Seven-Point Attitude-Training

This essence of nectar of quintessence teachings
Is in lineage from Serlingpa.

Understanding that the significance of this text
Is like a vajra diamond, a sun, and a medicinal tree,
Transform into a path to enlightenment
This (time when) the five deteriorations are rampant.

(1) Train first in the preliminaries.

(2) Banish one thing as (bearing) all blame
And meditate with great kindness toward everyone;
(Then) train in both giving and taking in alternation.
As for the order of taking, start from myself,
Mounting those two on the breath.
(With regard to) the three objects, (taking) the three poisonous attitudes
And (giving) the three roots of what’s constructive,
The guideline instructions for after absorption are, in brief,
To incite staying mindful of this
By training with words in all paths of behavior.

(3) When the environment and its dwellers are full of negative forces,
Transform adverse conditions into a path to enlightenment
And instantly apply to meditation whatever I might happen to meet.
The supreme method entails four actions to use.

(4) In brief, the essence of the quintessence teachings
Is applying the five forces;
The quintessence teaching for the Mahayana
transference of mind
Is the five forces themselves,
While giving importance to my path of deportment.

(5) I Gather all Dharma into one intention;
From the two witnesses, I take (myself as) the main;
And I continually rely on mental happiness alone.
But the (actual) measure of being trained is (my attitude) being reversed.
There are five great signs of having become trained;
So if I’m able, even when distracted,
Then I’ve become trained.

(6) Train always in the three general points.
Be forceful in ridding myself (of disturbing attitudes and emotions) and taking on (positive ones) by means of subduing (my disturbing attitudes) with force.
Devastate all reasons (for attachment and aversion to arise toward others).
Always train regarding those set aside.
Don’t be dependent on other conditions.
Transform my intentions, but remain normal.
Don’t speak of (others’) deficient or deteriorated sides.
Don’t think anything about others’ (faults).
Rid myself of hopes for fruits.
Give up poisoned food.
Don’t rely (on my disturbing thoughts) as my excellent mainstay.
Don’t fly off into bad play.
Don’t lie in ambush.
Don’t put (someone) down about a sensitive point.
Don’t shift the load of a dzo to an ox.
Don’t make a race.
Don’t make a god fall to a demon.
Don’t seek suffering (for others) as an adjunct for (my) happiness.

(7) Do all yogas with one.
At the beginning and the end, have the two actions.
Train with easier practices.
Whichever of the two occurs, act patiently.
Safeguard the two at the cost of my life.
Train in the three difficult things.
Transform everything into a Mahayana pathway mind.
Cherish (applying) wide and deep training toward everything.
Take the three major causes.
Cleanse myself first of whichever is the coarsest.
Practice that which is more effective.
Meditate on the three undeclining things.
Possess the three inseparables.
If I turn away (from training my attitudes), meditate on that itself as the antidote.
Practice primarily now.
In the future, always armor myself (with bodhichitta).
Don’t have reversed understandings.
Don’t be intermittent.
Train resolutely.
Free myself through both investigation and scrutiny.
Don’t meditate with a sense of a loss.
Don’t restrict myself with hypersensitivity.
Don’t act for merely a short while.
Don’t wish for (any) thanks.
What is hidden is to be shown
After attaining stability (in this).
Ponder that phenomena are like a dream.
Discern the basic nature of awareness that has no arising.
The opponent itself liberates itself in its own place.
The essential nature of the path is to settle within a state of the all-encompassing basis.
Between sessions, act like an illusory person.