Complete Instructions on the Preliminary Practices

Diamond Masters

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

Diamond masters are careful in controlling their bodies and are thus steady. Careful in controlling their speech, they are disciplined. They are supremely wise and intelligent. They are very patient in the face of being harmed, putting up with hardship, and meditating on the profound truth. They are impartial in their pure and superior intentions for all sentient beings. They do not craftily attempt to hide their own faults or make out that they have good qualities that they do not have: they are free of guile and their minds are well controlled. They are skilled in the use of mantras, substances, and medicines for performing the activities of pacifying, increasing, bringing under control, and wrathful subjugation, and are proficient in the principles of tantra. In their wish to free beings tormented by suffering, they are immensely compassionate, much more so than those who practice the Vehicle of Transcendent Perfections. (Their imperative, in this context of the unsurpassable Mantra Vehicle, is that we strive for the level of Vajradhara in one lifetime, which in this degenerate age is so short. They cannot bear the fact that, when it takes those practicing the Vehicle of Transcendent Perfections three measureless great kalpas to attain Buddhahood and those practicing the lower tantras sixteen or seven lifetimes, beings will be tormented by suffering for that long. It is this need to put us on the path using urgent diligence and particularly powerful compassion that makes them so extremely loving and compassionate.) They are learned in the treatises of the inner sciencesb and well acquainted with the ten principles. They are skilled in drawing mandalas with colored powders and in explaining the path of the secret mantras to others. They have great faith, having great respect for and firm devotion to the Great Vehicle in general and to the Mantra Vehicle in particular. They have disciplined their body, speech, and mind by eradicating distractions with the wrong kinds of objects, and have thus brought their senses under control.

One who is steady, disciplined, and intelligent, Patient, impartial, and free of guile; Who knows how to apply the secret mantras and tantras And can draw mandalas; Who is fully versed in the ten principles, Gives all beings the gift of freedom from fear, And takes perpetual delight in the Great Vehicle— Such a being is said to be a master.

The Net of Magical Display

The ten principles: Mandalas and supreme concentration, symbolic gestures, movements, sitting postures, recitation, fire offerings, offerings to the deity, activities and dissolution.

Master Kunga Nyingpod

Even more special than the above qualifications are those of a master who teaches the pith instructions.

Learned, free of mundane activities, Having reached the ultimate point of the absolute nature, And not deluded as to what is desirable— These are the marks of a master of the secret mantras.

Great Array of the Sublime

The roots of the path are the diamond masters: From keeping their commitments, their conduct is pure; From listening, they are richly adorned; as a result of reflection, they have discernment; Through meditation, they possess the signs of warmth and the qualities of experience and realization; Applying compassion, they care for their students.

The Great Masters

A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom: Complete Instructions on the Preliminary Practice of the Profound and Secret Heart Essence of the Dakini By Dudjom Rinpoche; translated by the Padmakara Translation Group

The Particular Characteristics of Faith

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

What are the particular characteristics of having faith?

When one has faith, one is like a fertile field, in which the shoot of bodhichitta will sprout and grow. Faith is like a great ship crossing the river of cyclic existence. It is like a reliable escort protecting us from our enemies, the afflictive emotions. Like a good mount taking us to the land of liberation. Like a wish-fulfilling jewel accomplishing everything we desire. Like a mighty hero annihilating all that is nonvirtuous. Faith is thus a sublime quality, and for this reason it is the first of the seven noble riches. People who have faith are especially exalted, and yet they are extremely rare, as the Sutra of the Precious Lamp points out: Faith gives birth to delight in the Buddha’s teaching, Faith points the way to the city of happiness and excellence. Faith banishes lack of opportunity, it is the best of all freedoms. Faith turns one from the path of the demons, Faith is what makes one attain Buddhahood. Among the hosts of ordinary beings, Rare are those who have such faith in the Dharma.

A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom: Complete instructions on the preliminary practice of the Profound and Secret Heart Essence of the Dakini By Dudjom Rinpoche; translated by the Padmakara Translation Group

The Reason Dedication is Necessary

~ DudjomTersarNgondro

Dedicating the sources of good that we have created to unsurpassable enlightenment is very important, for as The Way of the Bodhisattva points out, even though we may have accumulated merit, if we fail to dedicate it,

All the good works gathered in a thousand ages, Such as deeds of generosity, And offerings to the Blissful Ones— A single flash of anger shatters them.

It only takes a single cause for exhausting merit—a surge of intense anger directed toward a special object, or similarly a wrong view—for one’s store of virtuous deeds to be depleted. But by dedicating them to enlightenment, they will never be exhausted but grow greater and greater. This is further explained in the Sutra Requested by Sagaramati:

Sagaramati, let us take an example. A drop of spit discarded on the sand will rapidly dry up. But if you spit into the ocean, as long as the ocean does not dry up, your spit will not dry up either. Sagaramati, it is the same with a source of good that you have produced. If you regret it, feel a sense of loss about it, disparage it, or dedicate it wrongly, it will be spent. But if you dedicate it to the oceanlike wisdom of omniscience, it will never be exhausted but grow ever greater.

Not only that, but such merit also necessarily and definitely becomes the cause of Buddhahood. In the Sutra Requested by Gaganagañja we read:

Just as many rivers flowing from different directions Into the ocean all gain a single taste, Positive actions of different kinds Dedicated to enlightenment will also gain a single taste.

It is very important to affix the great seal of complete dedication to our sources of good, for as the sublime Nagarjuna says,

No other treatises explain What you, the Bhagavan, have taught: To completely dedicate to all beings All one’s meritorious deeds.

This extraordinary method of dedication is unknown to non-Buddhists and is a feature exclusive to Buddhism. If no such dedication is made, positive actions performed by those on the path of earnest aspirationp will mostly have no benefit, in the sense implied by the following quotation:

Know that deeds are mostly beneficial, Mostly nonbeneficial, or beneficial in every respect

Positive deeds performed from the eighth level up until the level of Buddhahood are all beneficial in every respect, as the Four Hundred Verses on the Middle Way explains:

When you, the Bhagavan, make a movement It is never without reason:

Even the breaths you take Are solely for beings’ benefit.

When Bhagavan Buddhas breathe in and out, it is exclusively for others’ benefit, so for them there is not an instant that is meaningless. Therefore, in order to make the positive actions we perform on the path of earnest aspiration meaningful, we must dedicate them completely.

— A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom: Complete Instructions on the Preliminary Practices by Dudjom Rinpoche, Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje