Eight Verses of Training the Mind

Please enjoy this verse by verse comparison of various English translations of Geshe Langri Tangpa's Eight Verses of Training the Mind.

List of translations (arbitrary order). Please use the checkboxes to show/hide translations:

Verse 1

བདག་ནི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ། །
ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུ་ལས་ལྷག་པའི། །
དོན་མཆོག་སྒྲུབ་པའི་བསམ་པ་ཡིས། །
རྟག་ཏུ་གཅེས་པར་འཛིན་པར་ཤོག །

Determined to obtain the greatest possible benefit
From all sentient beings,
Who are more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel,
I shall hold them most dear at all times. (Lama Zopa Rinpoche)

May I always cherish all limited beings
by considering how far superior they are
to wish-granting gems
for actualizing the supreme aim. (Alexander Berzin)

May I always cherish all beings
With the resolve to accomplish for them.
The Highest good
that is more precious than any wish fulfilling jewel. (Ruth Sonam)

By thinking of all sentient beings
As more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel
For accomplishing the highest aim,
I will always hold them dear. (Rigpa Translations. Revised 2012)

Yearning to gain the superlative aim,
Greater even than wish-fulfilling gems,
Of benefiting all sentient beings,
May I always cherish and hold them dear. (Karma Yeshe Chodron)

Verse 2

གང་དུ་སུ་དང་འགྲོགས་པའི་ཚེ། །
བདག་ཉིད་ཀུན་ལས་དམན་བལྟ་ཞིང༌། །
གཞན་ལ་བསམ་པ་ཐག་པ་ཡིས། །
མཆོག་ཏུ་གཅེས་པར་འཛིན་པར་ཤོག །

When in the company of others,
I shall always consider myself the lowest of all,
And from the depths of my heart
Hold others dear and supreme. (Lama Zopa Rinpoche)

Whenever I come into anyone’s company,
may I regard myself less than everyone else and,
from the depths of my heart,
value others more highly than I do myself. (Alexander Berzin)

Whenever I am in the company of others,
May I regard myself as inferior to all.
And from the depths of my heart,
Cherish others as supreme. (Ruth Sonam)

Whenever I’m in the company of others,
I will regard myself as the lowest among all,
And from the depths of my heart
Cherish others as supreme. (Rigpa Translations. Revised 2012)

When amidst the company of others,
May I see myself as humblest of all,
And from the inmost reaches of my heart,
Genuinely regard them as supreme. (Karma Yeshe Chodron)

Verse 3

སྤྱོད་ལམ་ཀུན་ཏུ་རང་རྒྱུད་ལ། །
རྟོག་ཅིང་ཉོན་མོངས་སྐྱེས་མ་ཐག །
བདག་གཞན་མ་རུངས་བྱེད་པས་ན། །
བཙན་ཐབས་གདོང་ནས་བཟློག་པར་ཤོག །

Vigilant, the moment a delusion appears in my mind,
Endangering myself and others,
I shall confront and avert it
Without delay. (Lama Zopa Rinpoche)

Whatever I am doing, may I check the flow of my mind,
and the moment that conceptions or disturbing emotions arise,
since they debilitate myself and others,
may I confront and avert them with forceful means. (Alexander Berzin)

In all my actions may I watch my mind,
And as soon as disturbing though emotions arise,
May I forcefully stop them at once,
Since they will hurt me and others. (Ruth Sonam)

In my every action, I will watch my mind,
And the moment destructive emotions arise,
I will confront them strongly and avert them,
Since they will hurt both me and others. (Rigpa Translations. Revised 2012)

In all I do, may I tend to my mind,
So that when negativities arise,
I may eagerly halt and upend them,
As they do harm to myself and others. (Karma Yeshe Chodron)

Verse 4

རང་བཞིན་ངན་པའི་སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས། །
སྡིག་སྡུག་དྲག་པོས་ནོན་མཐོང་ཚེ། །
རིན་ཆེན་གཏེར་དང་འཕྲད་པ་བཞིན། །
རྙེད་པར་དཀའ་བས་གཅེས་འཛིན་ཤོག །

Whenever I see beings who are wicked in nature
And overwhelmed by violent negative actions and suffering,
I shall hold such rare ones dear,
As if I had found a precious treasure. (Lama Zopa Rinpoche)

Whenever I see beings instinctively cruel,
overpowered by negativities and serious problems,
may I cherish them as difficult
to find as discovering a treasure of gems. (Alexander Berzin)

When I see ill-natured people,
Overwhelmed by wrong doing and pain,
May I cherish them as something rare,
As though I had found a treasure-trove. (Ruth Sonam)

Whenever I see ill-natured beings,
Or those overwhelmed by heavy misdeeds or suffering,
I will cherish them as something rare,
As though I’d found a priceless treasure. (Rigpa Translations. Revised 2012)

When I meet with unpleasing characters
Tormented by their intense sufferings,
Like finding buried treasure, rare to find,
May I value them just as priceless jewels. (Karma Yeshe Chodron)

