37 Practices of Bodhisattvas

Gyalse Tokme Zangpo


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༄༅། །རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཀྱི་ལག་ལེན་སོ་བདུན་མ།   (Text in Tibetan)
 source: http://gyalwadokhampa.org/resources/Gyalsey_Laglen_v2_24092014_e-book.pdf
"37 Practices of a Bodhisattva" translated by Ari Kiev
 source: https://www.37practices.info/
"37 Practices of Bodhisattvas" translated by Adam Pearcey
 source: https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/gyalse-thogme-zangpo/37-practices-all-bodhisattvas
"The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva" translated by Eric Trinle Thaye
 source: https://kcc.org
"The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva" translated by Christopher Stagg
 source: https://www.shambhala.com/a-guide-to-the-thirty-seven-practices-of-a-bodhisattva.html
"The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva" translated by Tyler Dewar
 source: https://www.namsebangdzo.com/Trainings-in-Compassion-p/12628.htm
"The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas" translated by Ruth Sonam
 source: https://thubtenchodron.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/37Practices_of_Bodhisattvas_2018.pdf
"The Thirty-seven Practices a of Bodhisattva" translated by Suzanne Schefczky
 source: https://dharmaebooks.org/thirty-seven-practices-bodhisattva/
"37 Bodhisattva Practices" translated by Alexander Berzin - literal translation
 source: https://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan-buddhism/original-texts/sutra-texts/37-bodhisattva-practices/37-bodhisattva-practices-literal-translation
"37 Bodhisattva Practices" translated by Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering
 source: https://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan-buddhism/original-texts/sutra-texts/37-bodhisattva-practices/37-bodhisattva-practices-poetic-rendering


Homage


༄༅། ན་མོ་ལོ་ཀེ་ཤྭ་ར་ཡ།།

གང་གིས་ཆོས་ཀུན་འགྲོ་འོང་མེད་གཟིགས་ཀྱང་།།
འགྲོ་བའི་དོན་ལ་གཅིག་ཏུ་བརྩོན་མཛད་པའི།།
བླ་མ་མཆོག་དང་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་མགོན་ལ།།
རྟག་ཏུ་སྒོ་གསུམ་གུས་པས་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།།
 


Homage to Lokeshvaraya!

At all times I prostrate with respectful three doors to the supreme guru and the
Protector Chenrezig who, though realizing that all phenomena neither come nor
go, strive solely for the welfare of migrators. (Ari Kiev)
 


Namo Lokeśvaraye!

You see that all things are beyond coming and going,
Yet still you strive solely for the sake of living beings—
To you, my precious guru inseparable from Lord Avalokita,
I offer perpetual homage, respectfully, with body, speech and mind. (Adam Pearcey)
 


Namo Lokeshvaraya

You see that all phenomena neither come nor go,
Yet still you solely strive for the benefit of beings.
To the supreme guru and protector Avalokita,
I continually pay homage with body, speech, and mind. (Eric Trinle Thaye)
 

Although he sees that all phenomena are free of coming and going,
He strives only for the benefit of beings.
To the protector Avalokiteshvara and the supreme guru
I continually pay homage with my three gates. (Christopher Stagg)


Namo Lokeshvaraya

Though you see all phenomena as free of coming and going
You strive only for the benefit of beings.
To the supreme guru and the protector Avalokita,
I always bow with respect in my three gates. (Tyler Dewar)
 


Homage to Lokeshwara

I pay constant homage through my three doors,
To my supreme teacher and protector Chenrezig,
Who while seeing all phenomena lack coming and going,
Makes single-minded effort for the good of living beings. (Ruth Sonam)
 


Namo Lokeshvaraya.

You see that all phenomena neither come nor go.
Still you strive solely for the benefit of beings.
Supreme Guru and Protector Chenrezig,
to you I continually bow with body, speech, and mind. (Suzanne Schefczky)
 


Homage to Lokeshvara.

I prostrate always respectfully, through my three gateways, to the supreme gurus and the Guardian Avalokiteshvara who, seeing that all phenomena have no coming or going, make efforts singly for the benefit of wandering beings. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)
 


I pay heartfelt homage to you, Lokeshvara; you have true compassion extending to all.

To those who in all of the comings and goings have seen that all things are inherently void, and thus can devote both their time and their efforts with one aim in mind – "Let me benefit all!" To such foremost Gurus and you, Lokeshvara, all-seeing protector, with utmost respect, I bow down before you in constant obeisance, and turn to your service my thoughts, words and deeds. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)
 

Prologue

ཕན་བདེའི་འབྱུང་གནས་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས།།
དམ་ཆོས་བསྒྲུབས་ལས་བྱུང་སྟེ་དེ་ཡང་ནི།།
དེ་ཡི་ལག་ལེན་ཤེས་ལ་རག་ལས་པས།།
རྒྱལ་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ལག་ལེན་བཤད་པར་བྱ།།

The perfect buddhas, source of benefit and happiness, arise from accomplishing
the sublime Dharma; and as that [accomplishment] depends on knowing the
[Dharma] practices, I will explain the bodhisattvas’ practices. (Ari Kiev)

The perfect buddhas, who are the source of all benefit and joy,
Come into being through accomplishing the sacred Dharma.
And since this in turn depends on knowing how to practise,
I shall now describe the practices of all the buddhas’ heirs. (Adam Pearcey)

The perfect buddhas, the sources of benefit and happiness,
Arise from accomplishing the sacred dharma.
Since this depends on knowing how to practice,
I will explain the practices of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

The sources of benefit and happiness, the perfect buddhas,
Come from accomplishing the genuine dharma.
Since this depends on understanding their practices,
I will explain the practices of the bodhisattvas. (Christopher Stagg)

Perfect buddhas, the source of all benefit and happiness,
Arise through accomplishing the genuine dharma.
Since this in turn depends on knowing the practices,
The practices of bodhisattvas will here be explained. (Tyler Dewar)

Perfect Buddhas, source of all well-being and happiness,
Arise from accomplishing the excellent teachings,
And this depends on knowing the practices.
So I will explain the practices of bodhisattvas (Ruth Sonam)

The perfect Buddhas, sources of benefit and happiness,
Arise from accomplishing the genuine Dharma.
Since that in turn depends on knowing how to practice,
The practices of a Bodhisattva shall be explained. (Suzanne Schefczky)

Fully enlightened Buddhas, the sources of benefit and happiness, have come about from (their) having actualized the hallowed Dharma. Moreover, since that depended on (their) having known what its practices are, I shall explain a bodhisattva’s practice. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

The fully enlightened Victorious Buddhas, from whom all true pleasure and benefits come, have reached their attainment by following Dharma and leading their lives through this highest of paths. To live by the Dharma depends on full knowledge of how we must practice and what we must do, and so I'll attempt here a brief explanation of what is the practice of all Buddhas' Sons. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 1

དལ་འབྱོར་གྲུ་ཆེན་རྙེད་དཀའ་ཐོབ་དུས་འདིར།།
བདག་གཞན་འཁོར་བའི་མཚོ་ལས་བསྒྲལ་བྱའི་ཕྱིར།།
ཉིན་དང་མཚན་དུ་གཡེལ་བ་མེད་པར་ནི།།
ཉན་བསམ་བསྒོམ་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

At this time when the difficult-to-gain ship of leisure and fortune has been obtained, ceaselessly hearing, pondering and meditating day and night in order to liberate others and oneself from the ocean of cyclic existence is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to study, reflect and meditate,
Tirelessly, both day and night, without ever straying into idleness,
In order to free oneself and others from this ocean of saṃsāra,
Having gained this supreme vessel—a free, well-favoured human life, so difficult to find. (Adam Pearcey)

Having this precious human body, the great boat so difficult to find,
To free yourself and others from the ocean of samsara,
Day and night, without break, to listen,
Reflect, and meditate is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Now we have this great vessel of freedoms and resources, so difficult to obtain.
So that we may liberate ourselves and others from the ocean of samsara,
Day and night, without distraction,
To listen, contemplate, and meditate is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Having now attained the great vessel of freedoms and resources, so difficult to find,
In order to bring oneself and others across the ocean of samsara,
Day and night without break
To listen, reflect, and meditate is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Having gained this rare ship of freedom and fortune,
Hear, think and meditate unwaveringly night and day
In order to free yourself and others
From the ocean of cyclic existence —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Now that you have obtained a precious human body, the great boat so difficult to find,
In order to free yourself and others from the ocean of samsara,
To listen, reflect, and meditate with diligence day and night
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is, at this time when we have obtained the great ship (of a human rebirth) with respites and enrichments, difficult to find, to listen, think, and meditate unwaveringly, day and night, in order to free ourselves and others from the ocean of uncontrollably recurring samsara. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

This sound human body endowed with full leisure – an excellent vessel rare to be found – since now we've obtained one in no way deficient, let's work night and day without veering off course to take 'cross the ocean and free from samsara not only ourselves but all others as well. First listen, think hard, then do much meditation – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 2

གཉེན་གི ་ཕྱོགས་ལ་འདོད་ཆགས་ཆུ་ལྟར་གཡོ།།
དག་ཡི་ཕྱོགས་ལ་ཞེ་སྡང་མེ་ལྟར་འབར།།
བླང་དོར་བརྗེད་པའི་གཏི་མུག་མུན་ནག་ཅན།།
ཕ་ཡུལ་སྤོང་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

[The mind of] attachment to loved ones wavers like water. [The mind of] hatred of enemies burns like fire. [The mind of] ignorance that forgets what to adopt and what to discard is greatly obscured. Abandoning one’s fatherland is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to leave behind one’s homeland,
Where our attachment to family and friends overwhelms us like a torrent,
While our aversion towards enemies rages inside us like a blazing fire,
And delusion’s darkness obscures what must be adopted and abandoned. (Adam Pearcey)

Attachment to close ones flows like water; hatred towards
Enemies burns like fire; the darkness of ignorance
Makes you forget what to adopt and reject.
To abandon your homeland is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Attachment toward our close ones stirs us up like water.
Aggression toward our enemies burns us like fire.
Dark with ignorance, we forget what to adopt or reject.
To abandon one’s homeland is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Attachment towards friends churns like water.
Hatred towards enemies burns like fire.
Dark with ignorance that forgets what to adopt or reject—
To give up one’s homeland is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Attached to your loved ones you’re stirred up like water.
Hating your enemies you burn like fire.
In the darkness of confusion you forget what to adopt and discard.
Give up your homeland—
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Passion towards friends churns like water.
Hatred towards enemies burns like fire.
Through dark ignorance, one forgets what to adopt and what to reject.
To abandon one's homeland is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to leave our homelands, where attachment to the side of friends tosses us like water; anger toward the side of enemies burns us like fire; and naivety so that we forget what’s to be adopted and abandoned cloaks us in darkness. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Remaining too long in one place our attraction to loved ones upsets us, we're tossed in its wake. The flames of our anger toward those who annoy us consume what good merit we've gained in the past. The darkness of closed-minded thought dims our outlook, we lose vivid sight of what's right and what's wrong. We must give up our home and set forth from our country – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 3

ཡུལ་ངན་སྤངས་པས་ཉོན་མོངས་རིམ་གི ས་འགྲིབ།།
རྣམ་གཡེང་མེད་པས་དགེ་སྦྱོར་ངང་གིས་འཕེལ།།
རིག་པ་དྭངས་པས་ཆོས་ལ་ངེས་ཤེས་སྐྱེས།།
དབེན་པ་བསྟེན་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

