Advice About Text For New Group

Rinpoche offered this advice concerning which texts to study together with new Dharma groups. Rinpoche was asked to advise which was more beneficial to study with this particular group: a Lam Rim text, a Lojong text, or Shantideva’s Guide to a Bodhisattva’s Way of Life.

Rinpoche replied that it would be more beneficial in this case to study a Lojong text. The Lojong and Lam Rim texts were more beneficial for newer groups to study, as they gave the outline of the whole path to enlightenment. Shantideva gives more detail of this outline.

So it is like with the news on the television, the main points are presented and then you can decide whether to stay for the detailed report that follows. So too with the Lam Rim and Lojong texts you receive an outline, and then you can choose to study Shantideva for more details of this outline.

This article is taken from the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT).