Before Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1101–1175), the lojong teachings were passed down as oral aphorisms and somewhat disorganized lists from Atisha (c. 982–c. 1054 CE). Chekawa is the one who took these teachings and formally systematized them into the recognizable structure we study today.
The Seven Points of Mind Training feel straightforward simply because they aren’t a loose scattering of teachings. Instead, they are like a skeleton that lived practice fleshes out. Chekawa Yeshe Dorje fashioned them as a progression:
Ground: the preliminaries
Method: the main practice of relative and absolute bodhicitta
Application: transforming adversity into the path
Integration: making a cohesive practice for a single lifetime
Measurement: the criteria for evaluating one’s own mind training
Points six and seven are the disciplines and guidelines for maintaining sustained habits, creating a body you can actually inhabit. It makes the whole system unusually teachable, repeatable, and psychologically coherent.
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo is the living example of this book’s title: Change Your Mind, Change Your Life: The Transformative Power of Lojong Practice. She read a book with words that altered her mind, and her life changed. She was catapulted into a trajectory that would lead to the wisdom master she is today. Jetsunma was the second Western woman ordained in the Vajrayana tradition in 1964, and her dedication led her to spend 12 years meditating in a remote Himalayan cave, surviving temperatures below freezing.
Awarded the rare title jetsunma (venerable master) in 2008 for her spiritual achievements and fierce advocacy for female monastics, she vowed to attain enlightenment in the female form, no matter how many lifetimes it takes. She is a teacher who has never lost the twinkle in her eye or her wry, sparkling humor. Yet she remains profoundly serious in her understanding and sharing of wisdom, and grounded in the pragmatism of a changing world, fully awake to the realities of cultural shifts and the implications they bring, for better and worse.
Jetsunma introduces us to the root text, the seven points and list of aphorisms appropriate to each, before we reach the introduction, which poses the question why do these practices at all.
Appealing to my deep fascination with the mind, lojong is another example of how the old masters attained insights that contemporary thinkers continue to explore. In this case, contemporary neuroscience recognizes the brain’s tendency to reinforce neural pathways according to habitual thought processes, and that disrupting undesirable habits can, over time, lead to a process known as “pruning,” which is working to weaken those same pathways until they are broken.
We are also introduced to Chekawa Yeshe Dorje and Atisha and the Tibet in which they lived. In fact, understanding that Tibet was not the magical Shangri-La of romantic fantasy; life was not serene, nor were there halcyon days greeted as a contemplative walk around a lily pond while dialoging with the divine. No; life was tough, the land harsh. They were wild and warring times. Many laypeople were subsisting, while monastics often ate meat and succumbed to lives of routine rather than awareness. To bring the people and the country of Tibet back to Buddhism something had to be done.
As Jetsunma states, her book is a “condensed and accessible explanation of what The Seven-Point Mind-Training” is about.” This may be well-condensed and accessible, but it is in no way short of fuel for deeper thinking. Each point is a chapter, with its aphorisms and commentary, as well as Jetsunma’s thoughts that keep the book relevant.
It is always refreshing to have a 21st-century practitioner not rote recite 14th-century teachings and assume they will take root in someone who can live those teachings—today’s students simply lack the same contextual mindset and culture.
Escaping the world and finding spiritual awareness in isolation is one thing. The real test begins when you descend the mountain and face the marketplace of ordinary people. While surviving a Himalayan cave carries profound physical hardships, there is an entirely different endurance required to juggle a family, wellness, a job, a mortgage, car maintenance, taxes, and gossiping neighbors. And that’s not to mention frenemies, politics, global warming, social disasters, weddings and funerals, and so on.
But this is what makes Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo so remarkable—she bridges these two worlds with incredible pragmatism. Her distinct “Britishness,” with a sense of humor and a grounded, feet-on-the-earth attitude, strips away spiritual pretension and makes her profound Vajrayana wisdom deeply accessible.
Wisdom-seeking risks becoming convoluted. The urge to find a “magic pill” has become drug-like to many. Jetsunma shares the pitfalls of the journey toward enlightenment, only to realize we’ve become so self-absorbed that we almost stop living, reaching a state of spiritual exhaustion. The accompanying rumination can morph into a punitive interrogation; a cycle of self-reflective flagellation until one burns out. So what then?
Undoubtedly, some of the information in this book would once have been considered secret. Today, however, we live in a world where previously hidden teachings are widely published, even if they initially cause controversy. The internet has spread this information faster than anyone could have imagined. Part of this cultural shift is an explosion of interest in these subjects—from esoteric Buddhist wisdom to the nature of reality and any spiritual journey leading to greater contentment. The world is clearly ripe for these teachings.
The aphorisms used in lojong practice can be applied as a means to disrupt negative self-talk, or to widen our perspective in moments of challenge. They offer immediate refuge in the moment of practice, operating through mechanisms that modern science can now identify.
Jetsunma’s book delivers exactly what it promises: a concise and accessible text on a profound understanding of the mind articulated by the masters of old centuries ago.
It is a book and a journey; one that we would be wise to walk.
Related features from BDG
Book Review: The Mango Dancer
Book Review: How Not to Miss the Point by Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche
Book Review: Eihei Dogen Zenji’s The Roots of Goodness
