The Root of the Mahayana Seven Verse Mind Training
༄༅། །ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་བློ་སྦྱོང་དོན་བདུན་མའི་རྕ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ། །
tek-pa chen-po lo-jong don dun-mai tsa-wa zhug-so
The Root of the Mahayana Seven Verse Mind Training
Lojong is a mind training practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition based on a set of slogans formulated in Tibet in the 12th century, recorded by Geshe Chekawa Yeshe Dorje. The practice involves refining and purifying one’s motivations and attitudes.
The fifty-nine slogans that form the root text of the mind training practice are designed as a set of antidotes to undesired mental habits that cause suffering. They contain both methods and expand one’s viewpoint towards absolute Bodhicitta, and methods for relating to the world in a more constructive way with relative Bodhicitta.
These slogans are further organized into seven groupings, called “The Seven Points of Lojong.” The slogans were popularized by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and others during the last few decades (even being distributed as individual slogans on cards to be meditated upon). It is emphasized that many points within these slogans require study and transmission from a living teacher, such as our great Lama, Geshe Jinpa Sonam
(The following translation has been compared and often, lines have been borrowed from previously translated sources, such as Thupten Jinpa and Pema Chodron. This endeavor is not to be distributed for sale.)
༄༅། །སྔོན་འགྲོ་རྟེན་གྱི་ཆོས་བསྟན་པ།
Ngun-dro ten-gyi chuh-ten
Point 1) The Preliminaries are the basis of Dharma teachings.
དང་པོ་སྔོན་འགྲོ་དག་ལ་བསླབ།
Dang-po ngun-dro dag-la-lab
Slogan 1) First, train in the preliminaries. This refers to the Four Reminders, aka The Four Thoughts:
1. Maintain an awareness of the preciousness of human life.
2. Be aware of the reality that life ends; death comes for everyone; impermanence.
3. Recall that whatever you do, whether virtuous or not, has a result; Karma.
4. Contemplate that as long as you are too focused on self-importance and too caught up in thinking about how you are good or bad, you will experience suffering. Obsessing about getting what you want and avoiding what you don’t want does not result in happiness; Ego.
།དངོས་གཞི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་སྦྱོངྲབ།
Nguh-zhi jang-chub kyi-sem jong-wa
Point 2) Train in actual Bodhicitta.
Slogans 2-6 concern developing Absolute Bodhicitta.
།ཆོས་རྣམས་རྨི་ལམ་ལྟ་བུར་བསམ།
Chuh-nam mi-lam ta-bur-sam
Slogan 2) Regard all Dharmas (phenomena) as like dreams.
།མ་སྐྱེས་རིག་པའི་གཤིས་ལ་དཔྱད།
Ma-kye rig-pai shi-la-che
Slogan 3) Examine the nature of unborn awareness.
།གཉེན་པོ་ཉིད་ཀྱང་རང་སར་གྲོལ།
Nyen-po nyi-kyang rang-sar-drol
Slogan 4) Self-liberate (let go of) even the antidote.
།ལམ་གྱི་ངོབོ་ཀུན་ཞིའི་ངང་ལ་བཞག།
Lam-gyi ngo-wo zhii-ngang-la-zhag
Slogan 5) Stay in the state of the innermost essence. (present moment)
།ཐུན་མཚམས་སྒྱུ་མའི་སྐྱེས་བུར་བྱ།
Tun-tsam gyu-mai kye-bur-ja
Slogan 6) In post-meditation, be a child of illusion.
Slogans 7-10 concern developing Relative Bodhicitta:
།གཏོང་ལེན་གཉིས་པོ་སྤེལ་མར་སྦྱངྲ་། །དེ་གཉིས་རླུང་ལ་བསྐྱོན་པར་བྱ།
Tong-len nyi-po pel-mar-jang, de-nyi lung-la kyun-par-ja
Slogan 7) Train in alternating the two, giving and taking. These two should ride on the breath. (practice of Tonglen.)
