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Eight Verses for Training the Mind
At the invitation of the Conservancy for Tibetan Art and Culture in Washington, D.C., His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave a one-day teaching and commentary on the Eight Verses for Training the Mind to over five thousand Western and Tibetan students. These verses were transmitted to His Holiness when he was a small boy, and he has recited them every day since then as part of his personal practice. His Holiness began the day by stressing the importance of implementing the teachings in daily life and went on to cover the complete fundamentals of Buddhist thought and practice. Then, drawing from personal experience in working with these teachings, His Holiness gave a profound and succinct commentary on the entire Eight Verses. The day concluded with the bestowal of the vow for the Generation of Bodhicitta, the heartfelt motivation to become enlightened in order to benefit all sentient beings. 4 CDs, 3 ½ hours.
Audio CD
First published April 25, 1999
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About the author
Dalai Lama XIV
1,554 books6,222 followersJetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (born Lhamo Döndrub), the 14th Dalai Lama, is a practicing member of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism and is influential as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the world's most famous Buddhist monk, and the leader of the exiled Tibetan government in India.
Tenzin Gyatso was the fifth of sixteen children born to a farming family. He was proclaimed the tulku (an Enlightened lama who has consciously decided to take rebirth) of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two.
On 17 November 1950, at the age of 15, he was enthroned as Tibet's ruler. Thus he became Tibet's most important political ruler just one month after the People's Republic of China's invasion of Tibet on 7 October 1950. In 1954, he went to Beijing to attempt peace talks with Mao Zedong and other leaders of the PRC. These talks ultimately failed.
After a failed uprising and the collapse of the Tibetan resistance movement in 1959, the Dalai Lama left for India, where he was active in establishing the Central Tibetan Administration (the Tibetan Government in Exile) and in seeking to preserve Tibetan culture and education among the thousands of refugees who accompanied him.
Tenzin Gyatso is a charismatic figure and noted public speaker. This Dalai Lama is the first to travel to the West. There, he has helped to spread Buddhism and to promote the concepts of universal responsibility, secular ethics, and religious harmony.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, honorary Canadian citizenship in 2006, and the United States Congressional Gold Medal on 17 October 2007.
Tenzin Gyatso was the fifth of sixteen children born to a farming family. He was proclaimed the tulku (an Enlightened lama who has consciously decided to take rebirth) of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two.
On 17 November 1950, at the age of 15, he was enthroned as Tibet's ruler. Thus he became Tibet's most important political ruler just one month after the People's Republic of China's invasion of Tibet on 7 October 1950. In 1954, he went to Beijing to attempt peace talks with Mao Zedong and other leaders of the PRC. These talks ultimately failed.
After a failed uprising and the collapse of the Tibetan resistance movement in 1959, the Dalai Lama left for India, where he was active in establishing the Central Tibetan Administration (the Tibetan Government in Exile) and in seeking to preserve Tibetan culture and education among the thousands of refugees who accompanied him.
Tenzin Gyatso is a charismatic figure and noted public speaker. This Dalai Lama is the first to travel to the West. There, he has helped to spread Buddhism and to promote the concepts of universal responsibility, secular ethics, and religious harmony.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, honorary Canadian citizenship in 2006, and the United States Congressional Gold Medal on 17 October 2007.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 28, 2016
Not what I expected. HHDL speaks mostly in Tibetan, with his translator T. Jinpa explaining all the difficulties the mind/soul must go through in order to self-train.
First HHDL's reasoning, then the 8 verses:
--------
"To practice Buddha-dharma, you need conviction."
"It is the undisciplined mind that is in a state of suffering."
"Invalid thoughts and emotions - invalid ways of seeing things & ourselves - are ultimately the source."
"When Buddhism talks about training of the mind, or mental discipline, the point being made here is to engage in a method or process whereby valid forms of thought & emotions can be developed, enhanced, & perfected - and whereby invalid thoughts & emotions are counteracted, and then undermined & eliminated eventually."
"In Buddhist texts, there is a discussion/mention of 84,000 types of negative destructive emotions and thoughts... 84,000 different approaches/antidotes. So it it important not to have the unrealistic expectation that somehow, somewhere we will find that magic key which will help us get rid of everything."
"We need great determination."
"There are 2 truths : the conventional truth & the ultimate truth."
"We should not have an understanding that the 2 truths are constituted by 2 independently co-existing unrelated realms of existence or levels of reality. My understandings are of course based on the perspectives of the Indian Madhyamaka thinkers."
"We find in Indian Buddhist literature a tremendous amount of discussion, debate & analysis about the way in which mind or consciousness receives the world, and what is the nature of the relationship between the subjective experience & the objective world..."
