-to-pupil transmission. Langri Thangpa’s principal student was Shawo Gangpa, and it is said that the Kagyü master Phakmo Drupa (1110–70) also received teachings from Langri Thangpa.
The commentary on the eight verses featured in this volume is, to date, the earliest known exposition of Langri Thangpa’s Eight Verses. Although the colophon of the text explicitly states Master Chekawa, the person who composed the well-known Seven-Point Mind Training, to be its author, the work opens with the statement, in honorific Tibetan, about how the spiritual mentor Chekawa received the instruction on the eight verses from the Kadam master Chakshingwa. Furthermore, the commentary carries the title Eight Verses on Mind Training Together with the Story of Its Origin, which suggests that at least the opening section of the text was added by a later editor.
Given the brevity of the root text of the eight verses, the most important contribution of this commentary is the way it grounds the instructions presented by Langri Thangpa within the context of scriptural sources and illuminates the thought process, or rationale, underlying each of the practices. For example, the commentary links the mind training instructions to specific verses from Śāntideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, a seminal basis for the development of lojong teachings, as well as lines from other important classical Indian Buddhist texts, such as Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland. In doing so, Chekawa enables us, the readers, to engage not just with the words of Langri Thangpa’s important work but, more importantly, with the intent and aims animating this short text.