།ཡུལ་གསུམ་དུག་གསུམ་དགེ་རྩ་གསུམ།
Yul-sum duk-sum ge-tsa-sum
Slogan 8) Three objects, Three Poisons, Three Roots of Virtue.
A. Three objects- friends, enemies, and neutrals.
B. Three Poisons- craving, aversion, and indifference.
C. Three Roots of Virtue- the remedies (opposites of the poisons).
།སྤྱོད་ལམ་ཀུན་ཏུ་ཚིག་གིས་སྦྱངྲ།
Chuh-lam kun-tu tsig-gi-jang
Slogan 9) In all activities, train with verses (slogans).
།ལེན་པའི་གོ་རིམ་རང་ནས་བརྩམ།
Len-pai go-rim rang-ne-tsam
Slogan 10) The sequence of giving and taking should begin from yourself.
།རྐྱེན་ངན་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ལམ་དུ་བསྒྱུར་བ།
Kyen-ngen jang-chub kyi-lam du-gyur-wa
Point 3) Transform the bad conditions into the Path to Enlightenment.
།སྣོད་བཅུད་སྡིག་པས་གང་བའི་ཚེ། །རྐྱེན་ངན་བྱ་ཆུབ་ལམ་དུ་བསྒྱུར།
Nuh-chuh dik-pe gang-wai-tse, kyen-ngen jang-chub lam-du-gyur
Slogan 11) When the world is full of evil, transform all negative conditions onto the Path to Enlightenment.
།ལེ་ལན་ཐམས་ཅད་གཅིག་ལ་བདའ།
Le-len tam-che chig-la-da
Slogan 12) Drive all blames into one. (oneself)
།ཀུན་ལ་བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ་བར་བསྒོམ།
Kun-la ka-drin che-war-gom
Slogan 13) Meditate on the great kindness of all.
།འཁྲུལ་སྣང་སྐུ་བཞིར་སྒོམ་པ་འདི། །སྟོང་ཉིེད་སྲུང་བ་བླ་ན་མེད།
Trul-nang kub-zhi gom-pa-di, tong-nyi sung-wa la-na-me
Slogan 14) In the meditation on confusion as the Four Kayas, emptiness is the unsurpassed protection. The Four Kayas are:
A. Dharmakaya,
B. Sambhogakaya,
C. Nirmanakaya, and
D. Svabhavikakaya.
Thoughts have no birthplace, thoughts are unceasing, thoughts are not solid, and these three characteristics are interconnected.
།སྦྱར་བ་བཞི་ལྡན་ཐབས་ཀྱི་མཆོག
Jar-wa zhi-den tab-kyi-chog
Slogan 15) The Four Practices are the best of methods. The Four Practices are:
A. Accumulating merit,
B. Laying down evil deeds,
C. Offering to the malevolent forces, and
D. Offering to the Dharmapalas (protectors of the Dharma).
།འཕྲལ་ལ་གང་ཐུག་སྒོམ་དུ་སྦྱར།
Trel-la gang-tuk gom-du-jar
Slogan 16) Whatever is met join (it) immediately with meditation.
།ཚེ་གཅིག་གི་ཉམས་ལེན་དྲིལ་ནས་བསྟན་པ།
Tse-chig-gi nyam-len dril-ne ten-pa
Point 4) Showing the use of practice in one’s life.
།མན་ངག་སྙིང་པོ་མདོར་བསྡུས་པ། །སྟོབས་ལྔ་དག་དང་སྦྱར་བར་བྱ།
Men-ngak nying-po dor-du-pa, tob-nga dag-dang jar-war-ja
Slogan 17) You must practice the Five Powers, the condensed heart instructions. The Five Powers are:
A. Strong determination (propelling intention)
B. Familiarization
C. The positive seed
D. Eradication (purification)
E. Aspiration
།ཐེག་ཆེན་འཕོ་བའི་གདམས་ངག་ནི། སྟོབས་ལྔ་ཉིད་ཡིན་སྤྱོད་ལམ་གཅེས།
Tek-chen po-wai dam-ngak-ni, tob-nga nyi-yin chuh-lam-che
Slogan 18) The Mahayana instructions for ejecting the consciousness (at death) is the Five Powers; conduct is important. When you are dying, practice the Five Powers.
