Precious Human Life

Rejoice at being free to work on improving yourself, to get over self-pity.

Tsongkhapa, the Author of the Text All of you here have great interest in the Dharma and great intentions to follow the teachings. You’ve invited me here to give you teachings and I’m very happy to be with you. I’ve been asked to teach the text called The Foundation for Good...

Background The Bodhipathapradipa text was originally composed in Sanskrit. It was translated into Tibetan with the title Jangchub lamkyi dronma, which in English is Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. It starts: I prostrate to the Bodhisattva Youthful Manjushri. The text...

Introductory Verses and Verse 1 Setting the Motivation First of all, we need to have very good motivation for studying about the behavior of bodhisattvas. When we have a strong motivation, it is interesting how our minds work. If I were to say, “Let’s all go to the Dalai...

Introductory Verses and Verses 1 through 4 Introduction The mind training text, 37 Bodhisattva Practices, was written in Tibet in the fourteenth century by the Sakya master Togme Zangpo. Togme Zangpo was well known as being an actual bodhisattva, and his text is studied by all...

The Rarity of a Precious Human Life In our first discussion, we spoke about how this precious human rebirth that we all have is a perfect working basis for our Dharma practice. This working basis is complete with all of the eighteen qualities: the respites and the enrichments....

Making Life Meaningful Now we will continue with the text. We are on the second verse. (2) Listen with a clear (mind), O fortunate one, whose mind would rely on the path pleasing to the Triumphant through being unattached to the pleasures of compulsive...

Reaffirming the Motivation We need to have a proper motivation for listening to the teachings; otherwise we will miss an opportunity to build up a great deal of positive force and to incorporate this teaching in our mental continuum. We try not to be motivated by wanting...

The Three Levels of Motivation for Real Thing Dharma The lam-rim presents three levels of motivation: Initial level – we think in terms of ensuring that we have one of the better types of rebirths, not just in our next lifetime, but in all future lifetimes. ...

Verses 1 through 7 Taking Advantage of Being in a Holy Place As I explained yesterday, we are at a special place here where the Buddha manifested his enlightenment and where many enlightened beings have been. Nagarjuna and his two spiritual sons, for instance, and many...