Outline of Commentary on Training the Mind in Eight Verses

The commentary to Eight Verses of Training the Mind has five parts.
1. The preeminent qualities of the author, Bodhisattva Langri Tangpa.
2. The preeminent qualities of these instructions.
3. The preliminary practices.
4. The main practice: training in the two bodhichittas.
5. How to integrate the practice of these instructions.

The preliminary practices has six parts.
1. Cleaning the meditation room and setting up a shrine.
2. Arranging beautiful offerings
3. Sitting in the correct meditation posture, going for refuge, and generating bodhichitta.
4. Visualizing the field for accumulating merit.
5. Offering the seven limbs and the mandala
6. Requesting the holy beings to bestow their blessings.

Cleaning the meditation room and setting up a shrine has two parts.
1. Cleaning practice
2. Setting up a shrine

Sitting in the correct meditation posture, going for refuge, and generating bodhichitta has three parts
1. Sitting in the correct meditation posture
2. Going for refuge
3. Generating bodhichitta.

Offering the seven limbs and the mandala has eight parts
1. Prostration
2. Offering
3. Confession
4. Rejoicing
5. Beseeching the holy beings to remain
6. Requesting the turning of the wheel of dharma
7. Dedication
8. Offering the mandala

Requesting the holy beings to bestow their blessings has two parts
1. Requesting blessings
2. Receiving blessings

The main practice: training in the two bodhichittas has two parts
1. Training in Conventional Bodhichitta
2. Training in Ultimate Bodhichitta

Training in Conventional Bodhichitta has Eight parts
1. Learning to Cherish others
2. Enhancing cherishing love
3. Exchanging Self with others
4. Great Compassion
5. Wishing Love
6. Accepting Defeat and Offering the Victory
7. Taking and Giving
8. The precious mind of Bodhichitta


Learning to Cherish others has two parts
1. The kindness of others
2. The benefits of cherishing others

Enhancing cherishing love has four parts
1. Recognizing our faults in the mirror of Dharma
2. Viewing all living beings as supreme
3. Living Beings have no faults
4. Developing humility

Exchanging Self with others has five parts
1. What is self-cherishing?
2. The faults of self-cherishing
3. How to destroy self-cherishing
4. How is it possible to exchange self with others?
5. The actual practice of exchanging self with others.

Great Compassion has three parts
1. What is compassion?
2. How to develop compassion
3. The inner wealth of compassion.

Wishing Love has two parts
1. How to develop wishing love
2. Transforming adverse conditions

Taking and giving has three parts
1. Taking by means of compassion
2. Giving by means of love
3. Mounting taking and giving upon the breath

Taking by means of compassion has three parts
1. Taking on our own future suffering
2. The benefits of taking on the suffering of others
3. The actual meditation on taking

The precious mind of Bodhichitta has two parts
1. Developing Bodhichitta
2. Enhancing Bodhichitta

[omits ultimate bodhichitta, the teaching on emptiness]