The Three Principal Aspects of the Path Part 1

In this new series, we explore one of Tibetan Buddhism's most treasured texts: "The Three Principal Aspects of the Path" by Lama Tsongkhapa. This short but profound teaching distills the entire Mahayana Buddhist path into three essential principles—renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness. Whether you're a dedicated practitioner or new to Buddhist studies, this series offers practical wisdom for deepening your meditation practice and finding freedom.

The Text: The Three Principle Aspects of the Path

The text I've chosen is called "The Three Principal Aspects of the Path" by Lama Tsongkhapa. In Tibetan, we call this the lamsum. This is one of the many lam rim, or graduated stages of the path texts, that Lama Tsongkhapa wrote. He contributed to a whole history and many volumes of graduated stages of the path texts—texts that lead us from the beginning all the way through to fruition.

I chose this text because it's short, pithy, and offers a very deep presentation on three pillars of the path. In general, we discuss these three principles as the development of renunciation mind, the cultivation of relative bodhicitta, and the actualization of non-dual wisdom (or prajna paramita, or in some cases we say primordial wisdom, depending on the tradition).

We can sum up these three aspects as renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness. These three subjects really encapsulate the entire Mahayana Buddhist path. It's what we're studying, what we're trying to contemplate and understand, and ultimately what we're trying to put into practice and realize. These three things aren't just philosophical ideas—they're actual realizations on the path that we need to develop if we want to awaken to Buddhahood and be free.

I decided to do this series because I've had requests to cover deeper Buddhist teachings. I know many of you are dedicated Buddhist practitioners. If you're not a dedicated Buddhist practitioner, you're more than welcome. You don't have to be a Buddhist to engage with this material. I also want to acknowledge that some of you may be newer to the Buddhist path. Please reach out and let me know how this is landing for you, and if you have any questions.

What is Lam Rim?

Let me discuss a little bit about what lam rim means generally in Tibetan Buddhism. As I said, lam rim—two Tibetan words—translates as "graduated stages of the path." Path here refers to the path to Buddhahood or awakening, or the bodhisattva path. "Graduated" means step by step, something that we're working on incrementally. We're doing this practice, developing this quality and way of being in our life, then developing the next.

It's often presented in a linear way, though I don't know if it necessarily progresses like that for everyone. But it's presented in a graduated and linear way where we move from the teachings on developing renunciation mind to bodhicitta (supported by that), and then from bodhicitta to developing non-dual wisdom or emptiness in our practice. Without renunciation mind, bodhicitta is not really possible from the perspective of these teachings. Without bodhicitta, the fuller realization of emptiness is not possible. And without emptiness, we can't really embody the life of a bodhisattva and/or an enlightened being or a Buddha.

I'm not telling you what to think around that—I'm just presenting what these teachings generally say. You're welcome to disagree. When I'm teaching these traditional texts, they can sometimes seem like they're talking at us. But actually, if we take them as things to contemplate and not believe on face value, they actually become a conversation—somebody teaching us something, talking to us. We take it and contemplate: Is that true? Is that not true?

The Buddha famously said, "Treat my teachings like you would gold." As soon as you remove it from the ground, you're going to check—is this really gold or is it some kind of fake gold? You're going to rub it, you're going to wash it, you may burn it. You're checking to see if it actually is gold or not. We can do the same thing here. Questioning, having healthy skepticism, questioning in a healthy way is always good. That's how we can take the teachings deeper.

The other thing I'd say is I'm not going to present exhaustively on this. There are huge, massive commentaries written on this text by very qualified Tibetan Buddhist lamas and teachers. I'm just another practitioner who really values this text, who's received teachings on it many times over the years, and has practiced it a little bit. By no means should you just rely on this. Please seek out other commentaries. You can find this text available in many translations—one I really like is from Lotsawa House. If you go to lotsawahouse.org and search for "The Three Principal Aspects of the Path," you'll find a translation.

History of the Text

A little bit on the history of this particular text. The longer name in Tibetan is the lam so nam sum. We call it the lamsum for short. As I said, this is a graduated stages of the path text in the Mahayana tradition, pulling from the sutras of the Buddha that are connected to what Tibetan Buddhism authenticates as Mahayana. Of course, Mahayana includes Shravakayana and some of the Theravada, so that's also included, especially in the renunciation mind teachings.