A. Positive seed
B. Aspirational Prayer
C. Eradication (purification)
D. Propelling Intention
E. Familiarization
།བློ་འབྱོངས་པའི་ཚད།
Lo-jong-pai tse
Point 5) Evaluation of Mind-Mastery
།ཆོས་རྣམས་དགོས་པ་གཅིག་ཏུ་འདུས།
Chuh-nam guh-pa chik-tu-du
Slogan 19) All Dharmas come together for one purpose. (All Buddhist teachings are about lessening the ego, lessening one’s self-absorption.
།དཔང་པོ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་གཙོ་བོ་གཟུང་།
Pang-po nyi-kyi tso-wo-zung
Slogan 20) Hold the principle of two witnesses.
A. Not being disapproved of by those who are reputedly sublime.
B. Not being the object of your own disapproval.
།ཡིད་བདེ་འབའ་ཞིག་རྒྱུན་དུ་བསྟེན།
Yi-de ba-zhig gyun-du-ten
Slogan 21) Continuously maintain a joyful mind.
།ཡེངས་ཀྱང་ཐུབ་ན་འབྱོངས་པ་ཡིན།
Yeng-kyang tub-na jong-pa-yin
Slogan 22) Though distracted, if you are able, you have mastered (mind training).
།བློ་སྦྱོང་གི་དམ་ཚིག།
Lo-jong-gi dam-tsig
Point 6) Sacred Words (vows) of Mind Training
།སྤྱི་དོན་གསུམ་ལ་རྟག་ཏུ་བསླབ།
Chi-dun sum-la tak-tu-lab
Slogan 23) Always train in the Three General (practices):
A. Your training should not contradict your vows
B. Your training should not become offensive
C. Your training should not be biased
D.
།འདུན་པ་བསྒྱུར་ལ་རང་སོར་བཞག
Dun-pa gyur-la rang-sor-zhag
Slogan 24) In order to transformation aspirations, stay naturally in yourelf. Reduce ego clinging without distraction to going after this or that.
།ཡན་ལག་ཉམས་པ་བརྗོད་མི་བྱ།
Yen-lag nyam-pa juh-mi-ja
Slogan 25) Don’t talk about broken limbs. Don’t take pleasure thinking about the downfalls of others.
།གཞན་ཕྱོགས་གང་ཡང་མི་བསམ་མོ།
Zhen-chok gang-yang mi-sam-mo
Slogan 26) Don’t think about others. Don’t take pleasure pondering the weaknesses of others.
།ཉོན་མོངས་གང་ཆེ་སྔོན་ལ་སྦྱང་།
Nyun-mong gang-che ngun-la-jang
Slogan 27) Study whatever afflictions were there before. Work with your greatest obstacles first.
།འབྲས་བུ་རེ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་སྤང་།
Dre-bu re-wa tam-che-pang
Slogan 28) Abandon all hope of results. Don’t get caught up in how you will be in the future.
།དུག་ཅན་གྱི་ཟས་སྤང་།
Duk-chen-gyi ze-pang
Slogan 29) Abandon poisonous food.
།གཞུང་བཟང་པོ་མ་བསྟེན།
Zhung-zang-po ma-ten
Slogan 30) Don’t rely on the distant future (Don’t be predictable). Don’t hold grudges.
།ཤགས་ངན་མ་རྒོད།
Shak-ngan ma-guh
Slogan 31) Don’t agitate with negative ridicule. (Don’t malign others.)
