Bob Schwartz

It is not my way to recommend religious and spiritual practices for anyone. I report my own practices, experiences and observations, leaving it to others to choose or ignore.

I am not making an exception for the Tibetan Buddhist practice of mind training, known as lojong. It took me a while—a long while, decades—to discover this. Given the wide range of Buddhist practices, the Tibetan varieties have not been a major part of my life. It is not that I haven’t studied and appreciated traditions outside of Zen Buddhism, my lifelong practice, but there are simply too many worthy paths to follow them all without getting nowhere.

But I have now discovered lojong. I can report that it is unlike any practice I have experienced in Buddhism, and more, quite unlike any practice in other religious and spiritual traditions.

Lojong is roughly a thousand years old, with refinements and commentaries over the centuries, right up to the present. Lojong consists of 59 instructional slogans, divided into seven points, aimed at training the mind. Training to do what and be what? Simply, oversimply, to live and learn wisdom and compassion. Lojong manages to encompass all of Buddhism in a series of actionable tasks.

If one does not have a live teacher, as I do not, there are a number of excellent books about lojong, along with videos by some of these excellent teachers. Some, like Pema Chodron and her teacher Chogyam Trungpa, are well-known. Others are known in the Tibetan Buddhist communities, but unfamiliar to many others. Evey one is worthy of knowing.

It is my way to try to be comprehensively grounded in areas new to me, as this is, and then to narrow my focus. Below is a list of those books and teachers I have found helpful in early days. I wish I could say “this is the one for me” or “this is the one for you”. I can’t. Each one offers a view that may well explain a point or that may be an expression that resonates. If I say that the order listed below is best-first, there may be a little truth in that—for me—but even that is a stretch.

The Practice of Lojong: Cultivating Compassion through Training the Mind by Traleg Kyabgon
Mind Training by Ringu Tulku
The Intelligent Heart: A Guide to the Compassionate Life by Dzigar Kongtrul
The Great Path of Awakening: The Classic Guide to Lojong, a Tibetan Buddhist Practice for Cultivating the Heart of Compassion by Jamgon Kongtrul
The Power of Mind: A Tibetan Monk’s Guide to Finding Freedom in Every Challenge by Khentrul Lodrö T’hayé Rinpoche
Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness by Chogyam Trungpa
The Compassion Book: Teachings for Awakening the Heart by Pema Chodron
The Art of Transforming the Mind: A Meditator’s Guide to the Tibetan Practice of Lojong
by B. Alan Wallace
Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong by Norman Fischer