This new translation, made under the guidance of Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, conveys the great lucidity and poetic beauty of the original, while preserving its full impact and spiritual insight.
Reading these verses slowly, while contemplating their meaning, has a profoundly liberating effect on the mind. The poem invokes special positive states of mind, moves us from suffering and conflict to happiness and peace, and gradually introduces us to the entire Mahayana Buddhist path to enlightenment.
Excerpt from this book:
From Chapter 1: An explanation of the benefits of bodhichitta
(21) If even the thought to relieve
The headaches of others
Is a beneficial intention
That results in infinite merit,
(22) What can be said of the wish
To dispel the immeasurable misery
Of each and every living being
And lead them all to countless good qualities?
(23) Does our father or mother
Have such a beneficial intention as this?
Do the gods or the sages?
Does even Brahma himself?
(24) If, before generating bodhichitta, these living beings
Do not even dream of such a mind
For their own sakes,
How will they develop it for the sake of others?
(25) This mind to benefit living beings,
Which does not arise in others even for their own sakes,
Is an extraordinary jewel of a mind,
Whose birth is an unprecedented wonder.
(26) How can we possibly measure
The benefits of this jewel of a mind –
The source of joy for all living beings
And the cure for all their sufferings?
(27) If the mere intention to benefit others
Is more meritorious than making offerings to the Buddhas,
What can be said of actually striving
For the happiness of every single living being?
(28) Although living beings wish to be free from suffering,
They run straight towards the causes of suffering;
And although they wish for happiness,
Out of ignorance they destroy it like a foe.
(29) For those who are deprived of happiness
And afflicted with many sorrows,
Bodhichitta bestows upon them boundless joy,
Eradicates all their suffering,
(30) And even dispels their confusion.
Where is there virtue equal to this?
Where is there even such a friend?
Where is there merit such as this?
(31) If even someone who repays a kindness
Is worthy of some praise,
What can be said of the Bodhisattva who helps others
Regardless of whether or not they help him?
The headaches of others
Is a beneficial intention
That results in infinite merit,
(22) What can be said of the wish
To dispel the immeasurable misery
Of each and every living being
And lead them all to countless good qualities?
(23) Does our father or mother
Have such a beneficial intention as this?
Do the gods or the sages?
Does even Brahma himself?
(24) If, before generating bodhichitta, these living beings
Do not even dream of such a mind
For their own sakes,
How will they develop it for the sake of others?
(25) This mind to benefit living beings,
Which does not arise in others even for their own sakes,
Is an extraordinary jewel of a mind,
Whose birth is an unprecedented wonder.
(26) How can we possibly measure
The benefits of this jewel of a mind –
The source of joy for all living beings
And the cure for all their sufferings?
(27) If the mere intention to benefit others
Is more meritorious than making offerings to the Buddhas,
What can be said of actually striving
For the happiness of every single living being?
(28) Although living beings wish to be free from suffering,
They run straight towards the causes of suffering;
And although they wish for happiness,
Out of ignorance they destroy it like a foe.
(29) For those who are deprived of happiness
And afflicted with many sorrows,
Bodhichitta bestows upon them boundless joy,
Eradicates all their suffering,
(30) And even dispels their confusion.
Where is there virtue equal to this?
Where is there even such a friend?
Where is there merit such as this?
(31) If even someone who repays a kindness
Is worthy of some praise,
What can be said of the Bodhisattva who helps others
Regardless of whether or not they help him?