Lojong · Tibetan: blo sbyong

Lojong (Tibetan blo sbyong) means “mind training”. Lotsawa House, which publishes the texts in English, describes it as “the system of practical instructions for developing the compassion and wisdom of bodhicitta”, the wish to awaken for the sake of all beings (see bodhicitta). It is a Tibetan Mahāyāna tradition, and its two classic short texts were written by Kadampa teachers, heirs to the tradition of the Indian master Atiśa.

The better known is the Seven Points of Mind Training, which Lotsawa House says was first written down by Geshe Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1101–1175) according to Atiśa’s tradition. Its seven headings run from the preliminaries and the main practice through transforming adversity, lifelong application, the measures of progress and the commitments to the precepts. Under each sit a few terse lines, often called slogans, such as “Drive all blames into one” (trans. Adam Pearcey, 2025). The main practice includes giving and taking, which has its own page, tonglen. There is no fixed list: the version in Jamgön Kongtrul’s Damngak Dzö closes by noting “many different versions of this root text, with variants in sequence and the number of slogans.”

The other classic is the Eight Verses of Training the Mind by Geshe Langri Thangpa (1054–1123), verses that Lotsawa House says “are now regularly transmitted around the world by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.” Our full guide to lojong follows the lineage from Atiśa, the main commentaries, and why the slogans read differently from one English book to the next.