The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas
By Gyalse Togmay Zangpo
Translated by: Ruth Sonam
Read by: Venerable Thubten Gyatso – Sravasti Abbey, USA
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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 that will not betray you –
This is the practice of bodhisattvas.
8. The Subduer said all the unbearable suffering
Of bad rebirths is the fruit of wrong-doing.
Therefore, even at the cost of your life,
Never do wrong –
This is the practice of bodhisattvas.
9. Like the 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. Even if someone tries to cut off your head
When you haven’t done the slightest thing wrong,
Out of compassion take all her misdeeds
Upon yourself –
This is the practice of bodhisattvas.
14. 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 bodhisattvas.
15. Though someone may deride and speak bad words
About you in a public gathering,
Looking on her as a spiritual teacher,
Bow to her with respect –
This is the practice of bodhisattvas.
16. 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.
17. If an equal or inferior person
Disparages you out of pride,
Place her, as you would your spiritual teacher,
With respect on the crown of your head –
This is the practice of bodhisattvas.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. 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.
24. 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.
25. When those who want awakening 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.
26. Without ethical conduct you can’t accomplish your own well-being,
So wanting to accomplish others’ is laughable.
Therefore without worldly aspirations
Safeguard your ethical conduct –
This is the practice of bodhisattvas.
27. To Bodhisattvas who want a wealth of virtue
Those who harm are like a precious treasure.
Therefore towards all cultivate fortitude
Without hostility –
This is the practice of bodhisattvas.
28. Seeing even Hearers and Solitary Realizers, 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.
29. Understanding that disturbing emotions are destroyed
By insight with serenity,
Cultivate concentration which surpasses
The four formless absorptions –
This is the practice of bodhisattvas.
30. Since the five perfections without wisdom
Cannot bring perfect awakening,
Along with skillful means cultivate the wisdom
Which does not conceive the three spheres as real –
This is the practice of bodhisattvas.
31. 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.
32. 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.
33. Reward and respect cause us to quarrel
And make hearing, thinking and meditating decline.
For this reason give up attachment to
The households of friends, relations, and benefactors –
This is the practice of bodhisattvas.
34. Harsh words disturb the minds of others
And cause deterioration in the bodhisattva’s conduct.
Therefore give up harsh words
Which are unpleasant to others –
This is the practice of bodhisattvas
35. 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.
36. 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.
About Venerable Gyatso
Ven. Thubten Gyatso grew up near the beautiful white-sand beaches of northwest Florida and spent his childhood lying in the sun and playing soccer. At the University of Florida he graduated with a BA in History and a minor in Business Administration, and then earned his MA in History. Determined to get out of the libraries, he spent the next 22 years wandering six continents as a ski instructor, waiter, and English teacher.
He first encountered Buddhism in 2005 with The Art of Happiness by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and was eager to learn more. Ven. Gyatso deepened his practice by volunteering at Dharma College in Berkeley as the registrar for eight months. He continued with the same Nyingma Mandala organization by taking a volunteer position as an English teacher in Sarnath, India with the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute for three years.
While living, eating, and practicing together with monks, he was able to deepen his commitment to the Dharma and train his mind to benefit all beings. A Goenka Vipassana retreat in Lumbini, Nepal had a profound impact by showing the calm, joy, and clarity of a focused mind. Shortly after, he decided that the monastic life was the most conducive to benefiting others, and started looking for a monastery to ordain.
He arrived at the Abbey in September 2021 after the Exploring Monastic Life course online, and recognized that Sravasti Abbey had all the conditions necessary for spiritual growth. His request for ordination was approved, and on May 20th, 2023, he ordained and became Ven. Thubten Gyatso.
Some of his opportunities for service at the Abbey include administration, infrastructure, and Dharma dissemination with the prison outreach team. He’s looking forward to one day joining the bhikshu sangha and attending the very first bhikshu posadha at Sravasti Abbey.
