Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen opens a four-session series on the Eight Verses of Mind Training, a foundational Kadampa meditation text composed by the master Langri Tangpa. The core insight: self-cherishing is the root cause of all suffering—from saṃsāra and war to everyday conflict and pain—and practice means shifting the mind to cherish others instead. In this 33-minute first talk, he explores the opening verse through a striking image: sentient beings compared to wish-fulfilling jewels, but far more precious, because while such gems grant only temporary wishes, compassion toward sentient beings opens the path to all temporal and ultimate happiness. The teaching is not about self-denial but about reorienting where your mind fundamentally rests. Geshe-la emphasizes attending all four talks, as each line builds on the last.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 ToM.mp3
UUID: b5a5bb37-7ce4-4b45-b704-82e4d4c01111
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Training of the Mind (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1996 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 33.8 minutes
Words: ~1,654
With this motivation, now we listen to the teachings, the Dharma teachings. And as when Buddha came to this world — Buddha Śākyamūni came to this world and achieved the fully enlightened state and then turned the wheel of Dharma — which is the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma that Buddha turned. So then after Buddha passed, then later on, there were many panditas, many masters of India who similarly taught many teachings — many different treatises and different commentaries — and thereby spread the teachings of the Buddha like sun rays. So the teachings that Buddha taught were of two kinds: those of the Hīnayāna and the teachings of the Mahāyāna. And of the Mahāyāna also of two: the teachings on Sūtra and the teachings on Tantra.
So all the essence of those teachings — as given in Sūtra and as given in tantric teachings — if summarised, are summarised into two lines. Which is: things that need to be abandoned — that is the self-cherishing thought. And then things that need to be adopted — and that is the generation of bodhicitta.
So from the practitioner’s side, they should also be aware of these two: what are the things that need to be adopted — that is, they should be aware that it is bodhicitta. And things that need to be abandoned — that is the self-cherishing or the self-grasping. This is the one that needs to be abandoned. So if one knows these two, then whatever practice, whatever Dharma practice that one is doing, by knowing these two, one’s practice will come out to be unmistaken, and it also follows that it will accord with the teachings of Buddha Śākyamūni. So the teaching that is explained to us today is mind training teachings, and there are many mind training teachings. There are hundreds of them. So among those many, this one that Geshe-la will be teaching is the one which was composed by Geshe Langri Tangpa. And it is what Geshe Langri Tangpa practised.
So which is known as the Eight Verses of Mind Training. And Geshe-la will be giving talks for four following weeks. And Geshe-la is saying that if all those who are here today can make it to all four sessions — all four talks — that would be very good. Because the explanations come one after another, one line after another. So if everyone can make all four, it’d be very good.
So I myself am here giving the explanations and I won’t be able to give my complete full explanations on this, but I will explain according to my abilities or my understanding. And similarly on your side, whatever has been explained — it doesn’t mean that you understand all that, or that you need to understand everything — but try your best and whatever you can, at least a small amount you can gather for yourself. So these teachings are known as mind training teachings and we apply these teachings to change or train our mind — to change or transform or train our mind. So, like most of us, what we are accustomed to, what kind of mind we have, is that we cherish ourselves the most. And as a result of listening to or practising this mind training teaching, what we need is that we have to change this mind which is cherishing self into cherishing others, and transform one’s mind into that which is cherishing others.
And that should be the result of listening to this teaching. So cherishing others doesn’t mean that you forget everything about yourself, or give up everything about yourself. What is being transformed here is the thought. The mind which — first, instead of cherishing oneself, you transform it and change it into cherishing others. So the reason why we need to transform or change this state of mind is that because of the self-cherishing thought we have circled in saṃsāra up till now, up to this time.
And not only that, but every single unfortunate thing that is happening to one is the result of this self-cherishing thought. And in a broader sense — in the world — all the wars and fights in the world that are happening are also a result of, one could say, self-cherishing. So even to the very least — that of divorce among husband and wife, and also in the family, in getting along — all this happens because of this self-cherishing mind. So as an example, the smallest thing — even a stomach ache — is also a result of the self-cherishing mind.
