Ngondro Practice

The ngondro practices are the preliminary practices of the vajrayana. The usual approach in Tibet is to start formal practice with ngondro, and while doing ngondro you also do shamatha and vipashyana as part of ngondro. In all vajrayana practices, after the main part of the practice, there is a concluding section of shamatha and vipashyana. These are done according to the type of meditation you are doing, the instructions of your teacher, and your level of accomplishment.

Previous great masters like Guru Padmasambhava extracted the essential teachings of the sutras and tantras and condensed them into the ngondro. Ngondro is a compound word in Tibetan, made up of ngon , which means “before,” and dro , which means “to go.” Together they mean “that which goes before” or “preliminary.” Looking at the meaning in a larger way, the ngondro practices “go before” because they must be done

before reaching enlightenment. If these practices go first, then enlightenment will follow. Many people translate ngondro as “preliminary” because these are the first set of vajrayana practices. Ngondro is used to establish a firm foundation for further realization. Ngondro practice has several parts. The first part is called the four methods for reversing one’s thoughts from samsara. The next section is taking refuge in the Buddha,

dharma, and sangha, and then in the gurus, deities, and dakinis. The third section is developing bodhichitta, a special teaching of the mahayana, which is the beneficial thought of caring more for others than for yourself. The fourth section is the mandala offering, which is particularly connected with

accumulating merit and wisdom. The fifth section is the practice of Buddha Vajrasattva, who is a special deity or buddha of the vajrayana tradition. Vajrasattva has the special power of being able to purify obscurations and negative actions. The sixth section is the practice of guru yoga, which is very important for receiving the blessings and realization of the vajrayana teachings. An important part of ngondro is prostration practice. According to the ancient masters you can do prostrations while reciting the refuge prayers or in the guru yoga section while

saying the Vajra Guru Mantra. Prostrations are particularly aimed at removing body obscurations and releasing the knots in the channels.

At the end of every session of ngondro, you should dedicate the merit accumulated by the practice for the benefit of all beings, wishing that their suffering will be removed and that they will attain the perfect happiness of enlightenment. Also, during every session of ngondro practice you meditate on

the true nature of the mind. Even if there is not time to do shamatha and vipashyana after each part, formless practice should definitely be done after the Vajrasattva and guru yoga practices.

The stability of shamatha and the higher seeing of vipashyana are also part of the vajrayana visualization practices. When you visualize Guru Padmasambhava and concentrate on his image, that is a form of shamatha meditation. At the end of the session, when you dissolve the image of Padmasambhava and meditate on the emptiness nature, that is a form of vipashyana practice. Since guru yoga includes the practice of pure perception and the recognition of primordial wisdom, it is more extensive than shamatha or vipashyana. The discovery of pure perception, free from clinging and duality, comes from seeing Guru Padmasambhava’s wisdom light reflecting in all directions. Guru yoga practice makes it possible to discover and experience everything as a radiant display of primordial wisdom.Vajrayana Meditation The techniques of vajrayana

meditation enable us to let go of our limited ideas about reality and to experience what is beyond the five senses. Usually, we decide whether something is true on the evidence of the five senses. If we perceive something through our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, or touch, we say that it exists; if we do not perceive it through our senses, we say it is not there. Among the objects of the five senses — forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and

tangible objects, we give the most credence to what we perceive with our eyes and ears. But to what degree are the five senses reliable? Do they fully communicate the qualities of reality? According to the vajrayana tradition, thin gs can be known without being seen or heard. For example, by doing vipashyana practice one gains insight that enables you to see things never previously imagined. Our

mental ability goes far beyond our current sense perceptions and thoughts. For instance, knowledge need not be limited to the present moment; it is quite possible to know events in the past and future as well.

In addition to extraordinary perceptions, there are many actions we could perform that go beyond ordinary ideas of reality. When great masters like Buddha Shakyamuni and Guru Padmasambhava realized the

emptiness of all phenomena, they were able to do things like sit and walk in the sky and leave their handprints and footprints in solid rock. Anyone who has the same realization of the true nature can do these things. To reach enlightenment it is necessary to go beyond our limited ideas and discover the wisdom nature. Among the vehicles taught by the Buddha, both the mahayana and the vajrayana lead to enlightenment; the main

difference is that the mahayana is a more gradual path, whereas the vajrayana directly reveals the nature of the mind. Vajrayana meditation practice does this in two main ways: through creation stage practice and completion stage practice.

Trie vajra, or done — symbol of the "dlamaid iWde" The creation stage uses visualizations to reveal that the universe, both internal and external, is pure light. In order to display the self-existing primordial wisdom, we have to transform old habits of perceiving whatever we see, hear, and touch as being solid and truly existent. In creation stage practice, we visualize a pure land containing pure deities and enlightened beings such as

Vajrasattva or Guru Padmasambhava. When we meditate on the body of the deity, we perceive our own body transformed into a pure, absolute body, and we see that all sentient beings, ourselves and others, are pure and primordially enlightened. The visualization practices display the pure nature of reality. It is because of our mind’s habitual ways of discriminating between things that we create a static world that is actually unreal.