When harmful places are abandoned, disturbing emotions gradually diminish. Being without distraction, virtuous endeavors naturally increase. Being clear-minded, certainty in the Dharma arises. Resorting to secluded places is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to take to solitary places,
Avoiding the unwholesome, so that destructive emotions gradually fade away,
And, in the absence of distraction, virtuous practice naturally gains strength;
Whilst, with awareness clearly focused, we gain conviction in the teachings. (Adam Pearcey)

Leaving adverse places, afflictions gradually diminish.
Without diversions, virtuous actions naturally increase.
Through clear awareness, certainty in the dharma dawns.
To stay in solitude is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

When we abandon negative places, the afflictions gradually diminish.
In the absence of any distraction, virtuous activity naturally increases.
Through clear awareness, certainty in the dharma arises.
To keep to solitary places is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Free from negative places, mental afflictions gradually decrease.
With no distractions, virtuous activity naturally grows.
Through clear intelligence, certainty in the dharma is born—
To rely on places of solitude is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

By avoiding bad objects, disturbing emotions gradually decrease.
Without distraction, virtuous activities naturally increase.
With clarity of mind, conviction in the teaching arises.
Cultivate seclusion —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Giving up negative places, Mental afflictions gradually decrease.
With no distractions, virtuous activities naturally increase.
When mind becomes clear, Certainty in the Dharma is born.
To rely on solitude is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to rely on seclusion where, by having rid ourselves of detrimental objects, our disturbing emotions and attitudes gradually become stymied; by lacking distractions, our constructive practices naturally increase; and by clearing our awareness, our certainty grows in the Dharma. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Withdrawing ourselves from the things that excite us, our mental disturbances slowly decline. Ridding our minds of directionless wandering, attention on virtue will surely increase. As wisdom gets clearer, the world comes in focus, our confidence grows in the Dharma we've learned. We must live by ourselves far away in seclusion – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 4

ཡུན་རིང་འགྲོགས་པའི་མཛའ་བཤེས་སོ་སོར་འབྲལ།།
འབད་པས་བསྒྲུབས་པའི་ནོར་རྫས་ཤུལ་དུ་ལུས།།
ལུས་ཀྱི་མགྲོན་ཁང་རྣམ་ཤེས་མགྲོན་པོས་བོར།།
ཚེ་འདི་བློས་བཏང་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Long-associated companions will part from each other. Wealth and possessions obtained with effort will be left behind. Consciousness, the guest, will cast aside the guesthouse of the body. Letting go of this life is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to renounce this life’s concerns,
For friends and relatives, long acquainted, must all go their separate ways;
Wealth and prized possessions, painstakingly acquired, must all be left behind;
And consciousness, the guest who lodges in the body, must in time depart. (Adam Pearcey)

We part from long-acquainted friends and family.
The wealth we strove to gain is left behind.
The guest of consciousness leaves the guesthouse of the body.
Dropping worldly concerns is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

We will part from every loved one we have long associated with.
We will leave behind the wealth we have so diligently amassed.
Our consciousness, the guest, will cast away this body, the guesthouse.
To let go of this life is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

One will part with each of one’s familiar friends and relatives
And leave behind the wealth one strived to gain.
Consciousness, the guest, will leave the guesthouse of the body behind—
To let go of this life is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Loved ones who have long kept company will part.
Wealth created with difficulty will be left behind.
Consciousness, the guest, will leave the guest-house of the body.
Let go of this life —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Old friends and relatives will separate.
Possessions gained with effort will be left behind.
Consciousness, the guest, will leave the guesthouse of the body.
To let go of this life is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to give up being concerned totally with this lifetime, in which friends and relations a long time together must part their own ways; wealth and possessions gathered with effort must be left behind; and our consciousness, the guest, must depart from our bodies, its guest house. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

No matter how long we've been living together, good friends and relations must some day depart. Our wealth and possessions collected with effort are left far behind at the end of our lives. Our mind's but a guest in our body's great guest house, one day it must vacate and travel beyond. We must cast away thoughts just concerning this lifetime – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 5

གང་དང་འགྲོགས་ན་དུག་གསུམ་འཕེལ་འགྱུར་ཞིང་།།
ཐོས་བསམ་བསྒོམ་པའི་བྱ་བ་ཉམས་གྱུར་ལ།།
བྱམས་དང་སྙིང་རྗེ་མེད་པར་སྒྱུར་བྱེད་པའི།།
གྲོགས་ངན་སྤོང་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

When [evil companions] are associated with, the three poisons increase, the activities of listening, pondering and meditation decline, and love and compassion are extinguished. Abandoning evil companions is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to avoid destructive friends,
In whose company the three poisons of the mind grow stronger,
And we engage less and less in study, reflection and meditation,
So that love and compassion fade away until they are no more. (Adam Pearcey)

When a friendship causes the three poisons to grow;
Our listening, reflecting, and meditating to decline;
And loving kindness and compassion to diminish;
To abandon such bad influences is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

If you spend time with this one, the three poisons will proliferate;
The deeds of hearing, contemplating, and meditating will diminish;
And loving-kindness and compassion will become extinct.
To abandon negative friends is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Make friends with this one and the three poisons grow,
The activities of listening, reflecting, and meditating decline,
And lovingkindness and compassion are destroyed.
To cast off bad friends is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

When you keep their company your three poisons increase,
Your activities of hearing, thinking and meditating decline,
And they make you lose your love and compassion.
Give up bad friends —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

When friendship with someone
Causes the three poisons to increase,
Degrades the activities of listening, reflecting, and meditating,
And destroys loving kindness and compassion,
To give up such a friendship
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to rid ourselves of bad friends with whom, when we associate, our three poisonous emotions come to increase; our actions of listening, thinking, and meditating come to decrease; and our love and compassion turn to nil. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

From staying together with friends who misguide us, our hatred, desires, and ignorance grow. We're left little time to continue our studies; we don't think of Dharma; we meditate less. Our love and compassion for all sentient beings are lost and forgotten while under their sway. We must sever our ties with misleading companions – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 6

གང་ཞིག་བསྟེན་ན་ཉེས་པ་ཟད་འགྱུར་ཞིང་།།
ཡོན་ཏན་ཡར་ངོའི་ཟླ་ལྟར་འཕེལ་འགྱུར་བའི།།
བཤེས་གཉེན་དམ་པ་རང་གི་ལུས་བས་ཀྱང་།།
གཅེས་པར་འཛིན་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

When [sublime spiritual friends] are relied upon, one’s faults are exhausted and one’s qualities increase like the waxing moon. Cherishing sublime spiritual friends even more than one’s own body is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to cherish spiritual friends,
By regarding them as even more precious than one’s own body,
Since they are the ones who will help to rid us of all our faults,
And make our virtues grow ever greater just like the waxing moon. (Adam Pearcey)

When you rely on one and your faults decrease
And your qualities grow like the waxing moon,
To cherish such a genuine spiritual friend
More than your body is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

If you rely on this one, your faults will become exhausted
And your qualities will expand like the waxing moon.
To cherish a genuine spiritual friend
Even more than one’s own body is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Rely on this one and defects disappear,
While qualities increase like the light of the waxing moon.
To cherish such a genuine spiritual friend
More dearly than one’s own body is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

When you rely on them your faults come to an end
And your good qualities grow like the waxing moon.
Cherish spiritual teachers
Even more than your own body —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

When in reliance on someone, your defects wane
And your positive qualities grow like the waxing moon,
To cherish such a spiritual friend even more than your own body
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to cherish more than our bodies our hallowed spiritual mentors, to whom, by entrusting ourselves, our faults come to deplete and our good qualities come to expand like the waxing moon. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Entrusting ourselves to the hands of a Guru and completely relying for guidance on him, our competence both in the scriptures and practice will expand like the moon growing full and complete. We'll solve all our problems, dispel our delusions, by placing our confidence on him with trust. We must cherish our Guru far more than our body – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 7

རང་ཡང་འཁོར་བའི་བཙོན་རར་བཅིང་བ་ཡི།།
འཇིག་རྟེན་ལྷ་ཡིས་སུ་ཞིག་སྐྱོབ་པར་ནུས།།
དེ་ཕྱིར་གང་ལ་སྐྱབས་ན་མི་བསླུ་བའི།།
དཀོན་མཆོག་སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

What worldly god, himself also bound in the prison of cyclic existence, is able to protect others? Therefore, when refuge is sought, taking refuge in the undeceiving Triple Gem is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to take refuge in the Three Jewels,
Since they will never fail to provide protection for all who call upon them,
For whom are the ordinary gods of this world ever capable of helping,
As long as they themselves are trapped within saṃsāra’s vicious cycle? (Adam Pearcey)

Themselves held captive in samsara’s prison,
Whom could the worldly gods protect?
When seeking refuge, to seek it in the
Undeceiving Three Jewels is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Themselves also bound in the prison of samsara,
Whom do the worldly gods have the power to protect?
Therefore, when seeking a refuge, to go for refuge
In the three jewels that will not deceive you is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Bound themselves in the prison of samsara,
Who can worldly gods protect?
Therefore, in seeking undeceiving protection, to go for refuge
To the three jewels is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Bound himself in the jail of cyclic existence,
What worldly god can give you protection?
Therefore when you seek refuge, take refuge in
The Three Jewels which will not betray you —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Themselves captives in the prison of samsara,
Whom can the worldly gods protect?
Therefore, to seek refuge in those who do not deceive,
the Three Jewels, Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to take safe direction from the Supreme Gems, by seeking protection from whom we are never deceived – since whom can worldly gods protect when they themselves are still bound in the prison of samsara? (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

The gods of this world are not free yet from sorrow, they're caught in samsara, some time they must fall. If they're bound as we are, how can they protect us? How can someone in prison free anyone else? But Buddha, his teachings and those who live by them are free to give comfort – they'll not let us down. We must go to the Three Jewels of Refuge for shelter – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 8

ཤིན་ཏུ་བཟོད་དཀའི་ངན་སོང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྣམས།།
སྡིག་པའི་ལས་ཀྱི་འབྲས་བུར་ཐུབ་པས་གསུངས།།
དེ་ཕྱིར་སྲོག་ལ་བབས་ཀྱང་སྡིག་པའི་ལས།།
ནམ་ཡང་མི་བྱེད་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

The Subduer said that all the unbearable suffering of the three lower realms is the fruition of wrongdoing. Therefore, never committing negative deeds, even at peril to one’s life, is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is never to commit a harmful act,
Even though not to do so might put one’s very life at risk,
For the Sage himself has taught how negative actions will ripen
Into the manifold miseries of the lower realms, so difficult to endure. (Adam Pearcey)

“The unbearable suffering of the lower realms
Is the fruit of harmful actions,” taught the Muni.
Even if your life is at stake, to never
Commit misdeeds is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

The Sage taught that the sufferings of the lower realms,
Which are extremely difficult to bear, are the results of negative actions.
Therefore, even at the risk of one’s own life,
To never commit negative actions is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Sufferings of the lower realms, so very difficult to bear,
Result from misdeeds, so taught the Sage.
Therefore, even at the risk of one’s life,
To never commit misdeeds is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

