Peaceful self-control: the sign of one who’s heard the teachings!
Few defiled emotions are the mark of one who meditates.
Harmony with others is the sign of one who practices.
A blissful heart is witness to accomplishment.
The root of Dharma is your very mind.
Tame it and you’re practicing the Dharma.
To practice Dharma is to tame your mind
And when you tame it, then you will be free!
~ Dudjom Rinpoche
Unless we have faith, however many other good qualities we might have, they will not be of much use to us — as though we were very beautiful, but blind. So we have to make an effort to develop faith — by meditating on impermanence four times a day, by reflecting minutely on actions and their effects, by reflecting on the positive aspects of everything, by reflecting on how rare the Dharma is, by thinking of our teacher’s kindness, by thinking of our spiritual brothers and sisters with pure perception, and by thinking of the excellent qualities of the Buddha. It is important to consider that other people are—all of them—marvelous, and to be free of partiality and notions of high or low status, thus making a habit of faith and taming your own mind.
The Omniscient Dharma Lord said:
Unless you do all you can to develop faith, You will never attain perfection, But will wander constantly in cyclic existence. Therefore, whomever you are following, Make every effort to cultivate faith. In the first place, you should be shrewd in seeking a teacher and the teaching—begin by examining the sublime beings. Once you have found a teacher, train yourself in following him or her with devotion. For this there are ten aspects. Your devotion should be unchanging, like Mount Meru. Like the sun, it should not wax or wane. It should be like the ocean, without surface or depth.p Like a mother it should never complain or expect to be thanked. It should be like space, without boundary or center; like the string of a bow, neither too taut nor too slack; like a boat or bridge, untiring and uncomplaining; like a great river, flowing unceasingly; like the sky, never prey to circumstances such as being influenced by others or scolded. And like the string of a prayer flag, it should be respectful, supple and adaptable, and embellished with reverence.
What are the signs that we have cultivated faith? We reject the deceptive appearances of cyclic existence like someone with nausea seeing food. We ache with devotion and longing for the teacher, like a small child yearning for its mother. We throw ourselves enthusiastically into study and reflection, like a thirsty person longing for water. We treasure our precepts like a poor person who has found some gold or a turquoise. We delight in practicing virtuous activities like a merchant traveling to an island of gold. Our faith and interest in all the different vehicles are like those of a keen shopper arriving at a market. It is when these signs occur that the Dharma has tamed our mind and the teachings and the individual have not gone different ways.
Dudjom Rinpoche.
A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom:
Complete Instructions on the Preliminary Practices
Shambhala
Photographer unknown
We have been wandering in delusion in samsara since beginningless time, like being trapped in a dream. The dharma is the method that the Buddha taught to wake us up from this dream. For that purpose he taught the 84,000 teachings of the dharma for beings of lesser and medium capacities, and the 6,400,000 tantras for disciples of the highest faculties. They all have one purpose, to tame the five passions of desire, anger, ignorance, jealousy, and pride in each individual being’s mindstream. The teachings are extremely vast, but the condensed essence of all of them, the pith instruction that encompasses all spiritual traditions, is Ngondro. ~ HH Dudjom Rinpoche
All Buddhist and non-Buddhist spiritual traditions see samsara as not a good place to remain and seek to end suffering according to their own capacities and methods. The outer preliminary practices are the four ways to turn the mind to dharma and away from samsara (four thoughts).
The inner preliminary practices begin with going for refuge, the foundation of the path of liberation from Hinayana through Vajrayana. The essence of the path from Mahayana through Vajrayana is to arouse in the mind the thought of supreme enlightenment, Bodhicitta.
In order to attain enlightenment we need to perfect the two accumulations, and mandala offering is the method to quickly accomplish this. The outer mandala offering is the billionfold universe, the inner mandala offering is one’s own body, enjoyable possessions, and accumulations of virtue, and the secret mandala offering is the Dharmadhatu Clear Light Vajra Essence Buddhafield. Actually, everybody needs to accumulate merit, it is not just for those who want to attain Buddhahood. It is the foundation of all worldly happiness, and it gathers the favorable circumstances for attaining enlightenment.
In order to purify unfavorable circumstances we do Vajrasattva meditation. It is a complete tantric practice that includes shamatha and vipassana according to the Vajrayana tradition of the two stages of creation and completion.
Guru yoga is the heart of all practices in the Great Perfection tradition which is the essence of all dharmas and spiritual paths.
Ngondro also includes Phowa, a Great Perfection teaching for swiftly transforming consciousness at the moment of death, even if one dies before being able to accomplish the creation and completion stage practices.
Chod is the practice of severing all types of clinging such as the four maras which create obstacles to samadhi, wisdom, accomplishing meditation practice in this life, and attaining Buddhahood.
As Dudjom Rinpoche said,
This profound revealed treasure, this preliminary practice arra nged here, is the noble path which leads swiftly and easily to the level of the union of the Four Kayas;
It is a chariot, perfectly clear and easily entered, that is brought up here;
All fortunate ones, enter now with joy!
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