This text comes from the Geluk tradition. Lama Tsongkhapa is the founder of the Geluk tradition, and I like to look at this text as valued in a non-sectarian way—it's valued by all of the lineages of Tibetan Buddhism because Lama Tsongkhapa is generally looked at as a saint by all of the lineages. Even though they might study this a little bit more in the Geluk tradition, I've received this teaching from Nyingma lamas, from Sakya lamas—I've received this teaching from all kinds of lineage lamas, not just in the Geluk tradition. Wherever you land within Tibetan Buddhism or outside of it in another Buddhist tradition, this text is applicable.

Lama Tsongkhapa was an incredibly realized being. This particular teaching on the lamsum, or the three principal aspects of the path, it's said that he received it directly from the Buddha of wisdom, Manjushri. At a certain point in Lama Tsongkhapa's life, in his biography, when he attained high realization, he was actually able to have direct conversations with Manjushri just like you and I would be able to talk with each other—just seeing Manjushri in front of him. That's not a normal being. It's quite a lot of realization to be able to interact with the Buddhas on that level.

This text was actually received from Manjushri. It contains really all of the Buddha's teachings, all of the Mahayana teachings. That's why I like it so much—because it's not difficult to read, although some of the teachings on emptiness can be challenging. When we get to those, you'll see. But either way, it's not difficult to read. It's short, and we can apply it to our practice right away.

Lama Tsongkhapa: Yogi-Scholar and Saint

Lama Tsongkhapa was a great saint and teacher. The Buddha even prophesied about Lama Tsongkhapa. In one of Lama Tsongkhapa's previous lives, it's said he was a boy who offered a crystal mala to the Buddha. In return, the Buddha gave him a conch shell and prophesied that a boy would be born in Tibet who was an emanation of Manjushri, and that this boy would start a monastery called Ganden. Ganden Monastery was the first monastery Lama Tsongkhapa started, and then of course the Geluk tradition spread from there.

There's also some evidence that possibly Lama Tsongkhapa was also an emanation of Atisha and possibly Guru Rinpoche, or Padmasambhava. This is a story I really treasure because I practice in a non-sectarian way in multiple lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, so I'll share one of my favorite stories here.

This comes from a saint named Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol. You can find a wonderful biography on Shabkar. Matthieu Ricard, the monk and translator and scholar, made a long biography of Shabkar, and it's incredible. Shabkar was mostly a wandering yogi who wandered throughout Tibet practicing in caves and wild places and attained very high realization. He was a fully ordained monk in the Geluk tradition but also practiced in the Nyingma tradition. He wrote one of the most treasured texts on Dzogchen coming from the Nyingma tradition—"The Flight of the Garuda." But he was also really devoted to Lama Tsongkhapa. He would recite the name mantra of Lama Tsongkhapa every day.

The story goes like this. Shabkar had been wandering throughout Tibet and had practiced on a lake in East Tibet, and he was practicing there and praying to have a vision of Guru Padmasambhava. Instead, he had a vision of Lama Tsongkhapa. This particular moment in the biography takes place when Shabkar was very far from that lake. I believe he's on Mount Kailash in way western Tibet at this point, and he does actually have a vision of Guru Rinpoche.

When Guru Padmasambhava finally appears to him in a cave on Mount Kailash, when he actually has the vision of Padmasambhava or Guru Rinpoche, he asks Guru Rinpoche, "What took you so long? Why didn't you appear earlier?" I think it's kind of a funny question—if Guru Rinpoche just appeared in front of me, that probably wouldn't be my first question. But this is a practitioner who was just going for it, you know?

Guru Rinpoche said this: "Do you remember when on the island in the heart of the lake you had a vision of Tsongkhapa who gave you the teaching on the graduated path? That was me."

Also in the Emanated Scriptures of Orgyen (which is Guru Rinpoche), which Shabkar recounts this vision, he expresses his faith in the inseparability of Padmasambhava, Atisha, and Tsongkhapa—a triad of teachers who dominated Shabkar's life, practice, and teaching.

That's just like an aside, but either way, we can see here that to me that's quite powerful. It gives me goosebumps. For those of us who study in these Buddhist lineages, often there has been a history of sectarianism and even sometimes violence between lineages, which is really a shame to admit as a Buddhist practitioner—that we too can devolve into that sometimes.