The Subduer said all the unbearable suffering
Of bad rebirths is the fruit of wrongdoing.
Therefore, even at the cost of your life,
Never do wrong —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

The suffering of the lower realms, so difficult to bear,
Is the fruit of wrong deeds, so the Buddha taught.
Therefore, even at the cost of your life,
Never to commit negative actions
Is the conduct of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is never to commit any negative actions, even at the cost of our lives, because the Able Sage has declared that the extremely difficult to endure sufferings of the worse states of rebirth are the results of negative actions. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

The Buddha has said that the grief past endurance of creatures whose lives contain nothing but pain is misfortunate fruit of the wrongs they've committed against other beings in lifetimes gone by. Not wishing to suffer from horrible torment, not flinching if even our lives are at stake, we must turn from all actions that harm other beings – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 9

སྲིད་གསུམ་བདེ་བ་རྩྭ་རྩེའི་ཟིལ་པ་བཞིན།།
ཡུད་ཙམ་ཞིག་གིས་འཇིག་པའི་ཆོས་ཅན་ཡིན།།
ནམ་ཡང་མི་འགྱུར་ཐར་པའི་གོ་འཕང་མཆོག།
དོན་དུ་གཉེར་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

The pleasure of the triple world, like a dewdrop on the tip of a blade of grass, is imperiled in a single moment. Striving for the supreme state of never-changing liberation is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to strive towards the goal,
Which is the supreme state of changeless, everlasting liberation,
Since all the happiness of the three realms lasts but a moment,
And then is quickly gone, just like dewdrops on blades of grass. (Adam Pearcey)

Like dew on the tip of a blade of grass,
The three world’s happiness quickly passes.
To strive for the ever-enduring state
Of supreme liberation is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

The pleasures of the three realms, like dewdrops on a blade of grass,
Are objects that perish in an instant.
To strive for the supreme state of liberation
That is never changing is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Happiness of the three realms is like dew on a blade of grass:
Its very nature is to quickly disappear.
To strive for the supreme state of liberation,
Which never changes, is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Like dew on the tip of a blade of grass, pleasures of the three worlds
Last only a while and then vanish.
Aspire to the never-changing
Supreme state of liberation —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Like dew on the tip of a blade of grass
Happiness in the three worlds evaporates in a single instant.
To strive for the supreme state of liberation that never changes
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to take keen interest in the supreme never-changing state of liberation, as the pleasures of the three planes of compulsive existence are phenomena that perish in a mere instant, like dew on the tips of grass. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Like the dew that remains for a moment or two on the tips of the grass and then melts with the dawn, the pleasures we find in the course of our lifetimes last only an instant, they cannot endure; while the freedom we gain when becoming a Buddha is a blissful attainment not subject to change. We must aim all our efforts to this high achievement – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 10

ཐོག་མེད་དུས་ནས་བདག་ལ་བརྩེ་བ་ཅན།།
མ་རྣམས་སྡུག་ན་རང་བདེས་ཅི་ཞིག་བྱ།།
དེ་ཕྱིར་མཐའ་ཡས་སེམས་ཅན་བསྒྲལ་བྱའི་ཕྱིར།།
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

When mothers who have been kind to one since beginningless time are suffering, what is the use of one’s own happiness? Therefore, generating the mind of enlightenment in order to liberate limitless sentient beings is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to arouse bodhicitta,
So as to bring freedom to all sentient beings, infinite in number.
For how can true happiness ever be found while our mothers,
Who have cared for us throughout the ages, endure such pain? (Adam Pearcey)

From beginningless time, your mothers have loved you.
If they still suffer, how could you be happy?
In order to liberate countless sentient beings,
To arouse bodhichitta is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

From beginningless time, my mothers have loved me.
If they suffer, how can I worry about my own happiness?
Therefore, in order to liberate sentient beings, which are boundless,
To engender bodhichitta is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

From beginningless time my mothers have cared for me;
If they suffer, what good is my own happiness?
Therefore, in order to liberate limitless sentient beings,
To engender bodhichitta is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

When your mothers, who’ve loved you since time without beginning,
Are suffering, what use is your own happiness?
Therefore to free limitless living beings
Develop the altruistic intention —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

From beginningless time your mothers have cherished you.
If they now suffer, what good is your own happiness?
Therefore, in order to liberate limitless sentient beings,
Giving rise to bodhichitta is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to develop a bodhichitta aim to liberate limitless beings, because, if our mothers, who have been kind to us from beginningless time, are suffering, what can we do with (just) our own happiness? (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

In all of our lifetimes, in each incarnation, we've been cared for by others with motherly love. While these mothers of ours are still lost in samsara, how cruel to ignore them and free just ourselves! To save other beings, though countless in number, to free from their sorrows these mothers of ours, produce Bodhichitta, the wish to be Buddha – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 11

སྡུག་བསྔལ་མ་ལུས་བདག་བདེ་འདོད་ལས་བྱུང་།།
རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་གཞན་ཕན་སེམས་ལས་འཁྲུངས།།
དེ་ཕྱིར་བདག་བདེ་གཞན་གི ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དག།
ཡང་དག་བརྗེ་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

All suffering without exception comes from wishing for one’s own happiness. The perfect buddhas arise from the altruistic mind. Therefore, completely exchanging one’s own happiness for the suffering of others is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to make a genuine exchange
Of one’s own happiness and wellbeing for all the sufferings of others.
Since all misery comes from seeking happiness for oneself alone,
Whilst perfect buddhahood is born from the wish for others’ good. (Adam Pearcey)

All suffering comes from wanting your own happiness.
The perfect buddhas arise from benefiting others.
To truly exchange your happiness for the
Suffering of others is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

All suffering, without exception, arises from the desire for one’s own happiness.
Perfect buddhas are born from benefiting others.
Therefore, to perfectly exchange one’s own happiness
For others’ suffering is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

All suffering comes from wanting happiness for oneself,
Perfect buddhas are born from the wish to benefit others.
Therefore, to genuinely exchange one’s happiness
For the suffering of others is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

All suffering comes from the wish for your own happiness.
Perfect Buddhas are born from the thought to help others.
Therefore exchange your own happiness
For the suffering of others —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

All suffering comes from yearning for your own happiness.
The perfect Buddhas are born from the intention to benefit others.
Therefore, to truly exchange your own happiness for the suffering of others
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to purely exchange our personal happiness for the suffering of others, because (all) our sufferings, without an exception, come from desiring our personal happiness, while a fully enlightened Buddha is born from the attitude of wishing others well. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

All of our sufferings, without an exception, derive from the wish to please only ourselves; while the thoughts and the actions that benefit others conceive and give birth to supreme Buddhahood. And so, in exchange for our selfish desires and shameful neglect of our suffering kin, replace thoughts of self with concern for all others – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 12

སུ་དག་འདོད་ཆེན་དབང་གིས་བདག་གི་ནོར།།
ཐམས་ཅད་འཕྲོག་གམ་འཕྲོག་ཏུ་འཇུག་ན་ཡང་།།
ལུས་དང་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་དུས་གསུམ་དགེ་བ་རྣམས།།
དེ་ལ་བསྔོ་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Even if others, influenced by great desire, steal all one’s wealth or have it stolen, dedicating to them one’s body, possessions and virtues [accumulated in] the three times is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

Even if others, in the grips of great desire, should steal,
Or encourage others to take away, all the wealth that I possess,
To dedicate to them entirely my body, possessions and all my merits
From the past, present and future— this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas. (Adam Pearcey)

Should someone, driven by great desire,
Steal or urge the theft of all your wealth,
To offer them your body, wealth, and virtue
Of all three times is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Even if someone, out of intense desire, steals all my wealth
Or makes another do so,
To dedicate my body, possessions, and all virtue of the three times
To them is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Even if someone, out of great desire, steals all my wealth
Or makes another do so,
To dedicate body, possessions, and all virtue of the three times
To them is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Even if someone out of strong desire
Steals all your wealth or has it stolen,
Dedicate to him your body, possessions
And your virtue, past, present and future —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Even if someone driven by desire steals all your wealth
Or incites someone else to steal it,
To dedicate to this person your body, possessions, and all your virtue of the three times
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is, even if someone under the power of great desire steals or causes others to steal all our wealth, to dedicate to him our bodies, resources, and constructive actions of the three times. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

If under the sway of compulsive desire and longing for things that he does not possess, some misfortunate person has stolen our riches or lets others steal them while he just stands by; then out of compassion and with no attachment, to him we must dedicate all of our prayers, may he have wealth and our body and merits – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 13

བདག་ལ་ཉེས་པ་ཅུང་ཟད་མེད་བཞིན་དུ།།
གང་དག་བདག་གི་མགོ་བོ་གཅོད་བྱེད་ནའང་།།
སྙིང་རྗེའི་དབང་གིས་དེ་ཡི་སྡིག་པ་རྣམས།།
བདག་ལ་ལེན་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Even if others cut off one’s head when one is utterly blameless, taking upon oneself all their negative deeds by the power of compassion is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

Even if others should seek to cut off my head,
Though I’ve done them not the slightest wrong,
To take upon myself, out of compassion,
All the harms they have amassed—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas. (Adam Pearcey)

Though you were not at all at fault,
Should someone try to sever your head,
Moved by compassion, to take their misdeeds
Upon yourself is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Should someone sever my head
Even though I did not do the slightest wrong,
Through the power of compassion, to take on
Their negativity for myself is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Even if someone were to sever my head
Though I had not done the slightest wrong,
To still take on their misdeeds
With compassion is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Even if someone tries to cut off your head
When you haven’t done the slightest thing wrong,
Out of compassion take all his misdeeds
Upon yourself —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

If someone cuts off your head
Even when you have not done the slightest thing wrong,
Through the power of compassion
To take his misdeeds upon yourself
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is, even if while we haven’t the slightest fault ourselves, someone were to chop off our heads, to accept on ourselves his negative consequences, through the power of compassion. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Although we're not guilty of any offenses and never have harmed anyone in our lives, if someone deluded should threaten to kill us because he is crazed with a tormented mind, then mercifully wishing for him not to suffer from further misfortune because of his state, we must take on ourselves the effects of his actions – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 14

འགའ་ཞིག་བདག་ལ་མི་སྙན་སྣ་ཚོགས་པ།།
སྟོང་གསུམ་ཁྱབ་པར་སྒྲོག་པར་བྱེད་ན་ཡང་།།
བྱམས་པའི་སེམས་ཀྱིས་སླར་ཡང་དེ་ཉིད་ཀྱི།།
ཡོན་ཏན་བརྗོད་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Even if someone broadcasts throughout the billion worlds all sorts of offensive remarks about one, speaking in turn of that person’s qualities with a loving mind is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

Even if others should declare before the world
All manner of unpleasant things about me,
To speak only of their qualities in return,
With a mind that’s filled with love—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas. (Adam Pearcey)

Should someone spread unpleasantries
About you through the entire world,
With heartfelt love, to, in return,
Proclaim their goodness is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Even if some should proclaim unpleasant things
About me throughout the three-thousand-fold universe,
With a mind of loving-kindness, to speak of their good qualities
In return is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Although someone broadcasts throughout the triple universe
A legion of unpleasant things about me,
In return, with a mind full of lovingkindness,
To tell of their qualities is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Even if someone broadcasts all kinds of unpleasant remarks
About you throughout the three thousand worlds,
In return, with a loving mind,
Speak of his good qualities—
This is the practice of bodhisattva. (Ruth Sonam)

Should someone slander you
Throughout a billion worlds,
With a heart full of love, to proclaim his good qualities in return
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is, even if someone were to publicize throughout the thousand, million, billion worlds all kinds of unpleasant things about us, to speak in return about his good qualities, with an attitude of love. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

If someone insulting should spread ugly rumors about us with cruel words unpleasant to hear, and even if what he has said spreads to others and gains wide acceptance as being the truth; yet out of our wish for the one who's maligned us to conquer his troubles and gain peace of mind, we must practice all virtues and treat him with kindness – the sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 15

འགྲོ་མང་འདུས་པའི་དབུས་སུ་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས།།
མཚང་ནས་བྲུས་ཤིང་ཚིག་ངན་སྨྲ་ན་ཡང་།།
དེ་ལ་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་ཀྱི་འདུ་ཤེས་ཀྱིས།།
གུས་པས་འདུད་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Even if, in the midst of a public gathering, someone exposes faults and speaks ill of one, humbly paying homage to that person, perceiving him as a spiritual friend, is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

Even if others should expose my hidden faults or deride me
When speaking amidst great gatherings of many people,
To conceive of them as spiritual friends and to bow
Before them in respect—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas. (Adam Pearcey)

Should one reveal your hidden faults
And abuse you in a gathered crowd,
To see them as your spiritual friend
And respectfully bow is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Even if several people in the midst of a crowd
Should reveal my hidden faults and speak harsh words,
To hold them to be my spiritual friends
And bow to them with respect is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Although in a gathering of many people
Someone uses harsh words and reveals my hidden faults,
Seeing them as a spiritual friend,
To bow with respect is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Though someone may deride and speak bad words
About you in a public gathering,
Looking on him as a spiritual teacher,
Bow to him with respect —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

If in the middle of a crowd of people
Someone reveals your hidden faults and abuses you for them,
To see him as a spiritual friend and to bow with respect
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is, even if someone exposes our faults or says foul words (about us) in the midst of a gathering of many wandering beings, to bow to him respectfully, distinguishing that (he’s our) spiritual teacher. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

If we're in the midst of a large crowd of people and someone should single us out for abuse, exposing our faults before all within hearing and pointing out clearly the flaws we still have; then not getting angry nor being defensive, just listening in silence and heeding his words, we must bow in respect to this man as our teacher – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 16

བདག་གི་བུ་བཞིན་གཅེས་པར་བསྐྱངས་པའི་མིས།།
བདག་ལ་དག་བཞིན་བལྟ་བར་བྱེད་ན་ཡང་།།
ནད་ཀྱིས་བཏབ་པའི་བུ་ལ་མ་བཞིན་དུ།།
ལྷག་པར་བརྩེ་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Even if someone for whom one has cared as lovingly as his own child regards one as an enemy, to cherish that person as dearly as a mother does an ailing child is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

Even if others whom I have cared for like children of my own
Should turn upon me and treat me as an enemy,
To regard them only with special fondness and affection,
As a mother would her ailing child—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas. (Adam Pearcey)

If one you’ve cared for as your child
Should come to see you as their foe,
Just like a mother towards her ailing child,
To love them all the more is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Even if someone I cared for like my child
Should act as though I were their enemy,
Like a mother toward her child stricken with illness,
To love them even more is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Even if someone who I cared for as my child
Were to view me as an enemy,
Like a mother would her ailing child,
To love them even more is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Even if a person for whom you’ve cared
Like your own child regards you as an enemy,
Cherish him specially, like a mother
Does her child who is stricken by sickness —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

If someone whom you dearly cherish like your own child
Takes you for an enemy,
Then, like a mother whose child is sick,
To love that person even more
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is, even if a person whom we’ve taken care of, cherishing him like our own child, were to regard us as his enemy, to have special affection for him, like a mother toward her child stricken with an illness. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

If someone we love and have cared for with kindness, as an unselfish mother would cherish her child, should shun our devotion with thankless resentment and treat us as if we're his most hated foe, then seeing these acts as a terrible sickness befallen our child and affecting his mind, we must treat him with even more love and affection – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 17

རང་དང་མཉམ་པའམ་དམན་པའི་སྐྱེ་བོ་ཡིས།།
ང་རྒྱལ་དབང་གིས་བརྙས་ཐབས་བྱེད་ན་ཡང་།།
བླ་མ་བཞིན་དུ་གུས་པས་བདག་ཉིད་ཀྱི།།
སྤྱི་བོར་ལེན་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Even if, influenced by pride, an equal or inferior person treats one with contempt, respectfully placing him like a guru at the crown of one’s head is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

Even if others, equal or inferior to me in status,
Should, out of arrogance, disparage me,
To honour them, as I would my teacher,
By bowing down my head before them—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas. (Adam Pearcey)

Should one of equal or lesser status,
Haughtily treat you with contempt,
Respecting them as if a teacher, to hold
Them above you is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Even if someone my equal or lower
Should insult me influenced by pride,
To place them with respect, as if they were a guru,
At the crown of my head is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Although someone, my equal or less,
Through pride sought to put me down,
With respect as for a guru,
To place them above my head is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

If an equal or inferior person
Disparages you out of pride,
Place him, as you would your spiritual teacher,
With respect on the crown of your head —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Even when someone who is your equal or inferior
Driven by spite seeks to defame you,
To place him on the crown of your head
With the same respect you would accord your guru
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is, even if an individual, our equal or inferior, were to treat (us) insultingly out of the power of his arrogance, to receive him on the crown of our heads respectfully, like a guru. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

If by our own equals or those who are lower in intellect, spiritual level, or wealth, we're insulted and treated as if we were nothing by the force of their pride and their jealous contempt, then seeing that they are like Gurus to teach us to be always humble and conquer our pride, we must treat them with honor and place them above us – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 18

འཚོ་བས་འཕོངས་ཤིང་རྟག་ཏུ་མི་ཡིས་བརྙས།།
འཚབས་ཆེན་ནད་དང་གདོན་གི ས་བཏབ་ཀྱང་སླར།།
འགྲོ་ཀུན་སྡིག་སྡུག་བདག་ལ་ལེན་བྱེད་ཅིང་།།
ཞུམ་པ་མེད་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Though one may have an impoverished life, always be disparaged by others, afflicted by dangerous illness and evil spirits, to be without discouragement and to take upon oneself all the misdeeds and suffering of beings is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

Even though I may be destitute and despised by all,
Beset with terrible illness and plagued by evil spirits,
Still to take upon myself all beings’ ills and harmful actions,
Without ever losing heart—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas. (Adam Pearcey)

Even when you’re destitute, derided,
Gravely ill, or plagued by negative forces,
To fearlessly accept all beings’ misdeeds
And suffering is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Even when I am made destitute, people constantly berate me,
And grave illness and evil spirits strike me,
To take on still the suffering and misdeeds of all beings for myself
Without losing heart is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Though immersed in poverty and always scorned by others,
Plagued by grave illness and evil spirits too,
To take on still the misdeeds and suffering of all beings
Without losing heart is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Though you lack what you need and are constantly disparaged,
Afflicted by dangerous sickness and spirits,
Without discouragement take on the misdeeds
And the pain of all living beings —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Though gripped by poverty and always scorned,
Though stricken by disease and tormented by evil spirits,
To take upon yourself the negativity and suffering of every being
And never to get discouraged
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is, even if we are destitute in livelihood and always insulted by people, or sick with terrible diseases, or afflicted by ghosts, to accept on ourselves, in return, the negative forces and sufferings of all wandering beings and not be discouraged. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

If we are but men of most meager subsistence and always receive a great deal of abuse, if we find ourselves constantly gripped by much sickness and experience harm, interruption and pain, then accepting ourselves all these hardships that others would have to have suffered from wrongs they had done, we must never lose courage to take pain from others – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 19

སྙན་པར་གགས་ཤིང་འགྲོ་མང་སྤྱི་བོས་བཏུད།།
རྣམ་ཐོས་བུ་ཡི་ནོར་འདྲ་ཐོབ་གྱུར་ཀྱང་།།
སྲིད་པའི་དཔལ་འབྱོར་སྙིང་པོ་མེད་གཟིགས་ནས།།
ཁེངས་པ་མེད་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Though one may be famous and revered by many people or gain wealth like that of Vaishravana, having realized that worldly fortune is without essence, to be unconceited is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

Even though I may be famous and revered by all,
And as rich as Vaiśravaṇa, the god of wealth himself,
To see the futility of all the glory and riches of this world
And to remain without conceit—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas. (Adam Pearcey)

Though well-renowned, respected by all,
And as rich as the god of wealth,
To see all worldly splendor as hollow
And not be proud is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Even if I become renowned and everyone pays me respect,
Or should I obtain wealth like that of Vaishravana,
To see the wealth of samsara as having no essence
And not have pride is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Though famed and bowed to by many beings,
And affluent as a god of wealth,
To see as insubstantial the prosperity of existence,
And thus be free of arrogance, is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Though you become famous and many bow to you,
And you gain riches equal to Vaishravana’s,
See that worldly fortune is without essence,
And be unconceited —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Though famous and prominent, someone to whom others bow,
Though you amass the riches of the god of wealth,
To see that worldly splendor has no essence
And thus to be without arrogance
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is, even if we are sweetly praised, bowed to with their heads by many wandering beings, or have obtained (riches) comparable to the fortune of Vaishravana (the Guardian of Wealth), never to be conceited, by seeing that worldly prosperity has no essence. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Though praised and well-known and admired by many who act most respectful by bowing their heads, though having obtained a vast treasure of riches, which equals the store of the great God of Wealth, yet seeing full well that this fruit of samsara, though fortunate, still has no essence at all, we must cast out what pride we might have in these glories – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 20

རང་གི་ཞེ་སྡང་དག་བོ་མ་ཐུལ་ན།།
ཕྱི་རོལ་དག་བོ་བཏུལ་ཞིང་འཕེལ་བར་འགྱུར།།
དེ་ཕྱིར་བྱམས་དང་སྙིང་རྗེའི་དམག་དཔུང་གིས།།
རང་རྒྱུད་འདུལ་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

If outer foes are destroyed while not subduing the enemy of one’s own hatred, enemies will only increase. Therefore, subduing one’s own mind with the army of love and compassion is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to subdue the mind
With the forces of loving kindness and compassion.
For unless the real adversary—my own anger—is defeated,
Outer enemies, though I may conquer them, will continue to appear. (Adam Pearcey)

Not taming the enemy of your own anger,
Combating outer foes will just make more.
To tame your mind with an army of love
And compassion is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

If I do not tame the enemy of my own anger,
I may subdue external enemies, but they will still increase.
Therefore, with the army of loving-kindness and compassion,
To tame one’s own mind stream is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Without conquering the enemy of one’s own aggression,
Trying to conquer outer enemies will only cause them to spread.
Therefore, with the army of lovingkindness and compassion,
To tame one’s mindstream is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

While the enemy of your own anger is unsubdued,
Though you conquer external foes, they will only increase.
Therefore with the militia of love and compassion
Subdue your own mind —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

If you have not tamed the enemy of your own anger,
Combating outer opponents will only make them multiply.
Therefore, with an army of loving kindness and compassion,
To tame your own mind is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to tame our mental continuums with the armed forces of love and compassion, because, if we haven’t subdued the enemy, which is our own hostility, then even if we have subdued an external enemy, more will come. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

