TRANSFORMING ADVERSITY INTO JOY AND COURAGE: An Explanation of the Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas by Geshe Jampa Tegchok, edited by Thubten Chodron

A practical and inspiring guide for developing our ability to be happy and benefit others, this commentary on The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas by Gyalsay Togme Sangpo is studied by followers of all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The root text gives, in thirty-seven short verses, the essential practices leading to enlightenment. Gyalsay Togme Sangpo(1295-1369) was renowned as a bodhisattva in Tibet and revered for living according to the bodhisattva ideals and practices that he taught. He inspired not only his direct disciples but also generations of practitioners up to the present day.

This extraordinary commentary by Geshe Jampa Tegchok clearly explains the popular practice of exchanging oneself with others for developing love and compassion for all living beings. It lays open the methods for doing glance, stabilizing, and analytical meditations, and offers an in-depth discussion of the nature of emptiness. All the essentials are here for transforming our attitudes and developing courage and joy.

Geshe Jampa Tegchok became a monk at the age of eight. He studied all of the major Buddhist treatises at Sera-je Monastery in Tibet before fleeing his homeland in 1959. After staying in the refugee camp at Buxa, India, Geshe Tegchok went to Varanasi, where he obtained his Acharya degree and taught for seven years. He then began teaching in the West – three years in England and ten years at Nalanda Monastery in France. In 1993, His Holiness the Dalai Lama appointed him as abbot of Sera-je Monastic University in India. Retired from that position, he now teaches widely in the United States.

This is a re-release of Transforming the Heart.