Visualization practice breaks our habitual, ignorant thinking so that we can experience the purity and equality of all phenomena and perceive their wisdom nature.

After making progress in the visualization practice, one does the completion stage meditation. The subtle completion stage practice applies to one’s physical body. From the vajrayana point of view, the body is no

longer seen as unpleasant or impure, rather it is considered to be totally enlightened. The structure of the body corresponds to the structure of the external world, and the body is recognized as the indestructible, vajra body, and as a vajra city filled with enlightened beings.

Practicing the subtle aspects of the completion stage is connected with the three main systems of the body: the channels, the wind, and the essence element. These three are closely interconnected; when one of them is clear it affects the others. The practices which focus on the channels release the knots of the channels so that the breath has a clear passage. In terms of the breath, the highest type of wind, called the subtle wisdom wind, can be made to pervade all the channels, and when that happens the essence element is also refined. The essence element is the most subde or primordial element of the body, and when it is revealed through meditation practice the enlightened primordial awareness is also revealed.

The activities of enlightenment go far beyond ordinary concepts. According to both mahayana and vajrayana, the purpose of accomplishing enlightenment is to benefit all sentient beings. An enlightened being does not selfishly retire from the world, but becomes busier than before, without feeling even slightly burdened by the activities. Since enlightenment is all-pervasive, enlightened actions are as effortless and spontaneous as

the light shining from the sun. Buddha activity transcends all ordinary ideas of effort and accomplishment. There is more to reality than what can be perceived by our senses. The main reason for mentioning these advanced practices is to emphasize the precious opportunity that you have right now; if you practice meditation and develop your inner wisdom, you will be able to attain enlightenment and effordessly help everyone

in the entire world.The Tantric Tradition and Terma Tantra is a Sanskrit word that means “continuity.” Tantra refers primarily to the unchanging nature of the mind, which continues without interruption from beginningless time until final enlightenment. The scriptures that teach the unchanging, vajra nature of the mind are called the tantras, and the means used to directly reveal the mind’s nature are known as the tantray

ana or the vajrayana. Buddha Shakyamuni revealed many different types and levels of teaching to suit the various capacities of students. The highest section of his teaching is the vajrayana, which encompasses many practices such as the preliminary practices, the creation stage and completion stage practices, and mahamudra and dzogchen. All vajrayana practices are important in their own way. The vajrayana can be divided into

six levels, with dzogchen as the sixth (and highest) level. Sometimes students ask if there is a difference in the role of men and women in vajrayana Buddhism. In the vajrayana there is nothing that discriminates against women. All people have the same authority to become teachers and the same opportunity for realization. In the inner tantras there are fourteen samayas, and the fourteenth samaya says that you should not blame,

criticize, or argue with women. It does not say that you should not criticize or argue with men, so in one sense, the vajrayana seems to appreciate women more than men. Here and in the East, most Buddhist teachers are men, but in Tibet there have been many highly respected women masters. Tibet has become famous as a Buddhist country. In Tibet there are four major schools: the Nyingma school, the Kagyu school, the Sakya school,

and the Gelug school. Nyingma means “the ancient ones,” and it is the oldest of the four schools. The Buddhist teachings first came to Tibet in the fifth century, which is known as the dawn of Buddhism in Tibet, and began to flourish during the time of Guru Padmasambhava, in the eighth century. The Kagyu and

Sakya schools started in the eleventh century, and the Gelug school started in the fourteenth century. All of these schools developed from the same root and teach vajrayana Buddhism. The various schools do not contradict one another, but each has its own lineage of great meditators and scholars.

Many of the vajrayana teachings of Guru Padmasambhava were hidden in various parts of Tibet for the sake of future generations. These hidden treasures are called terma in Tibetan, and the people who reveal them are called tertons . The terma treasures include texts and ritual objects that were hidden by Guru Padmasambhava and Lady Yeshe Tsogyal in Tibet in the eighth century. Yeshe Tsogyal, one of Padmasambhava’s nine heart students, attained enlightenment in one lifetime. Yeshe Tsogyal left signs of her accomplishment, such as writing verses in solid rock with her finger.

The terma teachings were written down mainly by Yeshe Tsogyal, as well as a few others teachers, as instructed by Guru Padmasambhava, for the sake of future generations who would be living in different situations.

They were hidden throughout Tibet, many of them in inaccessible locations, such as inside rock mountains and under the water of lakes and rivers. They were placed there by masters like Yeshe Tsogyal, who did so by the power of her realization. In most cases, she did not actually travel to those places, but she hid them through the power of her mind.

The terma can be retrieved only through the meditative power of the tertons. There are 108 great tertons and one thousand lesser tertons in the Nyingma lineage. The tertons are very special and powerful people, who often have special dreams, even as children, in which they receive blessings and teachings direcdy from Guru Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal. When tertons meditate, they become very powerful. For instance,

through their meditation on the inner winds they have what is called “swift feet,” the ability to move very fast over long distances. The reason that the tertons have such power is because they have revealed their own inner wisdom.