If anger that dwells in our hearts lies neglected and turning instead to our external foes, we try to destroy them and even kill thousands, then thousands of others will plague us still more. So seeing this action is not a solution, let's muster the forces of mercy and love; turn inwards and tame the wild flow of our mind-stream – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 21

འདོད་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ལན་ཚྭའི་ཆུ་དང་འདྲ།།
ཇི་ཙམ་སྤྱད་ཀྱང་སྲེད་པ་འཕེལ་བར་འགྱུར།།
གང་ལ་ཞེན་ཆགས་སྐྱེ་བའི་དངོས་པོ་རྣམས།།
འཕྲལ་ལ་སྤོང་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

However much sense pleasures are enjoyed, as [when drinking] salt water, craving still increases. Immediately abandoning whatever things give rise to clinging and attachment is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to turn away immediately
From those things which bring desire and attachment.
For the pleasures of the senses are just like salty water:
The more we taste of them, the more our thirst increases. (Adam Pearcey)

The sense enjoyments are like saltly water—
The more you drink, the more your thirst will grow.
Immediately discarding objects that
Incite attachment is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

The sense pleasures are like saltwater:
However much you partake, that much your craving will increase.
Whatever objects of attachment arise,
To immediately abandon them is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

The sense pleasures are just like salt water:
However much one consumes, craving only increases.
To immediately discard things
That give rise to attachment is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Sensual pleasures are like saltwater:
The more you indulge, the more thirst increases.
Abandon at once those things which breed
Clinging attachment —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Sense pleasures are like salt water.
The more you partake of them,
The more your craving will increase.
Therefore, when something arouses attachment,
To abandon it immediately is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is immediately to abandon any objects that cause our clinging and attachment to increase, for objects of desire are like salt water: the more we have indulged (in them, our) thirst (for them) increases (in turn). (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Indulging in objects our senses run after and drinking salt water are one and the same: the more we partake, for our own satisfaction, the more our desires and thirst for them grow. Thus when we conceive a compulsive attraction toward whatever object our senses desire, abandon it quickly without hesitation – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 22

ཇི་ལྟར་སྣང་བ་འདི་དག་རང་གི་སེམས།།
སེམས་ཉིད་གདོད་ནས་སྤྲོས་པའི་མཐའ་དང་བྲལ།།
དེ་ཉིད་ཤེས་ནས་གཟུང་འཛིན་མཚན་མ་རྣམས།།
ཡིད་ལ་མི་བྱེད་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Appearances are one’s own mind. From the beginning, mind’s nature is free from the extremes of elaboration. Knowing this, not to engage the mind in subject-object duality is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is never to entertain concepts,
Which revolve around dualistic notions of perceiver and perceived,
In the knowledge that all these appearances are but the mind itself,
Whilst mind’s own nature is forever beyond the limitations of ideas. (Adam Pearcey)

All that appears is your own mind; mind’s nature
Is innately free of conceptual extremes.
Knowing this, to not engage the mind
In dualistic conception is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Whatever appears is one’s own mind.
Mind is primordially free from extremes of elaboration.
Knowing this is so, to not mentally engage
The signs of perceiver and perceived is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

However they appear, all appearances are one’s mind.
Mind in itself is primordially free of elaborations’ extremes.
Knowing this, to not mentally engage the attributes
Of subject and object is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Whatever appears is your own mind.
Your mind from the start was free from fabricated extremes.
Understanding this, do not take to mind
[Inherent] signs of subject and object —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

All appearances are your own mind, and
Mind itself primordially transcends all mental fabrications.
Knowing this is the precise nature of reality,
To remain free from dualistic conceptions
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is not to take to mind inherent features of objects taken and minds that take them, by realizing just how things are. No matter how things appear, they are from our own minds; and mind-itself is, from the beginning, parted from the extremes of mental fabrication. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Whatever appears to be truly existent is just what our mind in delusion creates; this mind of ours also is, from the beginning, devoid of an essence inherently real. Then seeing that Truth is beyond the conceptions we have of the known and the knower as well, dispel the belief in inherent existence – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 23

ཡིད་དུ་འོང་བའི་ཡུལ་དང་འཕྲད་པ་ན།།
དབྱར་གི ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཇའ་ཚོན་ཇི་བཞིན་དུ།།
མཛེས་པར་སྣང་ཡང་བདེན་པར་མི་ལྟ་ཞིང་།།
ཞེན་ཆགས་སྤོང་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

When encountering pleasing sense objects, though they appear beautiful like a rainbow in summertime, not to regard them as real and to abandon clinging attachment is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to let go of grasping
When encountering things one finds pleasant or attractive,
Considering them to be like rainbows in the summer skies—
Beautiful in appearance, yet in truth devoid of any substance. (Adam Pearcey)

The things you encounter that please your mind
Are like the rainbows viewed in summer.
Not seeing these lovely images as real and
Renouncing attachment is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Encountering pleasurable objects
Is like seeing a rainbow in the summertime.
Although they appear beautiful and real, to see them as not being real
And relinquish attachment is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

When meeting with an attractive object,
Treat it as a rainbow in summer:
A beautiful appearance, but not viewed as real—
To give up attachment is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

When you encounter attractive objects,
Though they seem beautiful
Like a rainbow in summer, don’t regard them as real
And give up attachment —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

When you encounter objects that please your mind,
Know they are like rainbows in the summer season.
Though they seem beautiful,
To see they are not real and to give up attachment to them
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is, when meeting with pleasing objects, not to regard them as truly existent, even though they appear beautifully, like a summer’s rainbow, and (thus) to rid ourselves of clinging and attachment. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Whenever we meet with a beautiful object, or something attractive that pleases our mind, then do not be fooled into thinking it differs in fact from a summertime rainbow: though both of them have such a lovely appearance, there's nothing substantial behind this facade. Abandon the drives of compulsive attraction – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 24

སྡུག་བསྔལ་སྣ་ཚོགས་རྨི་ ལམ་བུ་ཤི་ལྟར།།
འཁྲུལ་སྣང་བདེན་པར་བཟུང་བས་ཨ་ཐང་ཆད།།
དེ་ཕྱིར་མི་མཐུན་རྐྱེན་དང་འཕྲད་པའི་ཚེ།།
འཁྲུལ་པར་ལྟ་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Diverse sufferings are like the death of a child in a dream. By apprehending illusory appearances as real, one becomes weary. Therefore, when encountering disagreeable circumstances, viewing them as illusory is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to recognize delusion
Whenever one is confronted by adversity or misfortune.
For these sufferings are just like the death of a child in a dream,
And it’s so exhausting to cling to delusory perceptions as real. (Adam Pearcey)

All suffering is like a child dying in a dream.
To take delusive appearances as true is exhausting!
When beset by trying circumstances,
To see it as delusion is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

The different kinds of suffering are like your child dying in a dream.
Taking confused appearances as real, how tiring!
Therefore, when meeting with adverse conditions,
To see them as confusion is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

All varieties of suffering are like the death of one’s child in a dream:
Taking mistaken appearances to be real—how exhausting!
Therefore, when encountering difficult situations,
To see them as confusion is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

All forms of suffering are like a child’s death in a dream.
Holding illusory appearances to be true makes you weary.
Therefore when you meet with disagreeable circumstances,
See them as illusory —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

All suffering is like the death of your child in a dream.
To take such delusive appearances as true, how exhausting!
Therefore, whenever you encounter unpleasant circumstances,
To see them as delusions is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is, at the time when meeting with adverse conditions, to see them as deceptive, for various sufferings are like the death of our child in a dream and to take (such) deceptive appearances to be true is a tiresome waste. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

The various ills in our life that we suffer resemble the death of our child in a dream; to hold as the truth what is merely illusion is needless exhaustion of body and mind. For this very reason, when faced with unpleasant conditions that normally cause us much grief, approach them as if they were only illusion – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 25

བྱང་ཆུབ་འདོད་པས་ལུས་ཀྱང་གཏང་དགོས་ན།།
ཕྱི་རོལ་དངོས་པོ་རྣམས་ལ་སྨོས་ཅི་དགོས།།
དེ་ཕྱིར་ལན་དང་རྣམ་སྨིན་མི་རེ་བའི།།
སྦྱིན་པ་གཏོང་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

If it is necessary to give away even one’s body while aspiring to enlightenment, what need is there to mention external objects? Therefore, practicing generosity without hope of reciprocation or [positive] karmic results is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to give out of generosity,
With no hopes of karmic recompense or expectation of reward.
For if those who seek awakening must give even their own bodies,
What need is there to mention mere outer objects and possessions? (Adam Pearcey)

If one yearning for awakening must give of their body,
What need is there to speak of material things?
Without desiring return or temporal reward,
To give with generosity is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Since, if you wish for enlightenment, you must give even your body away,
What is there to be said about giving material objects to others?
Therefore, to have generosity without hope of
Being paid in return is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

If those aspiring to enlightenment must give even their body,
What need to mention outer objects?
Therefore, without hope of return or ripened results,
To extend generosity is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

When those who want enlightenment must give even their body,
There’s no need to mention external things.
Therefore without hope for return or any fruition
Give generously —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

If those who aspire to enlightenment willingly give up their bodies,
What need is there to mention external objects?
Therefore with no hope of reward or benefit,
To give with generosity is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to give generously without hope for anything in return and something karmic to ripen, because, if those who would wish enlightenment must give away even their bodies, what need to mention external possessions? (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

The beings who strive to be fully enlightened would give up their bodies pursuing this aim; with this high example, what need is the mention of gifts we should make of the objects we have. Without any hopes of return for our kindness, or thinking about all the merit we gain, engage in the practice of generous giving – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 26

ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་མེད་པར་རང་དོན་མི་འགྲུབ་ན།།
གཞན་དོན་འགྲུབ་པར་འདོད་པ་གད་མོའི་གནས།།
དེ་ཕྱིར་སྲིད་པའི་འདུན་པ་མེད་པ་ཡི།།
ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་སྲུང་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

If, lacking ethical conduct, one fails to achieve one’s own purpose, the wish to accomplish others’ purpose is laughable. Therefore, guarding ethics devoid of aspirations for worldly existence is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to observe ethical restraint,
Without the slightest intention of continuing in saṃsāric existence.
For lacking discipline one will never secure even one’s own wellbeing,
And so any thought of bringing benefit to others would be absurd. (Adam Pearcey)

If lacking ethics, you cannot help yourself,
Then hoping to benefit others would be absurd.
Without any hope for worldly results,
To maintain ethics is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

If, lacking discipline, you do not accomplish your own benefit,
Wishing to accomplish others’ benefit is laughable!
Therefore, to engage in discipline
Without samsaric craving is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

If without discipline one cannot even benefit oneself,
What a laugh to think of helping others!
Therefore, free of worldly craving,
To maintain discipline is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Without ethics you can’t accomplish your own well-being,
So wanting to accomplish others’ is laughable.
Therefore without worldly aspirations
Safeguard your ethical discipline —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

If lack of discipline prevents you from benefiting yourself,
Then your wish to benefit others is just a joke.
Therefore, to guard discipline
With no longing for worldly existence
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to safeguard ethical self-discipline without worldly intents, because, if we can’t fulfill our own purposes without ethical discipline, the wish to fulfill the purposes of others is a joke. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

