The three capacities · Verse 10 of 37
Verse 10: Our Mothers' Kindness: Arousing Bodhicitta
Verse 10 of The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas, the fourteenth-century Tibetan poem by Gyalse Tokme Zangpo (1295–1369). It belongs to the section on three capacities.
When mothers who have loved you since beginningless time are suffering, what good is your own happiness? Therefore, give rise to bodhicitta in order to liberate limitless sentient beings. This is the way of a bodhisattva.
The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to arouse bodhicitta,
So as to bring freedom to all sentient beings, infinite in number.
For how can true happiness ever be found while our mothers,
Who have cared for us throughout the ages, endure such pain?
If all your mothers, who love you,
Suffer for time without beginning, how can you be happy?
To free limitless sentient beings,
Give rise to awakening mind — this is the practice of a bodhisattva.
A facilitator's reading across the commentaries
The mother-recognition argument is universal, but notice the two-sided definitions (KS's compassion+wisdom, GR's awareness+realized, AB's seven-part method) — three different scaffoldings for the same generation of mind. This is the hinge verse of the whole text: everything after it assumes the aspiration is alive.
GR Garchen Rinpoche · HHDL H.H. the Dalai Lama · AB Dr. Alexander Berzin · KTGR Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche · KS Khenpo Sodargye · TC Ven. Thubten Chodron · KM Ken McLeod
What the teachers say
Garchen Rinpoche Drikung Kagyu
Every being — "a small ant is also our parent" — has been our mother; love must expand to fill space before one can speak of bodhicitta. He divides it into "awareness mind" (eliminating selfishness and the wish for mere self-liberation) and "realized mind" (actually achieving the mind that works for all). Without bodhicitta the 84,000 Dharma methods are useless; with it, all are at hand.
Full commentary: 37practices.info (37practices.info serves this as one long page; find the verse by number.)
H.H. the Dalai Lama Gelug
His longest commentary in this stretch. Seeking liberation alone is "a very wrong and wicked attitude." Universal indebtedness grounded in plain interdependence — the Bodhgaya audience depends on train drivers and electricity workers, "despite the strikes and even the difficulties over petrol" (1974!). Answers the two classic doubts (why strangers? why enemies? — only an enemy can teach patience), then the "noble mind" stories: Atisha's greeting, Dromtönpa's death, Tsongkhapa's hat, plus self-deprecating humor about hot-tempered Amdo men like himself. Admits "I have not completed the path."
Full commentary: 37practices.info (37practices.info serves this as one long page; find the verse by number.)
Dr. Alexander Berzin Gelug
Precision: bodhicitta is focused on one's own not-yet-attained enlightenment, imputable on present causes as a flower is imputable on a seed — built by the seven-part cause-and-effect method (mother-recognition through exceptional resolve). If anyone has been our mother, all equally have. "That is our aim in life, to reach enlightenment to be able to benefit everybody in the most meaningful way."
Full commentary: studybuddhism.com
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche Karma Kagyu
Not a being exists who has not been our relation; start with benefactors visualized as mother, extend outward. Honest caution: authentic bodhicitta requires lengthy prior training in love and compassion — he points students to Gampopa's Jewel Ornament.
Full commentary: dharmaebooks.org (Free ebook, trans. Suzanne Schefczyk.)
Khenpo Sodargye Nyingma, Larung Gar
Bodhicitta's two aspects — compassion aimed at beings, wisdom aimed at enlightenment; lacking the first you fall into the arhat's nirvana, lacking the second you never exceed ordinary kindness. Story: Atisha at Bodhgaya overhearing two emanations of Tara — the swiftest method is "train yourself in arousing bodhichitta." "Once bodhichitta takes birth in our mind, we are the true children of all buddhas."
Full commentary: khenposodargye.org (Free ebook PDF.)
Ven. Thubten Chodron Sravasti Abbey, Gelug
Covered in the Winter Retreat verses 10–15 talk.
Full commentary: thubtenchodron.org
Ken McLeod Shambhala / independent
Talk 4 links awakening mind directly with compassion. Tricycle v10 exercise: picture yourself free of your recurring difficulties — what happens?
Full commentary: unfetteredmind.org (Tricycle's per-verse written commentary is behind a subscriber paywall.)
Further reading: Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, The Heart of Compassion (Shambhala). A purchased book — no text is reproduced here.