But the truth is, when you really look at these great founders of these lineages and the lineage holders throughout Tibetan history and India, they're unified. A lot of them are emanating into these different forms. Again, if you're not a Buddhist, this might start to sound out there. But if you are, you understand what I mean. They're manifesting to benefit sentient beings in all kinds of forms. When we hold sectarian ideas that they're somehow higher and lower and all of that, the only person this damages is us. And if we have a “microphone,” we can damage others. Of course, that doesn't mean we can't be affiliated with and treasure certain lineages. We can be affiliated with something and enjoy a certain lineage and practice it. That's fine.

Often, when people don't understand who Lama Tsongkhapa was, and or read his biography, they can relegate him to “just a scholar,” or intellectual type. That is the furthest from the truth you can get. When you actually read his biography, the amount of retreat he did was massive. Just the amount of prostrations and mandala offerings he accumulated is almost unattainable by most of us. It seems like a lot of these amazing emanations of bodhisattvas and Buddhas who ended up being lineage lamas in our lineages, in our traditions—the amount they accomplished in their life is unbelievable. Just if you look at the amount of practice Lama Tsongkhapa did, it's just wow. Accomplishing that in itself is incredible in his lifetime. But then you look at everything he wrote and taught, and it's a massive amount. I just think, how could one person do that?

I was actually thinking about that the other day and then realizing, oh, they didn't have cell phones. They didn't have YouTube and Netflix. So that's probably why they were able to do it. But anyways, even with that said, these are incredible beings. Lama Tsongkhapa was just as much a yogi as a scholar. We often say a yogi-scholar. But either way, I just wanted to share some things from his life and especially these anecdotes about non-sectarianism.

Understanding the Title: The Three Principal Aspects of the Path

With that said, let's go into the title. The title is "The Three Principal Aspects of the Path." I already talked about this a little bit, but I want to review it a little bit more.

Path here is an interesting thing—I'm going to start with that word. Of course, a path is something indispensable. We have a path of study, a path of career, a path of life like having a family or not having a family, some other kind of way of living. Everything requires a path. Even just going to buy a bottle of milk requires a path. There's a literal road we need to take. We need to have steps of getting in a car, taking a taxi, getting a bus, walking, riding a bike—whatever it is, there's a path towards obtaining what we want to obtain. The spiritual path is not different than that. We need to develop certain qualities.

In general, we need to listen to the Dharma, contemplate it, and meditate on it. Those three wheels are quite important, and those are part of what we mean by path.

Also along the path we encounter certain aspects. We have methods of practice that we're cultivating, that we're developing. We're also connecting to the wisdom teachings and developing wisdom. We're accumulating merit, and we're removing or purifying obscurations. In general, the path of Buddhism is made up of method and wisdom. That's one way we start to understand it, because these teachings are going to talk about a lot of different things—these three principles—but in many ways, ultimately when we look at it, it's made up of method (either practices of developing meditative concentration, loving-kindness, compassion) or wisdom (getting more familiar with our own wisdom nature of emptiness or non-duality). Essentially, that's what this combines into.

But of course, as I said a moment ago, in order to serve the path of method and wisdom—those two paths—we need to accumulate merit and purify obscurations. These both are bigger topics.

Merit is not my favorite word in English because it can be misconstrued as sort of gathering things to adorn ourselves with. But here what it really means is something that helps us to cut through our fixations, to change our negative habits into positive ones, as well as to obtain good circumstances for practice and benefiting others.

Purification or removing obscurations is really the other side of it, which is clearing away that which obscures us, that which obscures our knowledge, that which obscures experiencing our true nature. Because again, what's unique here is if we go back to path—path is something indispensable as I said, but it also is kind of something to point out or help come to fruition our own nature. So it's not like we're getting to some other thing that's separate from ourselves. We're just trying to remove what is in the way of knowing our own nature, our own Buddha nature, our own awake nature. Accumulation of merit and purification helps with that.

Again, I'm not going to go into an exhaustive teaching on that—I'm just sort of overviewing it. In general, we're working with habit patterns. We're working on our habit patterns. That's more or less what makes up the path. We're doing practices, we're learning, we're exploring. The path itself is a habit—a good habit. And of course, as I'm alluding to, one of the biggest habits we have is believing our ideas, thoughts, and emotions are true in how they appear. Now again, they're “real” in a relative sense, in appearance. They're happening to us. But "true" here implies that there's some sort of solid, unchanging, independent nature to them. We'll see later in the verses on emptiness, we start to question this, and we start to open up how we're looking at this in order to find freedom. We're not trying to deny something. We're not trying to bypass something. We're actually trying to see its nature.