If lacking strict moral control of our conduct we haven't been able to reach our own goals, how can we fulfill all the wishes of others? Undisciplined effort is surely absurd! We have to renounce first attachment to pleasures, which binds us so tightly to samsara's wheel, then protect all our vows of sworn moral behavior – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 27

དགེ་བའི་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་འདོད་པའི་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལ།།
གནོད་བྱེད་ཐམས་ཅད་རིན་ཆེན་གཏེར་དང་མཚུངས།།
དེ་ཕྱིར་ཀུན་ལ་ཞེ་འགས་མེད་པ་ཡི།།
བཟོད་པ་སྒོམ་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

To bodhisattvas who desire the wealth of virtue, all those who do harm are like a precious treasure. Therefore, cultivating patience devoid of hostility is the
bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to cultivate patience,
Free from any trace of animosity towards anyone at all,
Since any potential source of harm is like a priceless treasure
To the bodhisattva who is eager to enjoy a wealth of virtue. (Adam Pearcey)

For bodhisattvas seeking a wealth of virtue,
All that harms is like a priceless treasure.
Completely free of animosity,
To cultivate patience is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

For bodhisattvas who desire a wealth of virtue,
All harmful actions done to them are like a precious treasure.
Therefore, to practice patience that is
Without any malice toward anyone is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

For bodhisattvas desiring the wealth of virtue,
Anything that harms is like a treasury of jewels.
Therefore, free of aggression towards anyone,
To cultivate patience is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

To bodhisattvas who want a wealth of virtue
Those who harm are like a precious treasure.
Therefore towards all cultivate patience
Without hostility —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

For a Bodhisattva who seeks a wealth of virtue
Every harm is like a precious treasure.
Therefore, without getting irritated by anything at all,
To cultivate patience is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to build up as a habit patience, without hostility or repulsion toward anyone, because, for a bodhisattva wishing for a wealth of positive force, all who cause harm are equal to treasures of gems. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

For all Bodhisattvas with minds set on merit who wish to amass a great store of good deeds, encounters with those causing harm and destruction which test their commitment are mines of great wealth. For this very reason, abandon resentment and anger directed toward those who do harm; perfect meditation on patient endurance – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 28

རང་དོན་འབའ་ཞིག་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཉན་རང་ཡང་།།
མགོ་ལ་མེ་ཤོར་བཟླྲོག་ལྟར་བརྩོན་མཐོང་ན།།
འགྲོ་ཀུན་དོན་དུ་ཡོན་ཏན་འབྱུང་གནས་ཀྱི།།
བརྩོན་འགྲུས་རྩོམ་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Even hearers and solitary realizers, who accomplish only their own welfare, strive as if putting out a fire on their heads. Seeing this, taking up diligent effort – the source of good qualities – for the sake of all beings is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to strive with enthusiastic diligence—
The source of all good qualities—when working for the sake of all who live;
Seeing that even śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, who labour for themselves alone,
Exert themselves as if urgently trying to extinguish fires upon their heads. (Adam Pearcey)

Seeking benefit for just themselves, the shravakas and
Pratyekabuddhas strive as if their heads were ablaze.
For the welfare of all beings, to strive with diligence,
The wellspring of qualities, is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Though the hearers and solitary realizers practice only for their own benefit,
They exert themselves like their hair is on fire.
Seeing this, to practice diligence, the source of qualities,
For the sake of all beings is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

If hearers and solitary realizers, for their benefit alone,
Practice diligence like their heads are on fire,
Then certainly, for the good of all beings, to apply diligence,
The source of good qualities, is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Seeing even Hearers and Solitary Realisers, who accomplish
Only their own good, strive as if to put out a fire on their head,
For the sake of all beings make enthusiastic effort,
The source of all good qualities —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

If Shravakas and Pratyekabuddhas, who strive for their benefit alone,
Expend effort as if to extinguish a fire burning on their heads,
Then for the benefit of all beings,
To cultivate joyous effort, the wellspring of positive qualities,
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to exert perseverance, the source of good qualities for the purposes of all wandering beings, since we can see that even shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, who would accomplish only their own purposes, have such perseverance that they would turn from a fire that has broken out on their heads. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

If Shravakas as well as Pratyekabuddhas, who work toward Nirvana for only themselves, exert so much effort fulfilling their purpose that were they in flames they'd not budge from their goal, then how much more energy must be expended by those of us working for everyone's sake; enlightenment calls for the most perseverance – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 29

ཞི་གནས་རབ་ཏུ་ལྡན་པའི་ལྷག་མཐོང་གིས།།
ཉོན་མོངས་རྣམ་པར་འཇོམས་པར་ཤེས་བྱས་ནས།།
གཟུགས་མེད་བཞི་ལས་ཡང་དག་འདས་པ་ཡི།།
བསམ་གཏན་སྒོམ་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Having understood that disturbing emotions are destroyed by insight possessed with tranquil abiding, to cultivate meditative concentration that perfectly transcends the four formless [absorptions] is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to cultivate concentration,
Which utterly transcends the four formless absorptions,
In the knowledge that mental afflictions are overcome entirely
Through penetrating insight suffused with stable calm. (Adam Pearcey)

Knowing that vipashyana fully endowed
With shamatha annihilates the afflictions,
To cultivate meditation transcending
The four formless states is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Knowing that through superior insight endowed with thorough calm abiding
The mental afflictions are completely subdued,
To meditate with the concentration that perfectly goes beyond
The four formless states is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Knowing that vipashyana fully endowed with shamatha
Vanquishes the mental afflictions,
To engage in concentration that correctly transcends
The four formless ones is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Understanding that disturbing emotions are destroyed
By special insight with calm abiding,
Cultivate concentration which surpasses
The four formless absorptions —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Vipashyana perfectly endowed with shamatha
Completely conquers all afflictions.
To cultivate meditative stability
That transcends the four formless states
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to build up as a habit a mental stability that purely surpasses the four formless (absorptions), by realizing that an exceptionally perceptive state of mind, fully endowed with a stilled and settled state, can totally vanquish the disturbing emotions and attitudes. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Higher insight that penetrates right to the essence, revealing the true way in which things exist, can only root out our emotional problems if mental quiescence is laid as its base. So exceeding the four formless states of absorption we must work to achieve single-minded control and the full concentration of deep meditation – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 30

ཤེས་རབ་མེད་ན་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་ལྔ་ཡིས།།
རྫོགས་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཐོབ་པར་མི་ནུས་པས།།
ཐབས་དང་ལྡན་ཞིང་འཁོར་གསུམ་མི་རྟོག་པའི།།
ཤེས་རབ་སྒོམ་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

If one lacks wisdom, it is impossible to attain perfect enlightenment through the [other] five perfections. Thus, cultivating skillful means with the wisdom that does not discriminate among the three spheres is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to cultivate wisdom,
Beyond the three conceptual spheres, alongside skilful means,
Since it is not possible to attain the perfect level of awakening
Through the other five pāramitās alone, in wisdom’s absence. (Adam Pearcey)

Since lacking prajna, the five paramitas
Will never lead to full awakening,
To cultivate prajna bearing means and free
Of threefold conception is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Without prajna, the five paramitas
Cannot accomplish perfect enlightenment.
Therefore, to meditate on the prajna that is endowed with means
And does not conceive the three spheres is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Without supreme knowledge, five perfections
Will not result in perfect enlightenment.
Therefore, to cultivate supreme knowledge, endowed with skillful means
And free of conceptions of the three spheres, is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Since the five perfections without wisdom
Cannot bring perfect enlightenment,
Along with skilful means cultivate the wisdom
Which does not conceive the three spheres (as real) —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Without superior knowledge,
It is not possible to attain perfect enlightenment through
the first five paramitas alone.
Therefore, joining it with skillful means
and not conceptualizing about the three spheres
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to build up as a habit the discriminating awareness that’s together with methods and which has no conceptions about the three circles, because without discriminating awareness, the five far-reaching attitudes cannot bring about the attainment of complete enlightenment.
A Bodhisattva’s Daily Practice (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Perfection of charity, patience, and morals, absorption and effort just isn't enough; without the Perfection of Wisdom these five are unable to bring us to full Buddhahood. With the methods of pure Bodhichitta develop the wisdom to see that the actor, the act, and the acted upon lack inherent existence – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 31

རང་གི་འཁྲུལ་པ་རང་གིས་མ་བརྟགས་ན།།
ཆོས་པའི་གཟུགས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་མིན་བྱེད་སྲིད་པས།།
དེ་ཕྱིར་རྒྱུན་དུ་རང་གི་འཁྲུལ་པ་ལ།།
བརྟགས་ནས་སྤོང་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

If, having [merely] the appearance of a practitioner, one does not investigate one’s own mistakes, it is possible to act contrary to the Dharma. Therefore, constantly examining one’s own errors and abandoning them is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to scrutinize oneself
Continually and to rid oneself of faults whenever they appear.
For unless one checks carefully to find one’s own confusion,
One might appear to be practising Dharma, but act against it. (Adam Pearcey)

If you don’t examine your own confusion,
With a facade of dharma you might act against it.
To continuously examine and abandon
Your delusion is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

If you do not examine your own confusion,
You may, under the guise of dharma, do non-dharmic things.
Therefore, through continual examination,
To abandon one’s confusion is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

If one does not examine one’s own confusion,
It is possible to act non-dharmically with the guise of a practitioner.
Therefore, to continually examine
And abandon one’s confusion is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

If you don’t examine your own errors,
You may look like a practitioner but not act as one.
Therefore, always examining your own errors,
Rid yourself of them —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

If you have not analyzed your own confusion,
You might put on a Dharmic façade
While behaving in a non-Dharmic way.
Therefore, to continuously analyze your delusion and discard it
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is continually to examine our self-deception and then rid ourselves of it, because, if we do not examine our self-deception ourselves, it’s possible that with a Dharmic (external) form we can commit something non-Dharmic. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Without making efforts to analyze clearly delusions we have and mistakes we commit, then even though outwardly practicing Dharma, we still may perform many non-Dharma deeds. For this very reason, let's try to examine mistakes and delusions and faults we possess, and afterwards try to remove them completely – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 32

ཉོན་མོངས་དབང་གིས་རྒྱལ་སྲས་གཞན་དག་གི།
ཉེས་པ་གླེང་ན་རང་ཉིད་ཉམས་འགྱུར་བས།།
ཐེག་པ་ཆེ་ལ་ཞུགས་པའི་གང་ཟག་གི།
ཉེས་པ་མི་སྨྲ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

If, influenced by disturbing emotions, one points out another bodhisattva’s faults, oneself is diminished. Therefore, not speaking about the faults of those who have entered the Great Vehicle is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is never to speak ill
Of others who have embarked upon the greater vehicle,
For if, under the influence of destructive emotions,
I speak of other bodhisattvas’ failings, it is I who am at fault. (Adam Pearcey)

If driven by afflictions, you speak of faults
Of other bodhisattvas, you only diminish yourself.
Not speaking of faults of those who’ve entered
The Mahayana is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

If, under the power of the afflictive emotions,
I speak of the faults of another bodhisattva, I diminish myself.
Therefore, to not point out the faults of those who have
Entered the Mahayana is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

If, governed by mental afflictions, one speaks of the faults of other bodhisattvas,
Oneself will be diminished.
Therefore, to not speak of the faults of those
Who have entered the Mahayana path is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

If through the influence of disturbing emotions
You point out the faults of another Bodhisattva,
You yourself are diminished, so don’t mention the faults
Of those who have entered the Great Vehicle —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

If, compelled by your own afflictions,
You speak of the faults of other Bodhisattvas,
You, yourself, will degenerate.
Therefore, never to mention the faults of those
Who have entered the Mahayana path
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is not to speak about the faults of a person who has entered Mahayana, because, if under the power of disturbing emotions and attitudes, we talk about the faults of others who are bodhisattvas, we ourselves will degenerate. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

While speaking of others, the force of delusion may cause us to talk of the flaws they possess; if those we find fault in should be Bodhisattvas, our own reputation will suffer instead. So don't run the risk of disparaging others who've entered upon Mahayana's great path; only the faults that we have should we mention – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 33

རྙེད་བཀུར་དབང་གིས་ཕན་ཚུན་རྩོད་འགྱུར་ཞིང་།།
ཐོས་བསམ་བསྒོམ་པའི་བྱ་བ་ཉམས་འགྱུར་བས།།
མཛའ་བཤེས་ཁྱིམ་དང་སྦྱིན་བདག་ཁྱིམ་རྣམས་ལ།།
ཆགས་པ་སྤོང་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Because the influence of gain and respect causes quarreling and the decline of the activities of listening, pondering and meditation, to abandon attachment to the households of friends, relations and benefactors is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to let go of attachment
To the households of benefactors and of family and friends,
Since one’s study, reflection and meditation will all diminish
When one quarrels and competes for honours and rewards. (Adam Pearcey)

Desiring wealth and honor leads to strife
And causes study, reflection, and meditation to wane.
To give up attachment to households of family,
Friends, and sponsors is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Due to honor and gain, we fight with each other
And the activities of hearing, contemplating, and meditating diminish.
Therefore, to abandon attachment to the homes of
Benefactors and loved ones is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Through desire for honor and gain, disputes arise
And the activities of hearing, contemplating, and meditating decline.
Therefore, to give up attachment to the households
Of friends, relatives, and donors is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Reward and respect cause us to quarrel
And make hearing, thinking and meditation decline.
For this reason give up attachment to
The households of friends, relations and benefactors —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Desire for gain and honor leads to argument,
And activities of listening, reflecting and meditating decline.
Therefore, to relinquish attachment to the households
of friends, relatives, and sponsors
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to rid ourselves of attachment to homes of relatives and friends and homes of patrons, because, under the power of (wanting) gain and respect, we will quarrel with each other and our activities of listening, thinking, and meditating will decline. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Domestic disputes with our friends and relations, to gain their respect or the things we feel due, will leave us unable to listen to Dharma, unable to study or meditate well. Since danger is found in the homes of our patrons, as well as in those of our family and friends, abandon attachment we have to these households – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 34

རྩུབ་མོའི་ཚིག་གིས་གཞན་སེམས་འཁྲུགས་འགྱུར་ཞིང་།།
རྒྱལ་བའི་སྲས་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་ཚུལ་ཉམས་འགྱུར་བས།།
དེ་ཕྱིར་གཞན་གི ་ཡིད་དུ་མི་འོང་བའི།།
ཚིག་རྩུབ་སྤོང་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

Because harsh words disturb others’ minds and cause the bodhisattva’s conduct to deteriorate, abandoning harsh speech that is unpleasant to others is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to avoid harsh words,
Which others might find unpleasant or distasteful,
Since abusive language upsets the minds of others,
And thereby undermines a bodhisattva’s conduct. (Adam Pearcey)

Speech that’s harsh disturbs the minds of others
And undermines your bodhisattva conduct.
Abandoning harsh speech that agitates
The minds of others is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Harsh words disturb the minds of others
And cause bodhisattva activity to diminish.
Therefore, to abandon harsh words that
Are unpleasant to others is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Harsh speech disturbs the minds of others,
And weakens the conduct of bodhisattvas.
Therefore, to abandon harsh speech,
Unpleasant to the minds of others, is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Harsh words disturb the minds of others
And cause deterioration in a Bodhisattva’s conduct.
Therefore give up harsh words
Which are unpleasant to others —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Harsh speech disturbs the minds of others
And compromises a Bodhisattva's right conduct.
Therefore, to give up harsh and unpleasant speech
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to rid ourselves of harsh language displeasing to the minds of others, because harsh words disturb others’ minds and cause our bodhisattva ways of behavior to decline. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

The words of abuse that we utter in anger cause others much pain by disturbing their minds; and we who are striving to be Bodhisattvas will find that our practice will surely decline. So seeing the faults that arise from harsh language, which those who must hear find unpleasant to bear, abandon abuse that's directed toward others – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 35

ཉོན་མོངས་གོམས་ན་གཉེན་པོས་བཟླྲོག་དཀའ་བས།།
དྲན་ཤེས་སྐྱེས་བུས་གཉེན་པོའི་མཚོན་བཟུང་ནས།།
ཆགས་སོགས་ཉོན་མོངས་དང་པོ་སྐྱེ་མ་ཐག།
འབུར་འཇོམས་བྱེད་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

When disturbing emotions are habituated, it is difficult to overcome them with antidotes. By arming oneself with the antidotal weapon of mindfulness, to destroy disturbing emotions such as desire the moment they first arise is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to slay attachment
And the rest—mind’s afflictions—at once, the very moment they arise,
Taking as weapons the remedies held with mindfulness and vigilance.
For once the kleshas have become familiar, they’ll be harder to avert. (Adam Pearcey)

Once used to the afflictions, they’re hard to remedy.
When mindful and aware, you wield the antidote.
To sever the afflictions, like attachment,
Upon arising is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

When the afflictions are habitual, they are hard to cast away with antidotes.
Therefore, with mindfulness and attentiveness, wielding the weapon of the antidote,
To crush the mental afflictions, such as attachment,
When they first arise is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

As mental afflictions of habit are difficult to counter with remedies,
The one with mindfulness and attentiveness takes up the weapon of the antidote,
And slays mental afflictions like desire
The moment they arise—such is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

Habitual disturbing emotions are hard to stop through counteractions.
Armed with antidotes, the guards of mindfulness and mental alertness
Destroy disturbing emotions like attachment
At once, as soon as they arise —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

Once you become accustomed to the mental afflictions,
They are hard to cure with antidotes.
Therefore, with the remedies of mindfulness and awareness
To eliminate afflictions the moment they arise
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is to have the servicemen of mindfulness and alertness hold the opponent weapons and forcefully to destroy disturbing emotions and attitudes, like attachment and so forth, as soon as they first arise, because, when we are habituated to disturbing emotions and attitudes, it is difficult for opponents to make them retreat. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Defiled types of actions will soon become habits as we grow accustomed to base states of mind; a great deal of effort will then be required for the force of opponents to counter these stains. So armed with the weapons alertness and memory, attack such defilements as lust on first sight; remove these obstructions that hinder our progress – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 36

མདོར་ན་གང་དུ་སྤྱོད་ལམ་ཅི་བྱེད་ཀྱང་།།
རང་གི་སེམས་ཀྱི་གནས་སྐབས་ཅི་འདྲ་ཞེས།།
རྒྱུན་དུ་དྲན་དང་ཤེས་བཞིན་ལྡན་པ་ཡི།།
གཞན་དོན་སྒྲུབ་པ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

In brief, whatever conduct one engages in, one should ask, “What is the state of my mind?” Accomplishing others’ purpose through constantly maintaining mindfulness and awareness is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

In short, no matter what one might be doing,
By examining always the status of one’s mind,
With continuous mindfulness and alertness,
To bring about the good of others—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas. (Adam Pearcey)

In short, wherever you are, whatever you do,
Always attend to the state of your mind.
Continuously being mindful and aware,
To benefit others is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

In short, in whatever you are doing,
To always, with mindfulness and attentiveness,
Ask yourself, “What is the state of my mind?”
And accomplish the benefit of others is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

In sum, wherever you are and whatever you do,
Always remaining mindful and attentive
To the state of your mind,
To accomplish the benefit of others is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

In brief, whatever you are doing,
Ask yourself “What’s the state of my mind?”
With constant mindfulness and mental alertness
Accomplish others’ good —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

In brief, wherever you are and whatever you do,
Always examine the state of your mind.
Cultivating mindfulness and awareness continuously
To benefit others is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

In short, a bodhisattva’s practice is (to work) to fulfill the purposes of others by continually possessing mindfulness and alertness to know, no matter where or what course of behavior we’re following, how is the condition of our minds. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

In short, then, whatever we do in whatever condition or circumstance we might confront should be done with the force of complete self-awareness, which comprehends fully the state of our mind. Then always possessing alertness and memory, which keep us in focus and ready to serve, we must work for the welfare of all sentient beings – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Verse 37

དེ་ལྟར་བརྩོན་པས་བསྒྲུབས་པའི་དགེ་བ་རྣམས།།
མཐའ་ཡས་འགྲོ་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བསལ་བྱའི་ཕྱིར།།
འཁོར་གསུམ་རྣམ་པར་དག་པའི་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས།།
བྱང་ཆུབ་བསྔོ་བ་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་ཡིན།།

In order to clear away the suffering of limitless beings, through the wisdom [realizing] the purity of the three spheres, to dedicate the virtue attained by making such effort for enlightenment is the bodhisattvas’ practice. (Ari Kiev)

The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to dedicate towards enlightenment
All the virtue to be gained through making effort in these ways,
With wisdom that is purified entirely of the three conceptual spheres,
So as to dispel the sufferings of the infinity of beings. (Adam Pearcey)

To clear away the suffering of limitless beings:
With prajna free of threefold conception,
To dedicate to awakening the virtue of diligently
Engaging in these is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

As to these virtues, accomplished through diligence:
To dedicate them to enlightenment with the wisdom free of the three spheres
In order to clear away the suffering
Of limitless beings is the practice of a bodhisattva. (Christopher Stagg)

Taking up the virtue so diligently gathered in this way,
So that the suffering of limitless beings may be dispelled,
And with the wisdom of threefold purity,
To dedicate it to enlightenment is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Tyler Dewar)

To remove the suffering of limitless beings,
Understanding the purity of the three spheres,
Dedicate the virtue from making such effort
To enlightenment —
This is the practice of bodhisattvas. (Ruth Sonam)

To clear away the suffering of all infinite beings,
With superior knowledge free of concepts of the three spheres,
To dedicate to enlightenment the merit accumulated through these efforts
Is the practice of a Bodhisattva. (Suzanne Schefczky)

A bodhisattva’s practice is, with the discriminating awareness of the complete purity of the three circles, to dedicate for enlightenment the constructive forces realized by efforts like these, in order to eliminate the sufferings of limitless wandering beings.
Conclusion (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

All merits we gain from the efforts we're making to put into practice these virtuous ways, which we do for the sake of removing the suffering endured by the limitless mothers we've had, we must dedicate purely for them to be Buddhas, with wisdom that sees that both they and ourselves as well as this merit all lack true existence – the Sons of the Buddhas all practice this way. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Epilogue (a)

མདོ་རྒྱུད་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྣམས་ལས་གསུངས་པའི་དོན།།
དམ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གསུང་གི་རྗེས་འབྲང་ནས།།
རྒྱལ་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ལག་ལེན་སུམ་ཅུ་བདུན།།
རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལམ་ལ་སློབ་འདོད་དོན་དུ་བཀོད།།

