Tibetan Buddhism · The 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva
Egalitarian Dharma
A Saturday study group working through the thirty-seven verses of Gyalse Tokme Zangpo, a few at a time, in a room where everyone has something of equal value to contribute. The teaching notes and the guided meditations from each evening are here.
The text
Gyalse Tokme Zangpo wrote the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva in Tibet in the fourteenth century. It is thirty-seven short verses, each ending with the same line, that this is the practice of a bodhisattva, and it is memorized and recited across the Tibetan lineages. The verses are practical. One tells you what to do when you are robbed, one what to do when you are praised, one what to do when someone you raised turns on you.
The group
I lead the group with Lena Rose Williams. We have met on Saturdays since August 2026, and the evening has a shape: a few minutes on why each of us came, a guided meditation, the agreement below, a question to go around the circle on, the new verses with notes, an analytical meditation built from those verses, and a few questions to carry into the week. The text contains the whole of the Buddhist path in under fifty short paragraphs, and the hope is that the practices turn out to be useful in a daily life whether or not the person living it is a Buddhist.
Robin: add a few lines here in your own words about your teachers and lineage, if you want them on the page. Nothing invented stays here.
The agreement we read every week
We are striving to create an egalitarian environment where everyone has something of equal value to contribute. We are hoping to focus our discussion more on our own experiences versus conceptual understanding.
- Please be mindful of the way you participate: if you tend to speak a lot, consider stepping back, and vice versa.
- Everyone has something worthwhile to contribute. We all have different levels of experience; everyone has wisdom and something to teach or to learn.
- Speak from your personal experience. Even when discussing information and facts, try to use "I" statements, speaking from what you experience and understand to be true.
- We are here to learn from each other. Feel free to speak in draft and ask questions.
- Allow people freedom to share without judgement. If you feel inspired to respond to someone else's share, focus on your personal experience unless someone directly asks for comment or advice.
- We are here to discuss something specific. We can find a balance between necessary digressions and staying on topic.
- Be mindful of time.
- We might as facilitators gently guide discussion, for time or topic. We will strive to be as gentle as we can.
- Strive to keep anyone's shares private, allowing them to live in this space safely, without leaving it.
How to read along
Each verse in the index links to its page on 37practices.space, a study site that gives the root text in three translations and the commentaries of seven teachers side by side. The session that covered a verse is linked next to it. The study site also has a guide for starting a peer study group of your own, which is how this one started. If you lead a group and want a script for an evening, the guided and analytical meditations are indexed on their own page.
The sessions
- Session 1: the homage The first Saturday: Gyalse Tokme Zangpo's homage, a motivation meditation, and an analytical meditation on what we need refuge from right now.
- Session 2: verses 1 to 4 Verses 1 to 4: precious human life, leaving the homeland, solitude and impermanence, with the Nudge meditation and an analytical meditation on change.
- Session 3: verses 5 to 7 Verses 5 to 7: bad companions, the spiritual teacher, and refuge in the Three Jewels, with an analytical meditation on what happens to us in different company.
- Session 4: verses 8 to 10 Verses 8 to 10: karma and the lower realms, dewdrop pleasures, and our mothers, with a two-part analytical meditation on difficulty and the poisons.
- Session 5: verses 11 to 13 Verses 11 to 13: exchanging self and other, being robbed, being harmed though innocent, with a tonglen opening and a verse-by-verse analytical meditation.
- Session 6: verses 14 to 17 Verses 14 to 17: slander, public humiliation, betrayal by someone you raised, contempt. A meditation on gossip, exposure and the ledger we keep.
- Session 7: verses 18 to 21 Verses 18 to 21: hardship, good fortune, the enemy of your own anger, sense pleasure as salt water. A meditation holding a hard stretch beside a time of praise.
- Session 8: verses 22 to 24 Verses 22 to 24, the turn to emptiness: appearances as mind, attractive things as summer rainbows, suffering as a dream. A meditation that follows a bell.
- Session 9: verses 25 to 28 Verses 25 to 28, the first four paramitas: generosity, discipline, patience, diligence. A nectar meditation for the person who struggles with each quality.
The thirty-seven practices
The preliminaries
- Homage Homage and statement of purpose Session 1 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 1 Precious human life; study, reflect, meditate Session 2 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 2 Leave your homeland Session 2 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 3 Rely on solitude Session 2 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 4 Impermanence; give up this life's concerns Session 2 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 5 Give up bad friends Session 3 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 6 Cherish the spiritual teacher Session 3 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 7 Take refuge in the Three Jewels Session 3 Root text and teachers ↗
The three capacities
- Verse 8 Lesser capacity: karma and the lower realms Session 4 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 9 Middling capacity: dewdrop pleasures, changeless liberation Session 4 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 10 Great capacity: our mothers; arousing bodhicitta Session 4 Root text and teachers ↗
Exchanging self and other
- Verse 11 Exchanging self and other Session 5 Root text and teachers ↗
Transforming adversity
- Verse 12 When robbed: dedicate everything Session 5 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 13 When harmed though innocent: take on their suffering Session 5 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 14 When slandered: praise their qualities Session 6 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 15 When publicly humiliated: see a teacher Session 6 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 16 When betrayed by one you raised: love them more Session 6 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 17 When treated with contempt: honor them as your teacher Session 6 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 18 When destitute and ill: take on all beings' suffering Session 7 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 19 When prosperous and praised: no conceit Session 7 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 20 The real enemy: subdue your own anger Session 7 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 21 Sense pleasures: salt water Session 7 Root text and teachers ↗
Ultimate bodhicitta
- Verse 22 Appearances are mind; mind is beyond fabrication Session 8 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 23 Attractive things: summer rainbows Session 8 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 24 Adversity: the death of a child in a dream Session 8 Root text and teachers ↗
The six paramitas
- Verse 25 Generosity Session 9 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 26 Discipline Session 9 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 27 Patience Session 9 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 28 Diligence Session 9 Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 29 Meditative concentration Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 30 Wisdom Root text and teachers ↗
Final precepts, daily conduct
- Verse 31 Examine your own confusion Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 32 Don't speak of others' faults Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 33 Give up attachment to patrons and gain Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 34 Abandon harsh words Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 35 Slay afflictions the moment they arise Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 36 In everything, watch the mind, benefit others Root text and teachers ↗
- Verse 37 Dedicate the merit Root text and teachers ↗
Colophon
- Colophon Closing verses Root text and teachers ↗
Questions people ask
What are the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva?
A fourteenth-century Tibetan text by Gyalse Tokme Zangpo: thirty-seven short verses, each describing one practice and ending with the line that this is the practice of a bodhisattva. It is recited and studied across the Tibetan Buddhist lineages, and it covers daily conduct as much as philosophy: what to do when robbed, praised, slandered, or sick.
Do I have to be a Buddhist to join the study group?
No. The group reads the verses as practices to test in ordinary life rather than as beliefs to accept, and the community agreement asks everyone to speak from their own experience. People who are not Buddhist come, and the questions they bring are often the best ones in the room.
What happens at a session?
A few minutes on why each person came, a guided meditation, the community agreement read aloud, one question to go around the circle on, the new verses with teaching notes, an analytical meditation built from those verses, and a few questions to carry into the week. The session pages on this site are transcriptions of exactly that.
What is an analytical meditation?
A guided meditation that takes a claim from the text and checks it against your own experience, step by step, rather than resting the mind on the breath. Each session page here has one, written to be read aloud, with the pauses marked.
Where can I read the verses themselves?
On 37practices.space, which gives the root text in three translations alongside commentaries from seven teachers for every verse. Each verse in the index above links to its page there.