།འཕྲང་མ་སྒུག
Trang-ma-gug
Slogan 32) Don’t wait to ambush. Don’t wait for the weakness of others to show so you can attack.
།གནད་ལ་མི་དབབ།
Ne-la mi-bab
Slogan 33) Don’t lose the main point (Bodhicitta). Don’t humiliate others.
།མཛོ་ཁལ་གླང་ལ་མི་འབྱོ།
Dzo-kal lang-la mi-jo
Slogan 34) Don’t place the ox’s load on the bull. Take responsibility for yourself.
།ལྟོ་ལོག་མི་བྱ།
To-lok mi-ja
Slogan 35) Don’t act with a twist. Do good deeds without scheming about benefiting yourself.
།མགྱོགས་ཀྱི་རྩེ་མ་གཏོད།
Gyok-kyi-tse ma-tuh
Slogan 36) Don’t try to be the fastest. Don’t compete with others.
།ལྷ་བདུད་དུ་མི་དབབ།
Lha-duh-du mi-bab
Slogan 37) Don’t cause the gods to fall to demons. Don’t use these slogans or your spirituality to increase your self-absorption.
།སྐྱིད་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་ཏུ་སྡུག་མ་འཚོལ།
Kyi-kyi yen-lak-tu dug-ma-tsul
Slogan 38) Don’t seek suffering for the limbs of happiness.
།བློ་སྦྱོང་གི་བསླབ་བྱ།
Lo-jong-gi lab-ja
Point 7) Instructions on Mind Training
།རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཐམས་ཅད་ཅིག་གིས་བྱ།
Nal-jor tam-che chig-gi-ja
Slogan 39) All yogas should be done with one (intention).
།ལོག་གནོན་ཐམས་ཅད་གཅིག་གིས་བྱ།
Lok-nun tam-che chig-gi-ja
Slogan 40) Subdue all wrongs with one (intention).
།ཐོག་མཐའ་གཉིས་ལ་བྱ་བ་གཉིས།
Tok-mar nyi-la ja-wa-nyi
Slogan 41) Two activities: one at the beginning and one at the end.
།གཉིས་པོ་གང་བྱུང་བཟོད་པར་བྱ།
Nyi-po gang-jung zuh-par-ja
Slogan 42) Which ever of these two arise, be patient.
A. Great fortune
B. Misfortune
།གཉིས་པོ་སྲོག་དང་བསྡོས་ལ་སྲུང་།
Nyi-po sog-dang duh-la-sung
Slogan 43) Guard these two at the risk of your life.
A. The precepts and commitments presented in the teachings in general.
B. The commitments of this particular mind training teaching.
།དཀའ་བ་གསུམ་ལ་བསླབ་པར་བྱ།
Ka-wa sum-la lab-par-ja
Slogan 44) Train in the Three Difficulties.
A. Remember the antedotes
B. Overcome the afflictions
C. Eradicate the continuum of the afflictions
།རྒྱུ་ཡི་གཙོ་བོ་རྣམ་གསུམ་བླང་།
Gyu-yi tso-wo nam-sum-lang
Slogan 45) Adopt the Three Principle Causes.
A. There should be a qualified spiritual teacher
B. Your state of mind should be such that many realizations have arisen.
C. Conditions conducive to Dharma practice must be gathered.
།ཉམས་པ་མེད་པ་རྣམ་གསུམ་སྒོམ།
Nyam-pa me-pa nam-sum-gom
Slogan 46) Meditate that these three never degenerate.
A. Make sure that your faith and respect toward your spiritual teacher remain undimished
B. Make sure that your enthusiasm for mind training remains undimished
C. Learn to guard your pledges undiminished
།འབྲལ་མེད་གསུམ་དང་ལྡན་པར་བྱ།
Dral-me-sum dang-den par-ja
Slogan 47) Keep these three inseparable.