Following the speech of the Sublime Ones on the meaning of the sutras, tantras and their commentaries, I have written The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas for those who wish to train on the bodhisattvas’ path. (Ari Kiev)

Here I have set down for those who wish to follow the bodhisattva path,
Thirty-seven practices to be adopted by all the buddhas’ heirs,
Based on what is taught in the sūtras, tantras and treatises,
And following the instructions of the great masters of the past. (Adam Pearcey)

Relying on the meaning of the sutras, tantras, shastras,
And the teachings of eminent beings, I have
Composed these thirty-seven practices of a bodhisattva
To benefit those wishing to train in the bodhisattva path. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Following after the speech of the noble ones
And the meaning of what is said in the sutras, tantras, and treatises,
I have put forth these thirty-seven practices of a bodhisattva
For those who wish to practice the bodhisattva path. (Christopher Stagg)

Following the contents of the sutras and treatises
And the teachings of genuine masters,
I have written these thirty-seven practices of bodhisattvas
For the sake of those who wish to train in the bodhisattva path. (Tyler Dewar)

For all who want to train on the Bodhisattva path,
I have written The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas,
Following what has been said by the excellent ones
On the meaning of the sutras, tantras and treatises. (Ruth Sonam)

Relying on what is taught in the sutras, tantras, treatises,
And the words of the genuine masters,
I have composed these thirty-seven Bodhisattva practices
To benefit those who wish to train on the Bodhisattva's path. (Suzanne Schefczky)

Having followed the words of the hallowed beings and the meaning of what has been declared in the sutras, tantras, and treatises, I have arranged (these) practices of bodhisattvas, thirty and seven, for the purposes of those who wish to train in the bodhisattva path. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

By carefully following all of the teachings my most holy Gurus have given to me concerning the meanings of sutra and tantra explained by the Buddhas and masters of old, I've written this work on the practices numbering thirty and seven of all Buddhas' Sons to benefit those who desire to follow the path that all Sons of the Buddhas must tread. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Epilogue (b)

བློ་གྲོས་དམན་ཞིང་སྦྱངས་པ་ཆུང་བའི་ཕྱིར།།
མཁས་པ་དགྱེས་པའི་སྡེབ་སྦྱོར་མ་མཆིས་ཀྱང་།།
མདོ་དང་དམ་པའི་གསུང་ལ་བརྟེན་པའི་ཕྱིར།།
རྒྱལ་སྲས་ལག་ལེན་འཁྲུལ་མེད་ལེགས་པར་སེམས།།

Due to my inferior intellect and poor learning, this is not poetry that will please scholars, yet as I have relied upon the sutras and the speech of the Sublime Ones, I think the bodhisattva practices are not mistaken. (Ari Kiev)

Since my intellect is only feeble and I have studied but a little,
This is not a composition likely to delight the connoisseurs,
Yet since I’ve relied upon the sūtras and what the saints have taught
I feel these are indeed the genuine trainings of the buddhas’ heirs. (Adam Pearcey)

As my intellect is poor and my studies few,
My writing will not be pleasing to scholars.
But as it’s based on sutras and masters’ words,
I think that these bodhisattva practices are not mistaken. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Because I am of inferior intellect and little training,
I do not have any poetic verse to please the learned ones.
Yet, because I have relied upon the sutras and the noble masters’ speech,
I believe these practices of a bodhisattva to be without error. (D) (Christopher Stagg)

Since my intelligence is low and the sum of my training small,
I cannot offer verse that is pleasing to the scholars.
Yet since they are based on the shastras and the teachings of genuine masters,
I believe these bodhisattva practices are free of error. (Tyler Dewar)

Though not poetically pleasing to scholars
Owing to my poor intelligence and lack of learning,
I’ve relied on the sutras and the words of the excellent,
So I think these Bodhisattva practices are without error.
However, as the great deeds of bodhisattvas (Ruth Sonam)

Because my intelligence is small and my studies few,
I cannot compose poetry to please the scholars.
Yet since they are based on sutras and teachings
of the genuine masters, I believe these practices of a Bodhisattva are not mistaken. (Suzanne Schefczky)

Because my intelligence is feeble and my education meager, they may not be in poetic meter that would please the erudite. But, because I’ve relied on the sutras and the words of the hallowed ones, I think that (these) bodhisattva practices are not deceived. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

Because of my poor intellectual powers and meager amount of the training I've had, I haven't been able to write polished verses in meter and style that would please those with skill; but as I've relied on the words of the sutras and all that my most holy Gurus have taught, I'm certain that this is without any errors; this truly is what Buddhas' Sons have all done. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Epilogue (c)

འོན་ཀྱང་རྒྱལ་སྲས་སྤྱོད་པ་རླབས་ཆེན་རྣམས།།
བློ་དམན་བདག་འདྲས་གཏིང་དཔག་དཀའ་བའི་ཕྱིར།།
འགལ་དང་མ་འབྲེལ་ལ་སོགས་ཉེས་པའི་ཚོགས།།
དམ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བཟོད་པར་མཛད་དུ་གསོལ།།

However, because it is difficult for one of inferior intellect like myself to fathom the depth of the great deeds of bodhisattvas, I beseech the Sublime Ones to forbear my errors such as contradictions and incoherent reasoning. (Ari Kiev)

Still, the tremendous waves of activity of the bodhisattvas
Are difficult for simple-minded folk like me to comprehend,
And I must therefore beg the indulgence of all the perfect saints
For any contradictions, irrelevancies or other flaws this may contain. (Adam Pearcey)

Yet since the vast conduct of bodhisattvas is hard
To fathom for one of low intelligence, like me,
I pray that eminent beings will show patience
Towards my errors of relevance or contradiction. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

Nevertheless, because it is difficult for someone like me with an inferior mind
To fathom the vastness of bodhisattva conduct,
I pray the holy ones will forgive
All faults, such as contradictions and irrelevancies. (Christopher Stagg)

Yet alas, as the depth of the vast deeds of bodhisattvas
Is hard to fathom by limited minds like mine,
I request the forgiveness of the holy ones
For all errors of contradiction, omission, and so on. (Tyler Dewar)

Are hard to fathom for one of my poor intelligence,
I beg the excellent to forgive all faults,
Such as contradictions and non sequiturs. (Ruth Sonam)

Nevertheless, since the vast conduct of a Bodhisattva is difficult to fathom
For one with an inferior intellect such as mine,
I pray to the genuine masters to consider with patience
All my mistakes such as contradictions, incoherence, and so on. (Suzanne Schefczky)

Nevertheless, since it is difficult for someone dull-witted like myself to fathom the depth of the great waves of bodhisattva behavior, I request the hallowed ones to be patient with my mass of faults, such as contradictions, lack of connection, and the likes. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

However, because the extent and the depth of the great waves of conduct of all Buddhas' Sons are hard to be fathomed by someone of limited powers of intellect as is myself, there're bound to be faults, contradictions in meaning, disjointed connections and many such flaws; so most holy Gurus, I beg your indulgence, be patient with all the shortcomings I have. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Epilogue (d)

དེ་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་དགེ་བས་འགྲོ་བ་ཀུན།།
དོན་དམ་ཀུན་རྫོབ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་མཆོག་གིས།།
སྲིད་དང་ཞི་བའི་མཐའ་ལ་མི་གནས་པའི།།
སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་མགོན་དེ་དང་མཚུངས་པར་ཤོག།

By the virtue arising from this may all migrators become, through excellent conventional and ultimate bodhicitta, like the Protector Chenrezig who does not abide in the extremes of existence or peace. (Ari Kiev)

Through whatever merit has here been gained, may all beings
Generate sublime bodhicitta, both relative and absolute,
And through this, come to equal Lord Avalokiteśvara,
Transcending the extremes of existence and quiescence. (Adam Pearcey)

By the virtue arising from this, by means
Of ultimate and relative bodhichitta, may all beings
Become equal to the protector Avalokita,
Not dwelling in the extremes of existence or peace. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

By the virtue of that, may all beings
Through the supreme bodhichitta, both ultimate and relative,
Become like the protector Avalokiteshvara,
Who does not abide in the extremes of samsara or nirvana. (Christopher Stagg)

By the virtue arising from this,
May all beings, through ultimate and relative bodhichitta,
Not dwelling in the extremes of peace or existence,
Be equal to the protector Avalokita. (Tyler Dewar)

Through the virtue from this may all living beings
Gain the ultimate and conventional altruistic intention
And thereby become like the Protector Chenrezig
Who dwells in neither extreme — not in the world nor in peace. (Ruth Sonam)

By virtue of the merit gathered here,
By the power of relative and ultimate bodhichitta,
May all sentient beings become like the Protector Chenrezig
Who dwells neither in the extreme of existence nor in that of peace. (Suzanne Schefczky)

By the constructive force coming from this, may all wandering beings, through supreme deepest and conventional bodhichittas, become equals to the Guardian Avalokiteshvara, who never abides in the extremes of compulsive samsaric existence or nirvanic complacency. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

With pure Bodhichitta of ultimate voidness, yet relative nature of mercy and love, devoid of extremes of this worldly existence and passive absorption in blissful release, may all sentient beings receiving the merit amassed by the effort I've made in this work soon reach your attainment, O great Lokeshvara, all-seeing protector with love for us all. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Colophon

This was written for the benefit of himself and others by the monk Thogme, an exponent of scripture and reasoning, in a cave in Ngülchu Rinchen. (Ari Kiev)

This was composed in Jewel Cave (Rinchen Puk) in Ngulchu by the monk Tokme, a teacher of scripture and reasoning, for his own and others’ benefit. (Adam Pearcey)

In order to benefit myself and others, I, the monk Thokme, who follows scripture and logic, composed this in the Ngulchu Rinchen Cave. (Eric Trinle Thaye)

For the benefit of self and other, this was written by Tokmé, a monk who follows scripture and reasoning, at the Ngulchu Rinchen cave. (Christopher Stagg)

This was written for his own and others’ benefit by the monk Togmay, an exponent of scripture and reasoning, in a cave in Ngülchu Rinchen. (Ruth Sonam)

The monk Thogme,
A proponent of scriptures and logic,
Has composed these verses
In a cave known as Ngulchu Rinchen Puk
To benefit himself and others. (Suzanne Schefczky)

This has been composed in Rinchen cave in Ngulchu by the disciplined monk Togme, a teacher of scripture and logic, for the sake of his own and others’ benefit. (Alexander Berzin - literal translation)

This work, called Thirty-seven Practices of All Buddhas's Sons (rGyal-sras lag-len so-bdun-ma), has been composed by the Bodhisattva Togme Zangpo (Thogs-med bzang-po) (1245-1369), a teacher of scripture and logic, in a cave near the town of Ngulchü-rinchen (dNgul-chu'i rin-chen) in Tibet, for both his own benefit and for the sake of all others. (Alexander Berzin - poetic rendering)

Remarks

At the request of Garchen Triptrül Rinpoche, this translation was completed in 1999 by the disciple Ari-ma. Additional revisions were made by her in the spring of 2002. English translation copyright Ari Kiev 2002. (Ari Kiev)

Translation by Eric Trinle Thaye. February 2023 (Eric Trinle Thaye)