The preliminaries · Verse 2 of 37
Verse 2: Leave your homeland
Verse 2 of The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas, the fourteenth-century Tibetan poem by Gyalse Tokme Zangpo (1295–1369). It belongs to the section on preliminaries.
Attachment to loved ones stirs you like water. Hatred for enemies blazes like fire. In the darkness of ignorance, you forget what to adopt and what to avoid. Abandon your homeland. This is the way of a bodhisattva.
The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to leave behind one's homeland,
Where our attachment to family and friends overwhelms us like a torrent,
While our aversion towards enemies rages inside us like a blazing fire,
And delusion's darkness obscures what must be adopted and abandoned.
Attraction to those close to you catches you in its currents;
Aversion to those who oppose you burns inside;
Indifference that ignores what needs to be done is a black hole.
Leave your homeland — this is the practice of a bodhisattva.
A facilitator's reading across the commentaries
A live split worth surfacing in the group — literal vs. internal reading. HHDL/AB/TC lean toward the real usefulness of physical distance; GR/KTGR/KM insist the homeland is a state of mind (family system, reification, desire-hatred). Both agree on the diagnosis: home is where the poisons run on autopilot.
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
Affection for family turns to attachment; harm to loved ones flips attachment into hatred; both root in ignorance. But relocating without transforming the mind does nothing — "abandoning the fatherland" means abandoning the thoughts of desire and hatred. The real practice is equanimity: equal compassion for enemies and friends, recognizing even adversaries as past parents.
Full commentary: 37practices.info (37practices.info serves this as one long page; find the verse by number.)
H.H. the Dalai Lama Gelug
Living among family, friends, and enemies keeps the three poisons constantly active. His image: "A home is a place where there is a river of attachment flowing." His caution: the simple monk who leaves home yet becomes attached to his hut, dusting possessions and polishing altar bowls instead of practicing.
Full commentary: 37practices.info (37practices.info serves this as one long page; find the verse by number.)
Dr. Alexander Berzin Gelug
The homeland runs conditioned habits: attachment "tosses us like water" — "when we're attached to friends who might say, 'Let's go out to the bar and have a drink,' we just follow." Familiar people trigger anger when they break our expectations; naivety obscures what to adopt and abandon. Physical distance (retreat, study program, pilgrimage) gives perspective.
Full commentary: studybuddhism.com
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche Karma Kagyu
Attachment builds wave on wave, hatred burns — both from taking people and places as truly existent. Abandoning the homeland principally means seeing "homeland" has no true existence; physical departure is secondary, though advisable if home actually hinders practice.
Full commentary: dharmaebooks.org (Free ebook, trans. Suzanne Schefczyk.)
Khenpo Sodargye Nyingma, Larung Gar
"Native land" = any environment that intensifies the three poisons. He distinguishes literal departure from the deeper relinquishing of the attachments themselves; for laypeople who can't renounce, he prescribes a disciplined schedule balancing work, family, and Dharma.
Full commentary: khenposodargye.org (Free ebook PDF.)
Ven. Thubten Chodron Sravasti Abbey, Gelug
Familiar environments run habitual relational scripts on autopilot — even close relationships as rehearsed performances where each side knows how to trigger the other. "Same old stuff again and again and again. So give up your homeland!" External change supports internal change by removing the stimuli. Verses 1–3 · Sangye Khadro talk
Full commentary: thubtenchodron.org
Ken McLeod Shambhala / independent
Reads "homeland" as the family system: "we need to separate from the family system, and that is the essential meaning of 'leave your homeland'" — not severing ties but stepping outside its established patterns, and noticing the discomfort when habitual dynamics break. Note his third poison: not "delusion" but "indifference that ignores what needs to be done is a black hole." Tricycle verse 2 · Talk 2 (2006)
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.