The Great Path of Awakening: The Classic Guide to Lojong, a Tibetan Buddhist Practice for Cultivating the Heart of Compassion

by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, Ken McLeod (Translator), Chögyam Trungpa (Contributor)

Here is a practical Buddhist guidebook that offers techniques for developing a truly compassionate heart in the midst of everyday life. For centuries, Tibetans have used fifty-nine pithy slogans—such as "A joyous state of mind is a constant support" and "Don't talk about others' shortcomings"—as a means to awaken kindness, gentleness, and compassion. While Tibetan Buddhists have long valued these slogans, recently they have become popular in the West due to such books as Start Where You Are by Pema Chödrön and Training the Mind by Chögyam Trungpa.
This edition of The Great Path of Awakening contains an accessible, newly revised translation of the slogans from the famous text The Seven Points of Mind Training . It also includes illuminating commentary from Jamgon Kongtrul that provides further instruction on how to meet every situation with intelligence and an open heart.

Genres: Buddhism, Religion, Philosophy, Spirituality, Meditation, Nonfiction, Self Help

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 1987

About the author

The first Jamgon Kongtrul, Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé (འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་ 'jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha' yas), was one of the preeminent scholars in 19th century Tibet, often referred to as Jamgon Kongtrul the Great. The name Kongtrul is a contraction of Kongpo Bamtang Tulku, of whom he was held to be an incarnation. He also was a tertön, or "revealer of Dharma treasures," and in that capacity was given the name Pema Garwang Chimé Yudrung Lingpa.

He was also a respected physician and diplomat. He is credited as one of the founders of the Rimé (རིས་མེད་ ris-med "unbiased" or non-sectarian) movement of Tibetan Buddhism, and he compiled what is known as the Five Great Treasuries.

Reviews

[M.E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lojong is a really wonderful and powerful practice that offers an accessible core of the mahayana. Lojong is a set of slogans; overall, their themes encourage us to take difficulties, crisis and pain and transform it into an opportunity to deepen mindfulness, compassion, and self-growth.

There are many excellent books on the lojong, including Pema Chödron's Start Where You Are and Trungpa Rinpoche's Training the Mind. I suggest reading them in order for the non-buddhist, starting with Pema's. She is the most accessible of them, and does an excellent job of connecting it to the fabric of my life and many other women I know. The Great Path of Awakening is the classic, the most influential classic Tibetan text available in English. These three books together provide a really clear trajectory of how classic Tibetan teachings have made their way (legitimately) into contemporary American self-help. All three are worth reading.

[Danielle Shroyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this as one of my key texts for working through the lojong slogans and found it helpful and insightful.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in the late 1800s. The subtitle tells it all. This book offers 59 slogans for remembering how to cultivate compassion. It includes such things as "Don't be competitive... Don't go for the throat...
Don't talk about others' shortcomings... Be grateful to everyone... Whatever happens, good or bad, be patient..." and my favorite, "Always work on what makes you boil." Each slogan is then expanded on to explain how to do it.

[Everett Grandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

awakening consequence of sentientness is

a language not grammatically spoken yet may be heard in clarity once corporealness embraces its intellectual stillness enough to hear its own lineage

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is essential advice for Buddhist practice. Many of the instructions are counterintuitive--This is because we live in a society that is not conducive to practicing the dharma. We should practice the dharma anyways.

[Tony Foxhoven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything I needed was in this book

[Wayne Rurka · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first read with direct to the point instruction on this practice.

[John Stockton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found out about this guide (translation by Ken McLeod, one of Pema Chodron's favourite authors), in Ken Wilbur's Grace and Grit. This is a keeper!!!

[Sonic · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I feel certain rating my experience of this book at 5 stars, I do not pretend to understand all (or maybe much) of it.
But the general messages of compassion for others,
and the exquisite utilizing and transforming of difficulties as a means of self-development are immeasurably beautiful and essential.

And while reading this book was not directly practical for me, outside of providing inspiration from a sound and harmonious perspective, this little gem of a book does seem to be practical in it's very nature. Which I feel, it goes without saying perhaps, is just further proof of it's excellence.

Of course the actual practice is up to us.

[Will Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lojong Practice or Mind Training. This is a sweet and concise guide. The 59 slogans are clear and presented in a helpful manner. I took one a day for the last two months and meditated each morning on it. I think it has helped. This guide has many Stoic like references like "turn suffering into the path" (the obstacle is the way) and its instance that ego-clinging is at the root of the problem. Loved this book and the whole Lojong Practice thing. Now I’m taking up Alan Wallace’s treatment of Mind Training in “Buddhism with an Attitude”.

[Jayme · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Great Path of Awakening' is useful in that it provides the Lojong mind training teachings in something close to their original context. But this classic text is far from the most accessible for the average Buddhist practitioner. I found Pema Chodron's series of lectures about the Lojong teachings (recorded at a retreat and presented in the audio recording 'Be Grateful to Everyone') to be a great learning tool. Her book 'Start Where You Are' also a good overview.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This well-produced, richly annotated version is still my favorite text on the Mahayana practice known as "mind training." The translator and annotator, Ken McLeod, has gone on to become a distinguished Buddhist teacher in his own right. It's not the kind of practice that a beginner can jump in to, but it's the kind of practice that we should all aspire to: how to put the needs of others consistently before our own, and how to turn the vicissitudes of everyday life into a spiritual practice.

[Sheri Lisker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic text on Lojong training. Read it all the way through. Do not, as I did, just read it slogan at a time. It is much richer (and easier to understand) as a complete text. Then us it for slogans.

Be prepared for lots of footnotes...

[Mark Gelula · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the root teaching of the Seven Point Mind Training. The translation is excellent: clear and modern language without missing the original intentions of the teaching. Excellent notes.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good commentary, but I find that I go back to Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness more often.

[Suzanne Arcand · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second reading (and not the last). A classic book on Lojong. I would recommend geting to know the slogans with a teacher rather than with a book.

[Javier Ormeno · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this book on advice of my teacher for it contains a practice called "taking/giving" while we were reading the 37 practices of Boddhisatva. This takes a section of the book that adds to other teachings. I was joyful on re discovering an old teaching on how changing our attitude through ritual helps coping with negativity. I am also pleased reading straightforward directions to deal with everyday situations through practice and development of boddhicitta.

I am grateful with these simple teachings when I most needed them