"Try to develop the scope of one's empathy in such a way that it can extend to any form of life that has the capacity to feel pain."
"...Defining a living organism as a sentient being."
---------------------
The 8 Verses :
------------
1. With a determination to achieve the highest aim for the benefit of all sentient beings, which surpasses even the wish-fulfilling gem, may I hold them dear at all times.
2. Whenever I interact with someone, may I view myself as the lowest amongst all, and, from the very depths of my heart, respectfully hold others as superior.
3. In all my deeds may I probe into my mind, and as soon as mental and emotional afflictions arise - as they endanger myself and others - may I strongly confront them and avert them.
4. When I see beings of unpleasant character oppressed by strong negativity and suffering, may I hold them dear - for they are rare to find -as if I have discovered a jewel treasure!
5. When others out of jealousy treat me wrongly with abuse, slander, and scorn, may I take upon myself the defeat and offer to others the victory.
6. When someone whom I have helped, or in whom I have placed great hopes, mistreats me in extremely hurtful ways, may I regard him still as my precious teacher.
7. In brief, may I offer benefit and joy to all my mothers, both directly and indirectly, may I quietly take upon myself all hurts and pains of my mothers.
8. May all this remain undefiled by the stains of the eight mundane concerns; and may I, recognizing all things as illusion, devoid of clinging, be released from bondage.
.
First HHDL's reasoning, then the 8 verses:
--------
"To practice Buddha-dharma, you need conviction."
"It is the undisciplined mind that is in a state of suffering."
"Invalid thoughts and emotions - invalid ways of seeing things & ourselves - are ultimately the source."
"When Buddhism talks about training of the mind, or mental discipline, the point being made here is to engage in a method or process whereby valid forms of thought & emotions can be developed, enhanced, & perfected - and whereby invalid thoughts & emotions are counteracted, and then undermined & eliminated eventually."
"In Buddhist texts, there is a discussion/mention of 84,000 types of negative destructive emotions and thoughts... 84,000 different approaches/antidotes. So it it important not to have the unrealistic expectation that somehow, somewhere we will find that magic key which will help us get rid of everything."
"We need great determination."
"There are 2 truths : the conventional truth & the ultimate truth."
"We should not have an understanding that the 2 truths are constituted by 2 independently co-existing unrelated realms of existence or levels of reality. My understandings are of course based on the perspectives of the Indian Madhyamaka thinkers."
"We find in Indian Buddhist literature a tremendous amount of discussion, debate & analysis about the way in which mind or consciousness receives the world, and what is the nature of the relationship between the subjective experience & the objective world..."
"Try to develop the scope of one's empathy in such a way that it can extend to any form of life that has the capacity to feel pain."
"...Defining a living organism as a sentient being."
---------------------
The 8 Verses :
------------
1. With a determination to achieve the highest aim for the benefit of all sentient beings, which surpasses even the wish-fulfilling gem, may I hold them dear at all times.
2. Whenever I interact with someone, may I view myself as the lowest amongst all, and, from the very depths of my heart, respectfully hold others as superior.
3. In all my deeds may I probe into my mind, and as soon as mental and emotional afflictions arise - as they endanger myself and others - may I strongly confront them and avert them.
4. When I see beings of unpleasant character oppressed by strong negativity and suffering, may I hold them dear - for they are rare to find -as if I have discovered a jewel treasure!
5. When others out of jealousy treat me wrongly with abuse, slander, and scorn, may I take upon myself the defeat and offer to others the victory.
6. When someone whom I have helped, or in whom I have placed great hopes, mistreats me in extremely hurtful ways, may I regard him still as my precious teacher.
7. In brief, may I offer benefit and joy to all my mothers, both directly and indirectly, may I quietly take upon myself all hurts and pains of my mothers.
8. May all this remain undefiled by the stains of the eight mundane concerns; and may I, recognizing all things as illusion, devoid of clinging, be released from bondage.
.
January 6, 2014
I gotta be honest... I didn't like listening to this. But I can't really give the Dalai Lama one star, now. There's too much idiotic drivel coming out of the likes of Rush Limbaugh and such to put the Dalai Lama in the same category. And the content is worthy enough; hell, it's one of those pieces that could turn the world into a wonderful place if everyone would follow it. But it just wasn't enjoyable to listen to. I kid you not, the whole thing is about 4 hours total, and we were 90 minutes in before the first verse was mentioned. And then you have the confusion of hearing the DL speak English and then move straight into Tibetan or whatever he's speaking, which causes some frustration for a few seconds before I realize I'm not supposed to be able to understand it. And these segments can last around 5 minutes (so it seems... I didn't time them), and then you get the English translation... but you have to wonder how accurate of a translation is this? Can this guy really memorize ALL of that at one time? I'm kinda in awe of his ability, whether he's translating or summarizing.
