The three capacities · Verse 8 of 37
Verse 8: Karma and the Lower Realms
Verse 8 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.
The Buddha taught that all the unbearable suffering of the lower realms is the result of wrongdoing. Therefore, never do wrong, even at the cost of your life. This is the way of a bodhisattva.
The practice of all the bodhisattvas is never to commit a harmful act,
Even though not to do so might put one's very life at risk,
For the Sage himself has taught how negative actions will ripen
Into the manifold miseries of the lower realms, so difficult to endure.
The suffering in the lower realms is really hard to endure.
The Sage says it is the result of destructive actions.
For that reason, even if your life is at risk,
Don't engage in destructive actions — this is the practice of a bodhisattva.
A facilitator's reading across the commentaries
The traditional readings (GR, KS) take the realms as real destinations; KTGR and KM read them as confused appearance and reactive states — and AB quietly bridges by relocating the verse's force into the psychology of restraint under pressure. Good group question: what does this verse ask of you at the moment you want to act badly?
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
Maps each realm to its cause — hatred→hell, stinginess→hungry ghosts, desire→human, pride→god, jealousy→asura, ignorance→animal — with concrete images (Tibetan blizzards, famine) and a warning: those who leap straight to Mahamudra/Dzogchen without contemplating the six realms lose their glimpses of mind's nature the moment afflictions strike. Afflictions must be uprooted at first arising, like a seed before it becomes a tree. "These afflicted emotions are the true enemies that cause us pain and sufferings."
Full commentary: 37practices.info (37practices.info serves this as one long page; find the verse by number.)
H.H. the Dalai Lama Gelug
All lower-realm suffering is karma's production, "whether exactly as described or not" in Abhidharma. He dwells on animal suffering with a near-animal-rights argument — animals harm no one, have no schools, hospitals, or courts, and "actually human beings have no right to eat them." Marks this verse as the end of the smallest-scope path. "All this suffering derives from the unskillful mind."
Full commentary: 37practices.info (37practices.info serves this as one long page; find the verse by number.)
Dr. Alexander Berzin Gelug
The real teeth of the verse: "constructive behavior is refraining from acting negatively when we want to act negatively" — abstaining from what we don't crave is no restraint. On "even at the cost of our lives," he's honest about the difficulty, citing Nazi Germany (refusing service meant execution) and Tibetan monastics who endured torture — a rare attainment worth aspiring to.
Full commentary: studybuddhism.com
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche Karma Kagyu
Better to die than commit wrong deeds; suffering is the inevitable consequence of negative actions, created by no god or devil. His distinctive addition: lower-realm suffering consists of confused appearances from habitual tendencies — like suffering in a dream, lacking true existence.
Full commentary: dharmaebooks.org (Free ebook, trans. Suzanne Schefczyk.)
Khenpo Sodargye Nyingma, Larung Gar
Detailed karma mechanics: the four elements of a complete action (basis, intention, execution, completion); each participant in a group killing receives the full result — and symmetrically, each member of a group practice receives the whole group's merit. Emptiness and karma complement rather than contradict: Padmasambhava's "Although my view is higher than the sky, my attention to actions and their effects is finer than flour." Story: Tulku Tisha, an accomplished elder who still begged every master to purify his karma — while modern people feel nothing hearing of hells.
Full commentary: khenposodargye.org (Free ebook PDF.)
Ven. Thubten Chodron Sravasti Abbey, Gelug
Covered in the verses 7–9 talk (Winter Retreat 2005–06).
Full commentary: thubtenchodron.org
Ken McLeod Shambhala / independent
Talk 4, "Facing Destruction, Finding Freedom" (vv8–10): the point is "not to get rid of the fear—it's to be able to experience the fear but not have to act on it"; harmful action roots in unwillingness to experience discomfort. Tricycle v8: non-reaction robs reactivity of momentum — the stuff often "evaporates into thin air."
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.