Today’s Lamrim Quote – 9 November 2013

“The importance of compassion at the beginning:

1. The responsibility for liberating migrating beings depends on compassion
2. Compassion is the preliminary of all the paths of the Mahayana
3. Compassion is the beginning of the conduct of bodhisattvas

The importance of compassion in the middle:

1. If you do not cultivate compassion again and again, you will fall into the Hinayāna
2. One does not despair with respect to others’ welfare and easily completes the collections

The importance of compassion at the end:

1. The actual importance at the end
2. In particular, the advice to make the mind of enlightenment the focus of the instructions”

From Textual Outline for the Medium Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment by Trijang Rinpoche As translated in: OUTLINE of Middle Length Lam-Rim with Trijang Rinpoche’s Additional Outlines by Lama Tsongkhapa (and Trijang Rinpoche). Translated by Philip Quarcoo. Unpublished DRAFT translation (May 2012) by FPMT, Inc. Download the PDF here.