The ThirtySeven Practices of a Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones

by

Nglchu T'ogme Zangpo

ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY

mike dickman

NAMO LOKESHWARAYATo the Lord of the World, I bow down. Filled with faith, I make constant prostration with my body, speech and mind to all supreme spiritual teachers and the Protector Avalokiteshvara, who, although perceiving that all phenomena are free of coming or going and devoid of inherent being, still work singlepointedly for the wellbeing of all that lives. The perfectly enlightened Buddhas, source of everything spiritual or temporal that is of value, are born of their realisation of the Holy Dharma. Since this depends on understanding how to train oneself, I shall now explain the practice of all Bodhisattvas, Children of the Victorious Ones.

[1] Now that you have obtained this precious human body of endowment and leisure so hard to find, work day and night without weariness to free yourself and others from the ocean of cyclic existence. Listening, reflecting and meditating are the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[2] Obsessive attachment to friends and loved ones is as unstable as water; anger and hatred for enemies blazes up like fire; forgetting what is to be accepted or avoided, you wander in the gloom of mental darkness. Leaving behind your homeland is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[3] As you set aside unwholesome objects, your conflicting emotions decrease by stages; in the absence of distraction, virtuous practice easily develops; as pure awareness brightens, certainty as to phenomena arises. Keeping to solitary retreat is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[4] You will be separated from beloved friends and relatives, no matter how close you think they are or how long you've been together; regardless of how carefully and diligently they've been collected together, all valuables and chattels will be left behind; consciousness is a mere guest at the inn of the body. Renouncing all preoccupation with this life is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[5] If you consort with the depraved the three poisons will increase and your study, reflection and meditation will deteriorate. The practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones, is to avoid such unworthy friends as destroy love and compassion.

[6] Those companions in whose company all wrongdoing comes to an end and enlightened qualities expand like the waxing moon, the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones, is to value such worthy spiritual friends more than your own body.

[7] If they, themselves, are trapped in a prison of repeated wandering through existence, how can worldly gods be a refuge to anyone else? Therefore the one true and unfailing refuge is the Three Rare and Precious Gems and taking refuge in them alone is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[8] The Enlightened One has shown how the lives of beings in lower realms of suffering are difficult to bear and are the result of wrongs they have committed. This being so, to avoid acting in a sinful way even if your life is at stake is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[9] Like the dew on the tip of a blade of grass, the pleasures of the three worlds are a phenomenon of extremely short duration whereas those attained in reaching realisation are perfect and unchanging. To strive for that goal is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[10] When the mothers who have cared for you from beginningless time are suffering, how can you think only of your own happiness? Generating the altruistic mind of enlightenment so that all sentient beings might be saved is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[11] All suffering springs from desiring your own happiness, while perfect buddhahood stems from the attitude that seeks the benefit of others. This being so, to perfectly make over your own personal happiness in exchange for the sufferings of others is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[12] When, under the sway of great desire, someone steals your wealth or arranges for it to be stolen, the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones, is to dedicate to that one their body and wealth and all the merit they have accumulated throughout the three times.

[13] When, though you have actually done nothing wrong, someone wishes to see you put to death, the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones, is to compassionately take upon yourself the totality of that person's sin.

[14] Though there are some who will seek to defame you throughout the entire trichiliocosm, your heart filled with love, to praise their qualities again and again is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[15] If, in the midst of a vast gathering, you are singled out by someone and harshly rebuked as he pries into and cries aloud your hidden faults, recognising that person as your teacher and bowing down to them in respect is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[16] If someone you have loved and cherished as your own child should come to look upon you as an enemy, like a mother whose child has fallen ill, to treat them with even greater love is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[17] When you're arrogantly despised by your equals and those beneath you, to see them as your teacher and respectfully place them above you is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[18] When you are in a lowly estate, the constant butt of the scorn and disdain of one and all, stricken, again and again, with grave illness and demonic obscurations, to dauntlessly and without the least regard for yourself take upon yourself the sin and suffering of all living beings is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[19] Even if praised and lauded and respectfully considered by many to be their superior, even if your store of riches is comparable to that of Jambhala, Lord of Wealth, to clearly see that worldly wealth and glory are devoid of all essence and be free of selfsatisfaction and pride is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[20] If you don't subdue the enemy of your own anger and hatred, you may vanquish external enemies but they will only increase in number. Therefore, the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones, is to subjugate their own mental continuum with the army of love and compassion.

[21] Desirable objects and qualities are like salt water: the more you have, the more you thirst after them. Whenever clinging attachment and desire for objects appears, the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones, is to abandon them without the slightest hesitation.

