Lojong · mind training
Bodhicitta in everyday life, Chekhawa’s seven points, and the teachers and commentaries of the mind-training tradition.
Training the mind in compassion and wisdom
Lojong, Tibetan for mind training, brings the Mahāyāna aspiration of bodhicitta into ordinary experience. Its short instructions address self-concern, difficult emotions and relationships, alongside insight into the nature of experience. The aim is awakening for the benefit of beings, rather than simply becoming more comfortable.
Chekhawa’s Seven Points of Mind Training is one influential presentation within this wider tradition. Other lojong works include Langri Thangpa’s Eight Verses of Training the Mind. Their brevity makes them memorable; their meaning is developed through teaching and commentary.
Atiśa, Serlingpa and the Kadam tradition
Traditional accounts describe Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna studying bodhicitta with Serlingpa, or Dharmakīrtiśrī, in Suvarṇadvīpa before teaching in Tibet. Serlingpa is distinct from the earlier Indian philosopher Dharmakīrti. The geographical identification of Suvarṇadvīpa is discussed in his profile.
The Kadam transmission associated with Atiśa and his successors became an important source for later Tibetan teaching. Chekhawa Yeshe Dorje (1101–1175) belongs to this later lineage; he was not Atiśa’s direct student. Lojong is taught across Tibetan schools, including Kagyu, Gelug, Nyingma and Sakya, with different commentarial emphases.
Atiśa’s transmission · Lotsawa House introduction · Lojong’s history and commentaries · Shambhala
Chekhawa’s seven points
In Adam Pearcey’s translation, the root text moves through seven areas:
- Preparation: the preliminary training that supports the teaching.
- The main practice: teachings on the dreamlike character of experience and on giving and taking, known as tonglen.
- Adversity: bringing difficult circumstances into the path.
- A whole life: carrying the training into living and dying.
- Assessment: examining the development of mind training.
- Commitments: conduct that sustains the training.
- Precepts: reminders for applying it consistently.
The root text is only a few pages long. Slogan order and wording vary between transmissions and editions; a commentary explains the terms and context behind the concise instructions.
Read Seven Points of Mind Training · complete free translation
The root text and its commentaries
Jamgön Kongtrul the Great explains the slogans in The Great Path of Awakening, translated by Ken McLeod. Chögyam Trungpa’s Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness draws on Chekhawa’s text and Kongtrul’s commentary.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s Enlightened Courage teaches through Thogme Zangpo’s commentary. Pema Chödrön brings the slogans into contemporary life in Start Where You Are. These are distinct explanations of the tradition, not alternative titles for the short root text.
Related reading & sources
This guide paraphrases the linked sources. The complete root text is translated by Adam Pearcey (2012), published by Lotsawa House under CC BY-NC 4.0; its translation and attribution remain together in the reader. The commercial commentaries above are separate books, not free full-text editions.