Joyous effort and concentration
Venerable Thubten Chodron 
Essence of Refined Gold 
Feb 7, 2008 Part of a series of teachings on Essence of Refined Gold by the Third Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Sonam Gyatso. The text is a commentary on Songs of Experience by Lama Tsongkhapa.
Far-reaching practices
- Joyous effort
- Shantideva’s four qualities for counteracting laziness and developing joyous effort
- Lamrim meditations that can make the mind joyful
- Meditative stabilization
- Techniques to counteract tiredness and distraction during meditation
Essence of Refined Gold 47 (download)
Questions and answers
- The boxes others have placed us in
- Another person’s labels are sometimes difficult to overcome
- The Pali canon, the Buddha, and the jhanas
- Keeping precepts and ethical discipline and developing concentration
Essence of Refined Gold 47: Q&A (download)
Venerable Thubten Chodron
Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.