I'm sure people who are fans of these audio lectures will hate this review, will think, "Yeah what do you expect?" and will more want to know about the specific content of this particular one. Well, I hate to say I listened to the entire thing yesterday, and it didn't stick with me. It's a decent listen if you just want something to fill the time, like I was doing. Unfortunately, it's also really easy to drift off during the DL's non-English segments, so I found myself rewinding a lot. And that was after 8 tries at listening to it in bed; at least I found a good way to get to sleep quickly! But if you're wanting to actually learn something, it would be nice to have the time invested cut in half by deleting the non-English portions. Or, better yet, a bullet list of the 8 verses with short descriptions attached would take at max 30 minutes to read. Yes, I learned some things, and yes it's helpful to keep feeding the mind with these principles, but on the other hand I'm sure there are more efficient ways to spend one's time doing so. I should probably stick to the written word when it comes to this subject.
I'm sure people who are fans of these audio lectures will hate this review, will think, "Yeah what do you expect?" and will more want to know about the specific content of this particular one. Well, I hate to say I listened to the entire thing yesterday, and it didn't stick with me. It's a decent listen if you just want something to fill the time, like I was doing. Unfortunately, it's also really easy to drift off during the DL's non-English segments, so I found myself rewinding a lot. And that was after 8 tries at listening to it in bed; at least I found a good way to get to sleep quickly! But if you're wanting to actually learn something, it would be nice to have the time invested cut in half by deleting the non-English portions. Or, better yet, a bullet list of the 8 verses with short descriptions attached would take at max 30 minutes to read. Yes, I learned some things, and yes it's helpful to keep feeding the mind with these principles, but on the other hand I'm sure there are more efficient ways to spend one's time doing so. I should probably stick to the written word when it comes to this subject.
February 22, 2018
A brief introduction to the relationship between mindfulness and Buddhist text. As always, the DL provides a thoughtful link between current science and Buddhist tradition.
January 15, 2016
This is an audio cd. The chanting was cool. I always love chanting in any language.
They taped the Dali Lama speaking at an event. Sometimes he used English, most of the other times he spoke in another language. That takes up a lot of tape time. Then a man speaks in English, I guess translating. But how can you translate five minutes of speech? Were they both reading prepared notes? No idea.
Several things bugged me about the tape and the message. Here are a few:
I always turn off when people use the word "mind" as if it were a separate entity. Our minds are functions of our brains.
Reincarnation is nonsense. It was barely touched upon. Maybe they agree.
Here was a response to a question from an audience member who asked what do you do if you are living in a place where there is much trouble: "Just leave." Mr. Lama says that to laughter and applause. Easy for "his holiness" to say. He can leave anytime he wants. Not everyone has that advantage. What about the Tibetans being harassed by China? What about today's Syrians?
Also I never really got the 8 verses with all the chitchat.
What I did like: Caring about all other sentient beings. And while were at it, why not some non-sentient beings like trees.
They taped the Dali Lama speaking at an event. Sometimes he used English, most of the other times he spoke in another language. That takes up a lot of tape time. Then a man speaks in English, I guess translating. But how can you translate five minutes of speech? Were they both reading prepared notes? No idea.
Several things bugged me about the tape and the message. Here are a few:
I always turn off when people use the word "mind" as if it were a separate entity. Our minds are functions of our brains.
Reincarnation is nonsense. It was barely touched upon. Maybe they agree.
Here was a response to a question from an audience member who asked what do you do if you are living in a place where there is much trouble: "Just leave." Mr. Lama says that to laughter and applause. Easy for "his holiness" to say. He can leave anytime he wants. Not everyone has that advantage. What about the Tibetans being harassed by China? What about today's Syrians?
Also I never really got the 8 verses with all the chitchat.
What I did like: Caring about all other sentient beings. And while were at it, why not some non-sentient beings like trees.
January 28, 2017
I would have rated higher if it weren't for the low quality of recording that made it hard to hear in many places. The Dalai Lama was speaking Tibetan then having a translator repeat it back - this process took up a lot of time. The volume was all over the place. Plus, I felt it caused lost momentum on what the Dalai was trying to share the way it was recorded. There was value it was just hard to get to...
October 22, 2014
changed my life <3
June 8, 2015
Como funcionario de casilla: esto fue lo mejor que me dejó la abstinencia de votantes en esta jornada electoral, mucho tiempo y un libro.
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February 24, 2018At the invitiation of the Conservancy for Tibetan Art and Culture in Washington, DC, His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave a one-say teaching and commentary on the Eight Verses for Training the Mind to over five thousand Western and Tibetan students.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews