*BUDDHISTS: What are the Eight Verses on Transforming our Minds ? Can you please Very Briefly....?

Question

share how we go about this transformation through the use of Altruism, and Insight please ?

With Metta.

AND CAN YOU PLEASE GIVE THIS
A *STAR ?

Thank You.

Answer 1

The Eight Verses belong to the category of teachings called "Lojong" which translates coarsely as Mind Training, but might more specifically be called Attitude Cleansing. The Eight Verses by Langri Tangpa summarize the Profound View lineage handed down from Arya Nagarjuna and Shantideva and are supplemental to the practice of Equalizing and Exchanging Self for Others, or Tonglen.
I, myself, a most degenerate and ignorant practitioner, who scarcely approaches the Teachings I have received from my most kind and learned Spiritual Friends with a speck of sincerity or faith, received the transmission of this precious and extremely rare and beneficial training from His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Chenrezig in person, but I still do not practice it as he taught it to me, mainly because I am lazy and too concerned with this life alone and too scared to actually take on the suffering of others. With the goal of familiarizing myself with the Eight Verses once again, I will share them with you, and hopefully, there will be some benefit gained by both of us and we can share the merit gained by this simple act of generosity, which is the first of the Six Perfections, the key to the Bodhisattva Way of Life.
1.
By thinking of all sentient beings
As even better than the wish-granting gem
For accomplishing the highest aim,
May I always consider them precious.
2.
Wherever I go, with whomever I go,
May I see myself as less than all others and
From the depth of my heart,
May I consider them supremely precious.
3.
May I examine my mind in all actions
And as soon as a negative state occurs,
Since it endangers myself and others,
May I firmly face and avert it.
4.
When I see beings of a negative disposition
Or those oppressed by negativity or pain
May I, as if finding a treasure, consider them precious
For they are rarely met.
5.
Whenever others, due to their jealousy,
Revile and treat me in other unjust ways,
May I accept this defeat myself
And offer the victory to others.
6.
When someone whom I have helped,
Or in whom I have placed great hope,
Harms me with great injustice,
May I see that one as a sacred friend
7.
In short, may I offer both directly and indirectly
All joy and benefit to all beings,
My mothers, and may I myself, secretly,
Take on all of their hurt and suffering.
8.
May they not be defiled by the concepts
Of the eight mundane concerns, and aware
That all things are illusory, may they,
Ungrasping, be free from bondage.

This concludes the Eight Verses for Training the Mind.
The Tonglen practice and Lojong trainings in general are considered Mahayana trainings, or Great Vehicle, trainings. The motivation is the key to this approach. The Bodhisattva approaches Dharma study and practice with the explicit goal of attaining enlightenment, no matter how long it takes, for the benefit of all sentient beings. With this motivation, or wish, (aspiring bodhicitta), the Bodhisattva sets out on (or to find) the (true Mahayana) Path, or pathway mind(s). Considering how there is definite suffering to be found in the hell realms, one might practice to avoid it. This is a teaching shared in common with beings of small scope, or small capacity. One might reason and analyze that there is suffering in all six realms of cyclic existence and resolve to "definitely get out" of cyclic existence, or attain liberation for him or herself alone, this would be training, or a teaching shared in common with beings of medium scope, or medium capacity; this is also synonymous with the Hinayana, or Lesser {scope} Vehicle. (This is not meant to be disparaging in any way to the Hinayana practitioner, but merely to compare the scope of the practitioner's motivation, whereas) Teachings of the Great Vehicle, or Great Scope, or practitioners of Great Capacity, are motivated by the suffering of the hell realms, see the downfalls of all six realms, and resolve to not abandon all beings in all realms for all time until the full and complete enlightenment, or buddhahood, is reached, and even then, even for the sake of a single being, in any of the realms, this buddha will remain. The question of insight (and calm abiding) belong to the highest, higher trainings on (method and) wisdom but one can begin to familiarize oneself with alturism using insight born of thinking about the suffering of all sentient beings, our mothers, and desire to repay their kindness through the generation of the Mahayana mind by the Seven Point Cause and Effect for generating bodhicitta. The first six points of the Seven are causes, the last point is the result, bodhicitta, or the Mahayana mind generation, or the (contrived) mind that aspires to enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. Once one has the resolve to benefit all sentient beings, and honestly recognizes that due to our limitations, afflictions, afflictive obstructions, and all-around negative karma accumulated since beginnningless time, one recognizes that only a buddha has the ability to relieve the suffering of all sentient beings and help them to attain a state free from suffering or happiness. So, this practitioner would then resove to become a buddha, no matter how long it takes, for the sake of even one sentient being in any of the six realms of cyclic existence and take the Bodhisattva Vow from a Lama. Then one is practicing engaged bodhicitta. I heard all of this. I don't actually understand it or practice it with any sincerity. I am probably the worst, or least qualified, person to be sharing this with you and am going to have to start over from the beginning and think over and over about the preciousness of the human life, this precious human basis and reflect over and over about the good qualities of having this human life and the mind that can be pointed at virtuous things and then kind of reset my motivation, to have a vast motivation, that wishes, really wishes for the happiness of all sentient beings to be free from the suffering of birth, the suffering of aging and death, the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change and the compounded, pervasive suffering and so forth and then I have to recognize that I, myself, am incapable of helping all sentient beings. But a buddha is and The Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, did provide this most profound Dharma for the benefit of all sentient beings. So, I am going to continue to study and try to practice the Six Perfections, but I am just a beginner. I will persevere joyfully though and try and build up, increasing collections of merit of method and wisdom along the way, properly dedicating the merit like the hero Manjusri and Samantabhadra as well and continue to reflect on these things over and over and hopefully gain some understanding of them, to make them stable in my mind.