The Heart of Compassion: Instructions on Ngulchu Thogme’s Thirty-Sevenfold Practice of a Bodhisattva

The book is organized around the root verses of The Thirty-Sevenfold Practice of a Bodhisattva and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s commentary on them. It first presents the life and spiritual qualities of Gyalse Ngulchu Thogme, whose compassion, generosity, humility, renunciation, and dedication to others embody the very practices taught in the text. The root teaching begins with the preciousness of human life, the importance of listening, reflection, and meditation, the need to leave behind conditions that strengthen attachment and hatred, and the discipline of relying on solitude, spiritual friendship, refuge, and awareness of karma. The main body then develops the bodhisattva path through the generation of bodhicitta, the exchange of self and others, and the transformation of difficult experiences into spiritual practice. It teaches how to respond to loss, insult, harm, humiliation, desire, hatred, success, and suffering without abandoning compassion. The later sections explain the union of relative and absolute bodhicitta, the recognition that appearances are like illusions or rainbows, and the training in the six perfections. The work concludes by emphasizing continuous self-examination, abandoning criticism of other bodhisattvas, relinquishing harsh speech and attachment, applying antidotes to negative emotions, remaining mindful in all activities, and dedicating all merit to the enlightenment and liberation of countless beings.