This toolkit helps you run a small study group on the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva. You don't need to be a teacher. A few people, the text, and a regular meeting time are enough.
The 37 Practices is a 14th-century Tibetan text by Gyalse Tokme Zangpo. Garchen Rinpoche recommends it to all his students and calls it the heart of his teaching.
Olga Kornyushyna, a Ukrainian practitioner and student of Garchen Rinpoche, wrote a commentary on these 37 practices. She started it before Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 and finished it in the war's first months. Readers used it in bomb shelters and in exile, and it was recommended alongside Viktor Frankl as a mental-health resource during the war. It exists only in Ukrainian. As we are working towards publishing the English edition of the book, we invite you to use this toolkit to start your own study group.
Your group does two things at once: it studies a text that can change how you handle your life, and it helps build the community that supports the publication.
Study these practices as refuge, not as information. The goal isn't to understand the text well enough to explain it. The goal is to let it meet what's actually happening in your life.
Every session opens with one question, before anyone reads the verse or teaches anything:
What do I need refuge from right now in my life?The opening question for every session
Each person answers in a sentence or two, or sits with the question in silence. No advice, no cross-talk. You are naming the difficulty the practice will meet. Groups that open this way stay grounded. Groups that skip it tend to drift into general talk about Buddhism, which is the most common way these groups lose energy.
Your job is to hold the structure, not to be the wisest person in the room. When the talk floats up into theory, bring it back with one question: "How does that show up for you this week?" That question does most of the work.
Reach out personally to five to eight people in your sangha or practice community. The invitation can be direct: "I'm starting a small study group on the 37 Bodhisattva Practices. Would you like to join?" You don't need to lead with the Ukrainian book project. A mix of long-term practitioners and people new to the teachings works well. Three or four people in a living room or on Zoom is enough to begin.
Weekly, biweekly, or monthly, 60 to 90 minutes each. In person or on Zoom. Pick a pace you can keep up for the whole format, and treat the meeting time as fixed.
Download the English root text from the Garchen Buddhist Institute at garchen.net (library booklets). Several translations exist; the Ari-ma / Garchen Institute version is widely used. Garchen Rinpoche's own commentary is at 37practices.info.
Email Brian at brianjnuckols@gmail.com with your group's name, where or how you're meeting, and roughly how many people are joining. That's all. You'll be kept in the loop and told when the Zoom events with Olga are scheduled.
You don't need a long liturgy. You do need a clear start and a clear end, so the meeting feels set apart from ordinary conversation. The simplest version is three short prayers to open and one dedication to close. Read them aloud together, or have one person read while the others follow.
Olga asks that groups be pointed toward the protector practices Garchen Rinpoche recommends as support for this text: mainly Achi Chökyi Drölma, the Drikung lineage protector, and sang (smoke) offerings. Many practitioners in the Garchen community already do these.
Treat protector practice as optional individual support, not a group requirement, and not something to improvise. If people in your group already have the Achi practice and its transmission, they can do it on their own. If not, open with refuge and the four immeasurables. That is enough. For the Achi text, the sang liturgy, or transmission (lung), send people to the Garchen Buddhist Institute rather than passing it around informally.
This is a structure, not a script. Follow the group, and don't try to cover everything.
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0–5 min | Open. Refuge & bodhichitta (3×) and the four immeasurables. A minute of silence to settle. |
| 5–12 min | The anchor question. Each person names, in a sentence, what they need refuge from this week. No cross-talk. |
| 12–20 min | Read the verse(s) aloud, at least twice. Let the language land before anyone speaks. Optionally read a few lines of commentary (see the reading list). |
| 20–55 min | Discussion. Use one or two questions, not all of them. Leave room for silence. Keep bringing it back to lived experience. |
| 55–65 min | Closing practice. A short guided practice tied to the section (see Closing Practices). |
| 65–70 min | Dedicate. One word or sentence from each person, then the dedication of merit. Name what you're reading next time. |
Discussion opens the text. A short practice lets it settle below the level of talk. End each session with five to ten minutes of one of the practices below, matched to where you are in the text.
The three closings below are Olga's own practices, three of the 40+ original mindfulness exercises in her book, one written for each chapter and tested during the war. They are the first of those exercises to appear in English, edited lightly from her translation. Wording is pending Olga's final sign-off.
A version of the four immeasurables. Best for the opening and motivation sessions (weeks 1–3), though it belongs in any session, and it deepens the four immeasurables you already recite at the start.
Recognize that we are connected to other people and beings through our shared wish to be happy. Repeat the four immeasurable wishes three or more times: before a task, before sleep, or throughout the day, even while driving or riding on public transportation. You can also repeat them whenever intrusive thoughts or worries arise, until you feel you have calmed down.
In Olga's words: "I have slightly modified the text following the advice of Garchen Rinpoche, and to make it easier to understand. Choose the version that speaks to you most."
Best for the adversity and paramita sessions (weeks 4–9). Be mindful of your own experiences and feelings without getting caught up in them, and let your perspective widen past yourself.
Option 1: in the moment. When something desirable and pleasant comes to you, mentally say:
May others also be fortunate enough to have the same thing I am enjoying right now.
When something undesirable or unpleasant happens, mentally say:
I probably have many companions in misfortune. May they all be freed from these unfavorable conditions as soon as possible.
Option 2: a daily intention. Choose one moment each morning to set your intention, such as getting in the car or drinking your coffee. Set a phone reminder so you don't forget. Take a few slow breaths, then say:
May all my family members, friends, and fellow countrymen receive what they need for happiness today. May everything be well for everyone. May everyone be safe.
This is only an example. Make your own version, and repeat it at the same time each day until it becomes a ritual.
Best for the eight-worldly-concerns and emptiness sessions (weeks 6–7), and the self-examination weeks. Notice how good and bad events move your state of mind. Seeking what we want and avoiding what we don't is a deep habit: we look for peace in what we desire and treat everything unwanted as a threat. What happens to the mind beneath that judgment? Olga suggests exploring it directly.
When something pleasant and wanted happens, take a few calm, conscious breaths and quickly scan your body with your inner attention. Ask: "How has this pleasant event affected my state?" Rate your calm and inner balance from 1 (strong restlessness, no balance) to 10 (complete calm).
When something unwanted or unpleasant happens, do the same: a few conscious breaths, a quick body scan, then ask, "How has this unpleasant event affected my state?" Rate your calm and balance from 1 to 10 again.
Observe yourself without judgment, and without trying to change anything right away. Just be aware.
Most groups hit at least one of these. None of them means the group failed. Each has a small, specific fix.
Ten 90-minute sessions, three to four verses each, covering the whole text in about three months. This pace leaves room to discuss while still building toward a session with Olga, if you wish to invite her.
| Week | Verses | Theme & focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | V1–V4 | Precious life, impermanence, renunciation. What makes human life precious? Why leave familiar territory? Solitude and mortality-awareness as the ground of practice. |
| 2 | V5–V7 | Companions, teachers, refuge. Harmful vs. beneficial relationships; what "relying on a teacher" means now; refuge as foundation. Reflect on your actual spiritual community. |
| 3 | V8–V10 | Three scopes of motivation. From avoiding harm, to seeking liberation, to generating bodhichitta. This is the turning point of the text. Daily bodhichitta aspiration. |
| 4 | V11–V13 | Tonglen and the first adversities. Exchanging self and other. Being robbed; being harmed. Introduction to tonglen. Daily tonglen, starting with small irritations. |
| 5 | V14–V17 | Transforming harm into the path. Slander, public criticism, betrayal by those you've helped, contempt. Seeing the one who harms you as a teacher. Bring real examples and honest struggle. |
| 6 | V18–V21 | Suffering, success, the eight worldly concerns. When suffering comes; when wealth, fame, and desire come. The danger in both. Notice which worldly concern hooks you most this week. |
| 7 | V22–V24 | Absolute bodhichitta. Appearances as mind, mind as emptiness. Not clinging to the pleasant or the aversive. Resting meditation on the nature of experience. |
| 8 | V25–V28 | Paramitas I. Generosity, discipline, patience, diligence — the perfections as daily conduct. Choose one paramita to emphasize this week. |
| 9 | V29–V32 | Paramitas II & self-examination. Concentration, wisdom, examining one's own faults, not criticizing other practitioners. The link between meditation and conduct. |
| 10 | V33–V37 | Integration, mindfulness, dedication. Releasing attachment, harsh speech, and afflictions through mindfulness. Constant awareness in benefiting others. Recite the full text as a closing ceremony. Daily recitation of all 37 going forward. |
You don't need any of these to run a group. The root text and honest discussion are enough. But a facilitator who reads a few pages before each session brings more to the room. Assign the relevant pages or recordings each week. Listed from most accessible to most thorough.
Once your group has met at least twice and has a question it wants to bring, you can invite Olga to join a session by Zoom. She can talk about writing this commentary during the war, answer questions about specific verses, or just sit with your group as a fellow practitioner. A session with her runs 60 to 90 minutes: about 20 minutes of sharing, then open conversation.
Olga also offers a monthly live Q&A open to all groups. It rotates across U.S. time zones so everyone gets a reasonable hour. Questions are submitted in advance and read by an MC, the same format GBI uses for its own teachings. Sessions are recorded and shared with registered groups.
| Month | Time zone | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eastern | 8:00 AM EST |
| 2 | Central | 8:00 AM CST |
| 3 | Mountain | 8:00 AM MST |
| 4 | Pacific | 8:00 AM PST |
To arrange a session or register for the Q&A, email Brian (brianjnuckols@gmail.com) with your group's name, how many sessions you've held, and a proposed date. Groups that host Olga may be invited to share something about the experience, with permission.
Olga's monthly Q&A reads questions submitted in advance, the same format the Garchen Institute uses for its own teachings. If a verse opened something in your group, or a difficulty in practice keeps returning, send it here. Questions are gathered, grouped by theme, and read aloud by the MC at the next session. You don't need to leave your name.
Two versions you can copy and adapt. The first invites friends and fellow practitioners into your own group. The second is for sangha coordinators and center leaders who might host or start a group in their community.