Ngawang Tenzin Norbu - A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva

In our day-to-day life situations, we are presented with all kinds of challenges. When we look outside, we find dire situations everywhere in the world affecting people, animals, and our environment. And when we look inside, we find the ups and downs of our physical, mental, and emotional experiences that fluctuate as unpredictably as the stock market. In the midst of all the chaos, it seems difficult to find a peaceful spot or kindness for each other in our lives.

The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva presents an alternative way of thinking, of relating to the outer and inner worlds of everyday living. It is a refreshing, revolutionary, and radical approach to a life that is worth exploring.

T HIS B OOK

In the traditional framework of Mahayana wisdom, the revolutionary approach presented in this book is known as the bodhisattva way, the heroic path of the mind of wakefulness. Thus, The Thirty-Seven Practices is a training manual for thinking outside of our usual boxes of culture, religion, and self-centeredness. If your approach of thinking inside the box has worked well and fulfilled your dreams of happiness, The Thirty-Seven Practices is not a must-have manual. The root text contains thirty-seven key points for working with our mind, first through tamingfinding a way to bring the mind home, to a state of calmness and clarityand then through cultivating the heart of kindness and compassion. It is, in fact, a practical guide on how to follow the path of the bodhisattvas, verse by verse.

By way of a brief literary background, this practical manual of working with bodhichitta, the awakening heart, belongs to the Mahayanas Kadampa school, founded by the Indian master Atisha (9821054). The connotation of Kadampa is that all the words (ka) of the Buddha are taken as personal instructions (dampa). Thus there are no words left behind in books as mere theory; they are all applied in action as practice. The Kadampas emphasize the gradual, stage-by-stage path known as the lamrim (stages of the path) approach of the three types of individuals; one of their main contemplative methods is the use of guiding maxims or verses, such as the slogans of lojong (training the mind or mind transformation).

The three renowned and indispensable guidebooks of the Indian and Tibetan Mahayana tradition are Langthangpas (10541123) Eight Verses of Training the Mind, which is the shortest, most condensed work; Tokms Thirty-Seven Practices, the medium-length text; and Shantidevas (685763) Bodhicharyavatara, or Entrance to the Way of a Bodhisattva, the extensive presentation.

T HE A UTHOR OF THE R OOT T EXT

The Thirty-Seven Practices was written by Dharmabhadra Ngulchu Tokm (685763). He was born in a small town in the Tsang region of Tibet. From birth, he showed great qualities of kindness and compassion; for example, in his early childhood, in the midst of a bitterly cold winter, he saw a heap of small insects freezing to death. Unable to bear the sight, he took off his only garment and covered them with it. Tokms childhood was not an easy one. He lost his mother and father at the tender ages of three and five, respectively, and was thereafter raised by his maternal uncle. Despite this intense hardship, he seized his misfortune as an opportunity to discover and follow the path of the Buddhas Mahayana teachings.

Tokm studied with many great masters of his time, including Butn (12901364), and it was during his early years of study that he received the name of Tokm (unhindered, referring to his capacity for understanding and learning). He later studied and mastered the Five Treatises of Maitreya/Asanga, which strongly influenced his view and practice of the Mahayana path.

Ngulchu is the name of the region in central-western Tibet where Tokm lived and wrote his famed text. Since then, The Thirty-Seven Practices has gained the status of one of the foremost Tibetan-authored sourcebooks for kindness and compassion, the journey of the Mahayana lifestyle.

T HE A UTHOR OF THE C OMMENTARY

The Thirty-Seven Practices is further elucidated in A Guide to the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva by the nineteenth-century Tibetan master Dzatrul Ngawang Tenzin Norbu (18671940; see Translators Introduction). The commentary explains not just the root texts theory but also its experiential meaning and how to put each of these verses directly into practice. In this way, Dzatruls work is indispensable, exceptional, and noteworthy. Even those who are already familiar with the root text will surely see its verses in a new light through Dzatruls instructions.

T HE T RANSLATOR

Christopher Stagg was my dear friend and student, an accomplished music teacher, and a practitioner-translator. Chris studied the Tibetan language, Buddhist philosophy, and meditation for decades and became known for his skill in teaching, translation work, and musical composition. Chris not only taught but treasured and lived these principles, and he expressed them in action, through being genuinely kind, compassionate, and tolerant to all. I had the opportunity to work with him on his translation of this book as well as his translation of Milarepas