Five practices for a lifetime
04 The Five Forces Retreat (2026)
Venerable Thubten Chodron 
Seven-point Mind Training 
Sep 6, 2026 This teaching is part of the 2026 retreat series The Five Forces: Practices for a Lifetime, featuring teachings on Kadampa Geshe Chekawa’s Seven-point Mind Training. A PDF of the root text is available here.
- Clarification about refuge and precepts
- Refuting the belief that we “deserve” to suffer
- Applying the practice throughout the whole of life
- Practicing the five forces during life
1. Motivation: Four opponent powers
2. White seed: Purification and creation of merit
3. Destruction: Self-centered thought and self-grasping ignorance
4. Aspirations: Dedication of merit
5. Familiarity: The two bodhicittas
- Practicing the five forces during life
- Questions and answers
- Choice of translation as “sin”
- Order of practice in a day
- Expanding the mind
- Taking and giving meditation
The next teaching in this series:
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.