So even stomach pain or ache is the result of the self-cherishing mind. How? Because of this self-cherishing mind, we drink anything that is there and we eat everything that is there. And because of that one goes through these different sicknesses and pain in the stomach and so on. And that is of this life, and the same thing with our future lives.
So now how one should think is that whatever happens to me, I would never let go of the others. So there are many different mind training teachings, and especially in this subject here, the main essence of the teachings will be changing the self-cherishing mind into cherishing others — that is the point, the essential point. So there is a place called Langri Tang where a monastery was built, and those who lived in the monastery and who trained themselves in the teachings of Buddha — that is, both Sūtra and Tantra, the whole of the Buddha’s teachings — that is how the name was given: Langri Tangpa. So that Langri Tangpa, the great master, trained his mind in the Eight Verses of Mind Training. And that is what he practised. To that text, the Eight Verses of Mind Training, a written commentary was made on that text. So the explanation that Geshe-la was giving is from the commentary that was written by Geshe Chekawa.
So Geshe Chekawa received his teachings from another Kadampa geshe known as Sharawa. And he heard the teachings from him and then later wrote the commentary on that. So those past masters — and others — who through the training in this Eight Verses of Mind Training, actually generated bodhicitta within them. So at the beginning of his commentary, Chekawa explains that he read through briefly — he read through all the pages of the teachings — but he hadn’t generated bodhicitta.
So he said he hadn’t generated bodhicitta. Just reading this, he found the advice of mind training very helpful — like going into a village and living there and facing different problems. While he was facing different problems, just reading this Eight Verses of Mind Training, he said it helped very much. So those lines which helped him — from the very first line. So the very first line that Geshe-la chanted and recited is one of the lines which helped him.
To the commentary — there are two ways it is given. One is the last line which ends, I shall constantly hold them dear. That one has another version which gives: may they constantly hold them dear. There are two ways it is written down, but then according to the Tibetan tradition, Geshe-la said it’s more in the sense of making prayers. So it is: may I constantly hold them dear — in that way, in the form of prayers. It is explained here.
So the third and the fourth line which come in the first verse — in Tibetan, which Langri Tangpa composed — sees sentient beings as far better, as more precious, than the wish-fulfilling jewels. So they compare sentient beings and the wish-fulfilling gems. There are two similarities. So one thing — if you drop the wish-fulfilling gem or the jewel into rubbish or into a swamp — there is no way that the wish-fulfilling jewel can come out of that swamp by itself. No way it can come out.
But then if you, on one of those special days, take it out and then clean it, wash it in different ways, and then put it on top of a victory banner, and then make your wishes to the wish-fulfilling gem, your wishes get fulfilled. So similar to that of the wish-fulfilling gem — sentient beings, under the power of or under the influence of karma and delusions, fall into saṃsāra, and from themselves they don’t have any power to free themselves from saṃsāra. With their own powers, they are unable to remove all those common delusions that they have in saṃsāra. So because those sentient beings are in that situation, if one were to help those sentient beings, then in the same manner that the wish-fulfilling gem fulfils one’s wishes, one’s supreme wishes will be fulfilled.
So benefiting other sentient beings makes possible all the temporal and ultimate happiness. So because of that reason, Geshe-la earlier explained the importance of changing the self-cherishing mind into cherishing others. So if you carefully think, then all this temporal happiness that one goes through is a result of benefiting other sentient beings. Like the normal things that we use — food, shelter, and clothing — we receive these through the kindness of sentient beings.
No. No. No. Okay. So because of that reason, again, it is advised to change this self-cherishing mind into cherishing others. So in the commentary, it is written saying that sentient beings and the wish-fulfilling gems are similar, the same, but the case is that sentient beings are far better than the gems. The reason why sentient beings are better, far better, is because in dependence upon the wish-fulfilling gem, one can only get one’s wishes fulfilled of this very life. In dependence upon sentient beings, one can fulfil all the wishes — those of the temporal and those of the ultimate. Which of these…