Je Tsongkhapa's Three Principal Aspects of the Path to Highest Enlightenment, translated by Gelek Rimpoche as The Three Principles of the Path, presents the essential structure of the Buddhist path in a concise form. As we have seen, the whole path can be understood as a process of spiritual transformation:

1. receiving reliable teachings,
2. reflecting on them deeply,
3. practicing them repeatedly, and
4. gradually replacing unskillful habits with skillful ones.

The three principal aspects describe the three essential transformations that make this process complete:

• renunciation, the transformation of our aims;
• bodhicitta, the transformation of our relationships; and
• wisdom, the transformation of our understanding.

Together, they form the heart of the Bodhisattva path:

The Heart of the Buddha's Teachings: Renunciation

The first principal aspect is renunciation, which Gelek Rimpoche has interpreted as “the determination to be free.” This is the recognition that lasting fulfillment cannot be found in temporary pleasures, possessions, praise, or status.

Through reflection on impermanence, karma, suffering, and the preciousness of human life, we begin to see more clearly which habits lead to suffering and which lead to peace. Gradually, the mind turns away from compulsive grasping and toward liberation.

Renunciation gives direction to practice. It establishes the intention to abandon unskillful patterns and cultivate a wiser way of living.

The Path Praised by Bodhisattvas: Bodhicitta

The second principal aspect is bodhicitta, the "Awakening Mind" of love and compassion. Bodhicitta arises when we recognize that all beings seek happiness and wish to avoid suffering, just as we do. From this understanding comes the aspiration:

Bodhicitta transforms spiritual practice from a private search for relief into the Bodhisattva path of universal care. This motivation is strengthened through practicing generosity, ethical discipline, patience, joyful perseverance, concentration, and wisdom.

Bodhicitta reshapes the emotional habits of the heart. Self-centered patterns are gradually replaced by love, compassion, empathetic joy, and peace.

The Gateway to Liberation: Wisdom

The third principal aspect is wisdom, especially the wisdom that realizes emptiness, the true nature of reality.

Ordinarily, we experience ourselves and the world through distorted habits of grasping and conceptual fixation. Wisdom loosens these habits by revealing the impermanent and interdependent nature of all phenomena. As insight deepens, attachment, fear, pride, and anger lose their foundation.

This wisdom develops through study, contemplation, and meditation. In Mahayana Buddhism, practices such as lojong, or mind training, help transform difficulties into opportunities for compassion and awakening.

Wisdom completes the process of transformation. It uproots the ignorance that sustains suffering and allows compassion to function without self-centered attachment.

"I Will Explain As Best I Can"

Tsongkhapa closes the verse with humility: “I will explain as best I can.” Although regarded as one of Tibet’s greatest spiritual teachers, he speaks simply and without self-importance.

This humility is itself part of the path. Genuine wisdom expresses itself through compassion, patience, and the sincere wish to benefit others. Spiritual teachings are meant to guide transformation, not to display learning or gain admiration.

The three principal aspects therefore describe more than a set of doctrines. They describe a living process:

1. renunciation transforms intention,
2. bodhicitta transforms relationship, and
3. wisdom transforms understanding.

Together, they form the complete path to awakening.