PWS Certification Final · MHAAO / Peer Company · 2026
Lojong: Shoes for Your Mind
David R. Simmons, MD, MMus, FASAM, QMHP, PWS Candidate
What is Lojong?
"The Tibetan word lojong means 'mind training' — a method for dissolving ego-clinging and growing compassion through daily practice with short slogans."
1000 years old, brought from Tibet in 1970 by Chögyam Trungpa, popularized by Pema Chödrön.
59 slogans, not commandments — invitations, each a mirror held up to monkey mind.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche · Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness (Shambhala, 1993)
The Shoes Analogy
Pema Chödrön on This Lousy World
2:36 · "You can't pave the world — but you can wrap your feet"
Slogan Sampler
Slogan 30
Don't be so predictable.
Slogan 13
Be grateful to everyone.
Slogan 21
Always maintain only a joyful mind.
Slogan 33
Don't transfer the ox's load to the cow.
Slogan 35
Don't try to be the fastest.
Slogan 59
Don't expect applause.
Personal Practice
Lojong & Recovery
In recovery since 2005. Twenty years of noticing that the suffering I most wanted to escape was in here, not out there.
Lojong doesn't fix the lousy world. It gives your mind shoes keep walking in it — present, awake, and useful.
The slogans don't ask you to feel better; they ask you to feel honestly.
This is what peer support does too. Not rescue — accompaniment.