Verse 5

བདག་ལ་གཞན་གྱིས་ཕྲག་དོག་གིས། །
གཤེ་བསྐུར་ལ་སོགས་མི་རིགས་པའི། །
གྱོང་ཁ་རང་གིས་ལེན་པ་དང༌། །
རྒྱལ་ཁ་གཞན་ལ་འབུལ་བར་ཤོག །

When, out of envy, others mistreat me
With abuse, insults, or the like,
I shall accept defeat
And offer the victory to others. (Lama Zopa Rinpoche)

When others, out of envy,
treat me unfairly with scolding, insults, and more,
may I accept the loss upon myself
and offer the victory to others. (Alexander Berzin)

When Someone out of envy does me wrong
By insulting me and the like,
May I accept defeat
And offer the victory to them. (Ruth Sonam)

Whenever someone out of envy
Does me wrong by attacking or belittling me,
I will take defeat upon myself,
And give the victory to others. (Rigpa Translations. Revised 2012)

Should someone, overcome with jealousy,
Wrong me with abusive scorn and still more,
May I take the defeat upon myself,
Offering up the victory to them. (Karma Yeshe Chodron)

Verse 6

གང་ལ་བདག་གིས་ཕན་བཏགས་པའི། །
རེ་བ་ཆེ་བ་གང་ཞིག་གིས། །
ཤིན་ཏུ་མི་རིགས་གནོད་བྱེད་ནའང༌། །
བཤེས་གཉེན་དམ་པར་བལྟ་བར་ཤོག །

When someone whom I have benefited
And in whom I have great hopes
Gives me terrible harm,
I shall regard that person as my holy guru. (Lama Zopa Rinpoche)

Even if someone whom I have helped and from whom I harbor great expectations
were to harm me completely unfairly,
may I view him or her as a hallowed teacher. (Alexander Berzin)

Even if someone whom I have helped
And whom I have placed my hopes
Does great wrong by harming me,
May I see them as an excellent spiritual friend. (Ruth Sonam)

Even when someone I have helped,
Or in whom I have placed great hopes
Mistreats me very unjustly,
I will view that person as a true spiritual teacher. (Rigpa Translations. Revised 2012)

If someone whom I have benefited
Or in whom I have placed my grandest hopes
Unjustly wounds me, causing me great pain,
May I regard them as my real teacher. (Karma Yeshe Chodron)

Verse 7

མདོར་ན་དངོས་སམ་བརྒྱུད་པ་ཡིས། །
ཕན་བདེ་མ་རྣམས་ཀུན་ལ་འབུལ། །
མ་ཡི་གནོད་དང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཀུན། །
གསང་བས་བདག་ལ་ལེན་པར་ཤོག །

In short, both directly and indirectly,
Do I offer every happiness and benefit to all my mothers.
I shall secretly take upon myself
All their harmful actions and suffering. (Lama Zopa Rinpoche)

In short, may I offer to all my mothers, both actually and indirectly,
whatever will benefit and bring them joy;
and may I hiddenly accept on myself
all my mothers’ troubles and woes. (Alexander Berzin)

In brief, directly or indirectly,
May I give all help and joy to my mothers,
And may I take all their harm and pain
Secretly upon myself. (Ruth Sonam)

In brief, directly or indirectly,
I will offer help and happiness to all my mothers,
And secretly take upon myself
All their hurt and suffering. (Rigpa Translations. Revised 2012)

In short, may I, directly and subtly,
Offer gains and joys to all my mothers.
May I discreetly take upon myself
All pains and sufferings of my mothers. (Karma Yeshe Chodron)

Verse 8

དེ་དག་ཀུན་ཀྱང་ཆོས་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི། །
རྟོག་པའི་དྲི་མས་མ་སྦགས་ཤིང༌། །
ཆོས་ཀུན་སྒྱུ་མར་ཤེས་པའི་བློས། །
ཞེན་མེད་འཆིང་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་ཤོག །

Undefiled by the stains of the superstitions
Of the eight worldly concerns,
May I, by perceiving all phenomena as illusory,
Be released from the bondage of attachment. (Lama Zopa Rinpoche)

Through a mind untarnished by stains of conceptions
concerning eight passing things,
throughout all of this, and that knows all phenomena as an illusion,
may I break free from my bondage, without any clinging. (Alexander Berzin)

May none of this ever be sullied
By thoughts of the eight wordily concerns.
May I see all things as illusions and without attachment,
Gain freedom from bondage. (Ruth Sonam)

I will learn to keep all these practices
Untainted by thoughts of the eight worldly concerns.
May I recognize all things as like illusions,
And, without attachment, gain freedom from bondage. (Rigpa Translations. Revised 2012)

May all this remain free and untainted,
Undefiled by the eight worldly worries.
And, perceiving all as illusory,
Nonattached, may I be free of bondage. (Karma Yeshe Chodron)