The three capacities · Verse 9 of 37
Verse 9: Middling capacity: dewdrop pleasures, changeless liberation
Verse 9 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.
Like a dewdrop on a blade of grass, the happiness of the three worlds vanishes in but an instant. Strive for the supreme state of never-changing liberation. This is the way of a bodhisattva.
The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to strive towards the goal,
Which is the supreme state of changeless, everlasting liberation,
Since all the happiness of the three realms lasts but a moment,
And then is quickly gone, just like dewdrops on blades of grass.
The happiness of the three worlds disappears in a moment,
Like a dewdrop on a blade of grass.
The highest level of freedom is one that never changes.
Aim for this — this is the practice of a bodhisattva.
A facilitator's reading across the commentaries
Everyone agrees the dewdrop is the diagnosis; they differ on the prescription's flavor — a state to attain (HHDL, KS, AB) vs. a process of releasing (KM). HHDL's correction about nirvana ≠ annihilation is worth quoting for any group member carrying that misreading.
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
Behind fleeting happiness much suffering hides; contemplate aging now (observe old people so old age won't shock you), and notice how dualistic judgments manufacture likes and dislikes — clothing really just keeps us warm. "The true nature of mind is empty, actually it doesn't need anything."
Full commentary: 37practices.info (37practices.info serves this as one long page; find the verse by number.)
H.H. the Dalai Lama Gelug
A tour of suffering from womb to deathbed — hospitals, oxygen, the failing tongue unable to dictate a will — with the personal note that though disciples would die for him, at death he goes alone: "The king leaving his kingdom, the beggar his stick." Life without Dharma is being a caretaker in one's own house. Distinctive: corrects "many Western books" — nirvana is not the end of existence; one continues, free of delusion.
Full commentary: 37practices.info (37practices.info serves this as one long page; find the verse by number.)
Dr. Alexander Berzin Gelug
Marks the intermediate scope: liberation from recurring rebirth across all three planes. His plausibility analogy: as other species perceive spectra we can't, minds can experience points on the pleasure–pain spectrum far beyond human physiology. Samsaric pleasures "never last... and they never truly satisfy us"; the exit is the three higher trainings.
Full commentary: studybuddhism.com
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche Karma Kagyu
Frames the verse by the three practitioner types — inferior (good rebirth), medium (liberation), supreme (buddhahood for all); happiness anywhere in the three realms is "evanescent as a dewdrop on a blade of grass."
Full commentary: dharmaebooks.org (Free ebook, trans. Suzanne Schefczyk.)
Khenpo Sodargye Nyingma, Larung Gar
Structures it by Mipham's three sufferings — suffering upon suffering, suffering of change ("pleasant when arising, pleasant when remaining, painful when ceasing"), and the all-pervasive suffering of the composite, taught only in Buddhism: conditioned existence as a poisoned meal, a growing tumor, a burning house. With real renunciation, worldly ways feel "like an old man forced to play children's games."
Full commentary: khenposodargye.org (Free ebook PDF.)
Ven. Thubten Chodron Sravasti Abbey, Gelug
Covered in the verses 7–9 talk.
Full commentary: thubtenchodron.org
Ken McLeod Shambhala / independent
Tricycle v9: nirvana reframed as the ongoing process of letting go amid change — "freedom in the experiencing and engaging of life itself." Talk 4: freedom is recognizing what doesn't change beneath constant change.
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.