A. Make sure your body is never divorced from virtuous activities
B. Make sure your speech is never divorced from virtuous activities
C. Make sure your mind is never divorced from virtuous activities
།ཡུལ་ལ་ཕྱོགས་མེད་དག་ཏུ་སྦྱོང་། །ཁྱབ་དང་གཏིང་འབྱོངས་ཀུན་ལ་གཅེས།
Yul-la chok-me dag-tu-jong, kyab-dang ting-jong kun-la-che
Slogan 48) Train without bias in all areas. It is crucial to always do this pervasively and wholeheartedly.
།བཀོལ་བ་རྣམས་ལ་རྟག་ཏུ་སྒོམ།
Kul-wa nam-la tak-tu-gom
Slogan 49) Always meditate on what provokes resentment.
།རྐྱེན་གཞན་དག་ལ་ལྟོས་མི་བྱ།
Kyen-zhen dag-la tuh-mi-ja
Slogan 50) Don’t look at external circumstances.
།ད་རེས་གཙོ་བོ་ཉམས་སུ་བླང་།
Da-re tso-wo nyam-su-lang
Slogan 51) This time, practice the main points: Others before self, Dharma, and awakening compassion.
།གོ་ལོག་མི་བྱ།
Go-lok mi-ja
Slogan 52) Don’t misunderstand.
།རེས་འཇོག་མི་བྱ།
Re-jok mi-ja
Slogan 53) Don’t waver (in your practice).
།དོལ་ཆོད་དུ་སྦྱང་།
Dul-chuh-du jang
Slogan 54) Train wholeheartedly.
།རྟོག་དཔྱད་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་ཐར་བར་བྱ།
Tok-che nyi-kyi tar-war-ja
Slogan 55) Having analyzed and realized, liberate (yourself).
།ཡུས་མ་སྒོམ།
Yuh-ma-gom
Slogan 56) Don’t meditate swollen on pride.
།ཀོ་ལོང་མ་སྡོམ།
Ko-long ma-dom
Slogan 57) Don’t be jealous.
།ཡུད་ཙམ་པ་མི་བྱ།
Yu-tsam-pa mi-ja
Slogan 58) Don’t be frivolous/fickle/sporadic.
།འོར་ཆེ་མ་འདོད།
Or-che ma-duh
Slogan 59) Don’t desire lot of thanks.
།སྙིགས་མ་ལྔ་པོ་བདོ་བ་འདི། །བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་དུ་བསྒྱུར་བ་ཡིན།
Nyik-ma nga-po do-wo-di, jang-chub lam-du gyur-wa-yin
I have transformed this proliferation of the Five Degenerations onto the Path to Enlightenment.
།མན་ངག་བདུད་རྩིའི་སྙིང་པོ་འདི། །གསེར་གླིང་པ་ནས་བརྒྱུད་པ་ཡིན།
Men-ngak du-tsii nying-po-di, ser-ling pa-ne gyud-pa-yin
These instructions, this essential nectar from Serlingpa, I have transmitted (to you).
།སྔོན་སྦྱངས་ལས་ཀྱི་འཕྲོ་སད་པས། །རང་གི་མོས་པ་མང་བའི་རྒྱུས།
Ngun-jang le-kyi tro-se-pe, rang-gi muh-pa mang-wai-gyu
Due to my many aspirations, having awakened the right karma of previous training,
།སྡུག་བསྔལ་གཏམ་ངན་ཁྱད་བསད་ནས། །བདག་འཛིན་འདུལ་བའི་གདམས་ངག་ཞུས།
Dug-ngal tam-ngan kye-se-ne, dag-dzin dul-wai dam-ngak-zhu.
Defying the bad tale of suffering, I offer instructions for taming self-grasping
།ད་ནི་ཤི་ཡང་མི་འགྱོད་དོ། །
Da-ni shi-yang mi-gyuh-do
Now, even for death I have no worry.
