Self-Cherishing

Brief Review The Eight Verses of Mind Training comes from a long tradition, beginning with Shantideva’s text Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior, then with Atisha, who heard of these teachings from Dharmarakshita, who wrote Wheel of Sharp Weapons, and then traveled to Sumatra to...

Foundation for Development of Equanimity In order to generate the enlightening aim of bodhichitta with which we wish to attain enlightenment in order to benefit all living beings, it is first necessary to develop a sense of equanimity and an equal attitude toward everyone. If...

Review So far in our Seven Point Mind Training discussion, we’ve covered four out of the seven points. The first point focused on the preliminaries. The second point was about developing actual bodhichitta, which involves developing deepest bodhichitta and then relative...

How to Practice Giving and Taking: Tonglen  Now, that leads us into our discussion of tonglen and the understanding of how important it is and why then it can be our core practice. “Tonglen” is giving and taking, and is an extremely, extremely advanced and difficult practice...

Differentiating the Various Aspects of Feelings Adjusting the ten mental factors is an effective means for increasing attentiveness to problems and for enhancing the intention to respond. Several factors, however, may still hamper this response. One of the more troublesome is...

Mind training is a method for transforming negative circumstances into positive ones through improving our attitudes toward them.

Renunciation is the determination to be free of our sufferings and their causes. When focused on others, with the determination that they be free, this is compassion.

The entire scope of mind training to transform negative attitudes into positive ones is summarized in eight verses.

We need to recognize a self-cherishing attitude in ourselves and try to eliminate it. If we at least realize we have such an attitude, it will be great progress.

In eight short verses, Langri Tangpa summarizes the essence of the mind training teachings (lojong) rooted in Shantideva’s “Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior” and Atisha’s “Garland of Bodhisattva Gems.”