Thought Training

Who it’s for

Eager to transform your mind and enrich your day with short, easily digestible nuggets of Dharma? These commentaries feature short informal talks that relay the Buddha’s teachings in ways that can quickly and easily be put into action.

Teachings highlighted in bold are listed at the bottom of the page.

Content and resources

Wisdom of the Kadam Masters

In 2016 and 2017, Venerable Thubten Chodron gave short talks on the text Wisdom of the Kadam Masters translated by Thupten Jinpa: Wisdom of the Kadam Masters 2016-17.

Topics include:

• The six causes of afflictions
• Working with habitual emotional patterns
• Antidotes to attachment, jealousy, arrogance, the self-centered mind, and the judgmental mind
• Seven-point cause-and-effect method for generating bodhicitta
• Equalizing and exchanging self and others
• The six perfections

108 Verses Praising Great Compassion

Venerable Thubten Chodron offered commentary on One Hundred and Eight Verses Praising Great Compassion Called “A Precious Crystal Rosary”, a text whose virtues and profundity His Holiness the Dalai Lama has extolled many times: 108 Verses Praising Great Compassion (2006-11).

In 108 verses, this text covers topics such as:

• Praise of compassion in terms of metaphors and allegories
• Praise of compassion in terms of the role it played in the life of Shakyamuni Buddha and other great masters
• Instruction on how to generate compassion and bodhicitta according to the seven-point cause-and-effect method and the technique of exchanging self with others

Eight Verses of Thought Transformation

In 2018, Venerable Chodron gave a series of teachings on Geshe Langri Tangpa’s Eight Verses of Thought Transformation. Written in the 12th century, these verses are a short summary of the lojong teachings: Eight Verses of Thought Transformation (2018).

In only eight verses, this text explains the importance of cherishing others. Venerable Chodron’s commentary covers such topics as:

• How developing bodhicitta depends on love and compassion for all sentient beings
• Loosening our rigid concepts of who people are
• Respecting other beings and their points of view
• Being aware of how our actions affect others
• Recognizing attachment as an affliction, even though it feels good

With the thought of attaining enlightenment
For the welfare of all beings,
Who are more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel,
I will constantly practice holding them dear.

— Verse 1, Eight Verses of Thought Transformation

Parting from the Four Clingings

Venerable Thubten Chodron has offered two series of teachings that comment on Parting from the Four Clingings by Drakpa Gyaltsen (1147–1216), the third of the Five Sakya Patriarchs of Tibet and the guru of the famous Sakya Pandita.

• Parting from the Four Clingings (2013-14)
• Parting from the Four Attachments (2020)

This pithy text of 29 verses offers instruction on parting from the four clingings in order to enable practitioners to live according to the teachings of the Buddha. The instruction covers how to part from clinging to the pleasures of this life, to the pleasures of future lives in samsara, to self-centered thought and actions, and to ignorance that grasps at inherent existence.

If you cling to this life, you are not a practitioner;
If you cling to the three realms, that is not renunciation;
If you cling to self-interest, you are not a bodhisattva;
If grasping arises, it is not the view.

— Verse 3, Parting from the Four Clingings

Gems of Wisdom

Gems of Wisdom, is a thought training text by the Seventh Dalai Lama Kelsang Gyatso written in the form of 108 verses. Venerable Thubten Chodron presented the text in the form of short (5-15 minute) talks given before lunch at Sravasti Abbey: Gems of Wisdom (2014-2015).

The text provides an often humorous perspective on the mental afflictions that are the source of our misery, with Venerable Chodron’s commentary providing instruction on how to apply Dharma antidotes in order to achieve our own and others’ happiness.

What is like a smelly fart that, although invisible, is obvious?
Our own faults that are precisely as obvious as the effort made to hide them.

— Verse 48, Gems of Wisdom

41 Prayers to Cultivate Bodhicitta

In the form of short (5-15 minute) talks given before lunch at Sravasti Abbey, Venerable Thubten Chodron offered commentary on the 41 Prayers to Cultivate Bodhicitta from the Avatamsaka Sutra (The Flower Ornament Scripture): 41 Prayers to Cultivate Bodhicitta (2008-09).

These prayers, or gathas, are short sayings to recite during various activities throughout the day, reminding ourselves to remember, refresh, and deepen our bodhicitta motivation, the wish to attain awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings.

“May all beings reach the seat of enlightenment.”
This is the prayer of the bodhisattva when sitting down.

— Prayer 8, 41 Prayers to Cultivate Bodhicitta

“May all beings escape from the prison of cyclic life.”
This is the prayer of the bodhisattva when going outside.

— Prayer 14, 41 Prayers to Cultivate Bodhicitta