By Venerable Lobsang Tsultrim
The second Dharma book I ever bought was The Wheel of Sharp Weapons with commentary by Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey. I was just seventeen at the time, with little life experience and even less understanding of the Dharma. Yet its short, pithy verses reached out and took hold of me, offering a profound insight: I was the author of my own life.
One verse, in particular, struck me deeply:
When others find fault with whatever we are doing
And people seem eager to blame only us,
This is the wheel of sharp weapons returning
Full circle upon us from wrongs we have done.
Till now we have been shameless, not caring about others,
We have thought that our deeds did not matter at all,
Hereafter let’s stop our offensive behaviour.
At seventeen, every problem felt overwhelming, but this text showed me that these difficulties stemmed from my self-cherishing attitude. Instead of blaming others, it urged me to look within and take responsibility.
Trample him, trample him, dance on the head
Of this treacherous concept of selfish concern.
Tear out the heart of this self-centred butcher
Who slaughters our chance to gain final release.
These verses didn’t just expose the problem; they also showed the path forward, a way to transform my life by taking ownership and moving in a positive direction:
Till the time when all motherly beings and I
Gain the perfect conditions for us to be Buddhas,
Though the force of our actions may cause us to wander
Through various realms in the six rebirth states,
May we always be able to help one another
To keep our aim fixed on Enlightenment’s shore.
For nearly thirty years, I carried my copy of The Wheel of Sharp Weapons with me, digging it out whenever life threw challenges my way. In those moments when I wanted to blame someone—anyone—else, I would read and remember: This is the wheel of sharp weapons returning full circle upon me from wrongs I have done. The text gave me peace, calm, and the strength to accept responsibility for my circumstances.
Shortly before moving to Italy and becoming a monk, I volunteered at a Dharma centre. One of the other volunteers, a sincere newcomer to the Dharma, had faced a hard life. He struggled with addiction, guilt, and the memories of harm he had caused. He noticed my well-worn copy of this remarkable text and asked to read it. As he turned the pages, he kept saying, “That’s me, that’s me.” When he reached the verses explaining how to take responsibility and move forward, he smiled and cried.
When I left for Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, I gave him my copy of The Wheel of Sharp Weapons. It felt like the right thing to do, a way of passing on the gift that had so profoundly shaped my life.
Read the Wheel of Sharp Weapons here.
