Topics - BLO SBYONG
I think next we should go through a very famous four-liner blo sbyong (LO JONG) verse from the Sakya tradition, it covers the whole Buddhist path, so it's good to learn and memorize, as well as analyze the words and the grammar in these verses.
So what's blo sbyong? Remember that in Sanskrit and Tibetan there are many words for mind. We looked as sems and yid already. Another word for mind is blo.
sbyong is a verb, means to purify, develop, practice, train.
There are many versions of how to translate blo sbyong, developing the mind, mind training, cultivating a good heart. It seems mind training is a very common translation.
Maybe it's best to know what blo sbyong really is -- this to understand why it has been translated with so many terms. This system of mind training was introduced by Atisha to Tibet. It was for a long time an ear-whispered training method, the concepts behind blo sbyong, to put aside one's own needs all the time and just develop a mind thinking of others was just too radical for the environment and cultures of that time.
The result from such blo sbyong training is ultimately to develop bodhichitta, byang chub kyi sems (mind of enlightenment), so this is where the notation of cultivating ot developing a good heart comes from.
Usually blo sbyong texts are short, small summarized notations. You could print them out and put them as magnet stickers on your fridge!
So what's blo sbyong? Remember that in Sanskrit and Tibetan there are many words for mind. We looked as sems and yid already. Another word for mind is blo.
sbyong is a verb, means to purify, develop, practice, train.
There are many versions of how to translate blo sbyong, developing the mind, mind training, cultivating a good heart. It seems mind training is a very common translation.
Maybe it's best to know what blo sbyong really is -- this to understand why it has been translated with so many terms. This system of mind training was introduced by Atisha to Tibet. It was for a long time an ear-whispered training method, the concepts behind blo sbyong, to put aside one's own needs all the time and just develop a mind thinking of others was just too radical for the environment and cultures of that time.
The result from such blo sbyong training is ultimately to develop bodhichitta, byang chub kyi sems (mind of enlightenment), so this is where the notation of cultivating ot developing a good heart comes from.
Usually blo sbyong texts are short, small summarized notations. You could print them out and put them as magnet stickers on your fridge!