[22] Whatever appears is simply your own mind; the essence of awareness is free of mindmade limitations from the very first. To know this essence and no longer mentally create the characteristics of duality

is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[23] Though you meet with pleasant objects, they are like the summer rainbow: beautiful, certainly, but without any ultimate reality. To get rid of grasping and attachment is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[24] The various sorrows and sufferings you experience are like the death of a beloved child in a dream: Clinging to an ultimate reality in the appearances that stem from your own delusion is just endlessly tiring yourself out. Since this is certainly so, when you meet with uncongenial circumstances to recognise them as illusions is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[25] Those who really strive for enlightenment will give up even their bodies in the quest, if necessary, what need to speak of the objects of the external world? This being so, the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones, is to give freely without the least hope of return.

[26] If you lack moral restraint, you will not realise even your own goals; to expect, then, to fulfil the aims of others is just a joke. This being so, carefully maintaining moral discipline without the least regard for worldly concerns is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[27] For those Children of the Victorious Ones who wish to amass a great store of merit, harmdoers are like a precious treasury of jewels. Giving up all hatred and illwill as regards others and meditating upon patience is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[28] Simply to realise their own ends, Pious Hearers and Solitary Awakened Ones

are known to strive for it as energetically as if trying to put out a fire on their heads, but the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones, is to generate attentiveness and carefulness based on the qualities that stem from seeking the well being of all living beings.

[29] Through peerless insight, those who have perfected abiding in mental calm completely destroy conflicting emotions, and, passing entirely beyond the four formless states, meditate on the stability of awareness. This the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[30] If you lack that of supreme understanding you will not attain perfect enlightenment by practicing the other five transcendent perfections. With these five as skilful means, the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones, is to meditate upon the profound wisdom of nonconceptual threefold purity, the ultimate absence of inherent existence in actor, action or object of action.

[31] If you are fooling yourself and still have no idea who you are, though you may look like a practitioner, you are probably still acting contrary to the Dharma. Therefore, carefully examining your own faults and then getting rid of them is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[32] Motivated by conflicting emotion and speaking of the faults of other Bodhisattvas simply destroys your own good qualities, so not to speak of the mistakes of anyone who has entered the All Encompassing Vehicle of the Mahayana is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[33] There will always be arguments concerning wealth and riches, and these interfere with study, reflection and meditation, so abandon attachments in the homes of your family, friends and patrons. This is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[34] Coarseness and abuse disturb the minds of others, and the practice of a Bodhisattva is damaged as a result. This being so, speaking only that which is pleasing to the minds of others and avoiding all offensiveness is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[35] When you're used to conflicting emotions, it becomes difficult to reverse them with antidotes. The practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones, is to take hold of the sharp weapon of the perfect antidote, the mindful awareness of a great being, and to fell conflicting emotions such as clinging desire as soon as they arise.

[36] In brief, whatever your lifestyle and whatever you do, it should be done in full knowledge of the state of your mind at that time. Working for the wellbeing of others with constant mindfulness and awareness is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

[37] With full knowledge of the ultimate purity of the three spheres of all action, dedicating all merit that stems from striving in this way to the realisation of this goal and the dispelling of the suffering of the innumerable living beings is the practice of the Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones.

Basing myself upon the elucidations by learned teachers of the actual meaning expressed in the sutras, tantras and shastras, I have composed this text on the thirtyseven practices of a Bodhisattva, Child of the Victorious Ones for the benefit of all who seek to know about the Bodhisattva Path. Since I am not very clever and my own practice of purification is deficient, I've not been able to write the sort of verses that would please those proficient in such things, but, since it is based on what is said in the sutras and the explanations of those with experience, I think it does truly express the practice of the Children of the Victorious Ones without error. However, since it is difficult for someone with an intelligence as limited as my own to really sound the depths of the ocean of activity of the Children of the Victorious Ones, there are surely many contradictions and disjunctions of sense... I beg those of you who are learned to be patient with these errors on my part.

By the merit that stems from this may all beings realise the ordinary and supreme enlightenment mind, and, passing beyond the limits of cyclic existence and ultimate peace, become just like the Protector Avalokiteshvara. Thus, for the benefit of both myself and others, this was composed by the monk T'ogme, expounder of scripture and philosophy, at Nglchu Rinchen P'ug,The Grotto of Precious Quicksilver.
This translation, albeit lacking in all grace and elegance, was completed with great joy by the Buddhist layman, Orgyen Norbu, on the first day of the sixth month, Ashada, of the male year of the Water Horse and reworked slightly on the twentyfourth and twentyfifth days of Mrigashira, the eleventh month of the female Water Snake.