Verse 18: When destitute and ill: take on all beings' suffering
Verse 18 of Gyalse Tokme Zangpo’s 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, from the section “Transforming adversity.” Below: the verse in three translations and what seven teachers say about it.
Open in the study browser →Though you may be impoverished, always disparaged, gripped by disease, and tormented by spirits; never lose courage, but take upon yourself the misdeeds and pains of all beings. This is the way of a bodhisattva.
Even though I may be destitute and despised by all, Beset with terrible illness and plagued by evil spirits, Still to take upon myself all beings' ills and harmful actions, Without ever losing heart—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.
When you are down and out, held in contempt, Desperately ill, and emotionally crazed, Don't lose heart. Take into you The suffering and negativity of all beings — this is the practice of a bodhisattva.
Hardship striking a practitioner is old karma ripening quickly — like clearing all debts before a long journey — which is why realized masters fall ill or land in jail. The sick should practice tonglen; abandoning Dharma because it "doesn't work" is refusing medicine. Milarepa was poor and ridiculed. "If one wants to know past life causes, just observe your present predicaments." Against spirits: refuge and mantra with confidence — spirits are projections of fear; if your yidam fills the mind's mirror, no spirit can.
Maps the verse onto the 1974 exile community: lost country, criticism, tuberculosis, the temptation to give up robes — "it is very easy to lose the Dharma." Escalating hypothetical: poor but helped → ill with a peaceful mind → ill with a troubled mind, where practice is most at risk and tonglen most needed.
Expansion of perspective: like teenagers discovering others also have alcoholic parents, extending the label "me" to everyone suffering your problem dissolves isolation — "if we expand that beyond just this one individual person, 'me,' to everybody... we will not be discouraged." Voidness prevents the inflated-ego version.
Story: Gelongma Palmo, whose leprosy drove the Chenrezig practice that cured and realized her; blind reciters of Mani in Tibet. Distinctive point: suffering is a friend that beckons toward Dharma — comfort usually prevents serious practice.
Three benefits of suffering: it generates renunciation, destroys arrogance, cultivates compassion — "if we are serious about the Dharma, suffering is preferable to happiness." Discouragement forbidden even for "the most inferior person" (Nagarjuna: "Never be discouraged even when you are as poor as a hungry ghost"). Story: Geshe Potowa's merchants who welcome bad weather — wet hooves travel faster, snow lets them sleep unafraid of thieves.
Winter Retreat vv16–21 talk.
Talk 7, "Neither High nor Low" (vv18–19): "the overwhelm comes from being separate from, not from being one in it" — tonglen as a way beyond struggle with experience, not a pattern-elimination technique. Tricycle v18.
this is the verse for the group member going through it. Three distinct consolations: purification-accelerating (GR), suffering-as-teacher (KTGR, KS), and isolation-dissolving (AB, KM). HHDL's version is the most historically moving — he was speaking to refugees about their actual lives. ---
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche — The Heart of Compassion (Shambhala). A purchased book — no text is reproduced here.