This is important, and I'm bringing it up right away because if we don't talk about this, the path can simply adorn us and create further ego-clinging and further pain, as opposed to actually helping us to remove and take off the burdens of samsara.

The three principal aspects of the path, as I said, connect to methods and wisdom. The first two—the principle of renunciation mind and the principle of bodhicitta—relate to the path of method. And then the last one, on emptiness, relates to wisdom.

The Homage

Next we have expressing the homage. This is really, after the title, what comes first, and it's very short. The homage here says: "Homage to the precious noble masters."

Homages are important in texts because they're a way that the author not only shows humility, but it's also a way that one surrenders within the teaching. It's a statement by the author—in this case, Lama Tsongkhapa—where he's actually paying homage. He's surrendering to the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and his own teachers.

Surrendering here has a specific meaning. He's not giving up his power to the Buddhas—that wouldn't really be useful. Rather, he's recognizing that ego-clinging is the root of suffering, and the homage becomes a way to express and surrender that. It's a reminder for both the author and reader of the text.

Homage is tricky because sometimes when we praise something, it can become deified or take on a theistic quality, which is fine in other contexts but isn't really how Buddhism works. So why pay homage at all? We pay homage out of respect, because we value something, because it helps us move toward it. And as I said, it ultimately allows us to surrender ego-clinging completely.

Here Lama Tsongkhapa is paying homage to the embodiment of all the Buddhas, which is his own teachers, his own gurus. We can go into some understanding of that for a moment. In the Vajrayana teachings, we take the guru as the path. The guru here doesn't just mean the physical master. It also means the lineage masters and ultimately how we work with our own nature of mind and our relationship with the world around us. Guru often gets thought of as just a person, but here it's a principle. It's something that widens out into that. So in essence, that's what he's paying homage to.

But for us, we can also just think about it in whatever way we relate to the Buddhist path right now. We can think of the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, and pay homage to him. We can think of homage to our own teachers, those we really got a lot of value from. And then of course any lineage lamas we are connected to.

The Promise to Compose

Now we actually get into the first verse, and this is the promise to compose. This verse goes:

"The very essence of all the Buddhist teachings,
The path that is praised by the noble bodhisattvas,
And the entrance for all fortunate ones desiring liberation—
To the best of my ability I shall now set forth."

This is also a traditional way of starting a text. You have the homage, and then you have this promise to compose. A lot of this is the author making a vow, making a promise to us—the reader, the person who's going to ultimately study it—that they're doing this with a motivation to benefit others. They're not doing it with a motivation for praise or gain monetarily or political power or any of that. They're doing it to benefit others. And because of that, they're promising us, "I'm going to take on this task and I'm going to complete it."

He says here, "The very essence of all the Buddhist teachings, the path that is praised by the noble bodhisattvas"—which would be the path to free oneself and benefit others. "An entrance for all the fortunate ones desiring liberation—to the best of my ability I shall now set forth."

There's also a key few words here. It says, "The entrance for all fortunate ones desiring liberation." He's also implying who is the reader, or the studier, the person who's going to study or read this, who's going to get the most out of it. This is someone desiring liberation who understands that there's some sort of bind happening within samsaric existence and they want to be free from that. And if they add on bodhicitta as a motivation, they want to be free in order to free all beings.

Again, you might not be there yet, and that's okay. But he's saying, that's the intended audience.

Closing Thoughts and Practice

With that said, I recommend going and downloading the text and reading through it. "The Three Principal Aspects of the Path"—For now, I would say practice with some of the principles here embodied in the homage. What does healthy surrender look like? What does surrender mean to you?

I often think of, what are we surrendering and how are we surrendering it? I often think of that kind of teaching and practice in my daily life. Even though I'm not around my physical Buddhist teachers every day, I am around people and situations that challenge me. They challenge my ego-clinging where I sort of fall into that, and aversion arises and attachment arises. So how am I working with that? How am I working with those aspects of my life that I can see cause me pain? And how can I surrender them more effectively?

It's just a question for you—putting it out there. Because ultimately what the Buddhist path is asking us to do for our own benefit is to surrender the causes of suffering. I mean, it's not a bad thing it's asking us to surrender. But again, we have to be clear on what that is and then want to do that.

Stay tuned for the next installment in this series where we'll continue exploring the verses of "The Three Principal Aspects of the Path.”