The tertons are able to find the treasures and bring them out of their hidden locations without any difficulty. For example, when a treasure revealer arrives at a terma spot, the rock opens by itself and the terton removes a container made of precious stones, metal, or wood that holds the scrolls of teachings. Besides dharma texts, the tertons also extract ritual objects such as vajras, bells, phurbas, statues, and cloth. As soon as

the terma is removed, the rock immediately closes and it appears as if it had never been opened. One cannot tell where the terma spots are unless the tertons mark them in a special way. The terma texts are very

unusual; they are small pieces of yellow paper rolled into tight scrolls. If you put these rolls of paper into a fire, they will not burn. These teachings are written in a special language called the symbolic language of the dakinis. These scrolls have just a few small signs, which are not Tibetan letters, but when the tertons look at the letters, they can transcribe long books from them. There are many of these hidden treasures in Tibet, and

they are considered very special objects. For example, if you carry one of them with you, it will protect you. During the Chinese invasion of Tibet, the terma were known to protect people from bullets. Even in present day Tibet, great tertons continue to reveal the terma treasures.Guru Padmasambhava It is very important for people who wish to follow the vajrayana teachings to have a connection with Guru Padmasambhava, the first

main teacher of the tantric tradition in Tibet. Buddha Shakyamuni promised to be reborn in the form of Guru Padmasambhava in order to spread the vajrayana teachings in this world. The Buddha predicted Padmasambhava’s activities nineteen times in the sutras and tantras. Just as predicted, Guru Padmasambhava was miraculously born in the middle of a lotus in northwest India, in the country of Uddiyana, eight years

after Buddha Shakyamuni passed away, about 500 ???. Guru Padmasambhava appeared in the lotus as an eight-year-old boy. King Indrabhuti came to see him and asked him five questions: “Where did you come from? Who is your father? Who is your mother? What do you eat? What do you do?” Guru Padmasambhava answered, “I came from the unborn state, the dharmadhatu. My father’s name is Samantabhadra and my mother’s

name is Samantabhadri. For food, I eat dualistic thoughts, and for work, I benefit all sentient beings.” When the king heard these answers he was very pleased and asked Guru Rinpoche to come live in his palace as his son. Guru Padmasambhava went to the palace and stayed there for many years. When he left the palace, he fulfilled a prophecy of Buddha Vajrasattva by traveling to many places in India, where he lived in cemeteries

and did various forms of meditation. He was already enlightened, but he performed these practices to demonstrate that meditation leads to enlightenment. Guru Padmasambhava is renowned for having eight great manifestations, such as Dorje Trollo and Senge Dradok. Some of the Indian kings and ministers were jealous of his abilities and tried to kill him. When they tried to drown him in a river, he leaped out and danced in the

sky. On one occasion a king in northern India had Padmasambhava thrown into a huge fire. After three days the fire turned into a lake and Guru Padmasambhava was found sitting in a lotus in the middle of the lake. This spot has become a famous pilgrimage place in northern India; it is called Tso Padma, or the Lotus Lake. Padmasambhava’s miracles influenced many beings to open their hearts to the dharma.

Another Indian king who had contact with Padmasambhava was King Ashoka, who had a large empire in Asia at one time. Earlier in his life he was very cruel and killed thousands of sentient beings. After meeting a manifestation of Guru Padmasambhava, he had a complete change of heart and promised he would never touch his sword again. He began to work for the dharma, sponsoring teachers and establishing the buddhadharma throughout southern Asia. It is said that Ashoka built a million Buddhist stupas in different parts of his kingdom.

In the middle of the eighth century, Guru Padmasambhava came to Tibet at the invitation of King Trisong Deutsen, the most powerful leader in Asia at that time. Trisong Deutsen was dedicated to establishing the dharma in Tibet and called upon Padmasambhava for help. Guru Padmasambhava subdued all the negative forces and blessed the entire land of Tibet. He consecrated the land and supervised the building of Samye Monastery, the first Tibetan monastery. By giving the vajrayana teachings in accordance with the individual needs and abilities of his students, many Tibetans attained enlightenment through his teachings and transmissions. Among his most famous students were the twenty - five close disciples, nine of whom were called his heart students, and the eighty great siddhas.

There are different accounts of how long Guru Padmasambhava stayed in Tibet. Most histories say that he stayed 111 years. This counts each waxing and waning of the moon as a separate month, which means that he stayed in Tibet for fifty-five years and six months. Other histories say that he stayed for only six months or eighteen months or a few years. Some people say that he spent only a few months in Lhasa and the rest of the

time in the mountains and caves in the countryside. It could appear in different ways because Padmasambhava’s crazy wisdom activities do not necessarily conform to our usual concepts. These events took place over a thousand years ago, and even in recent history scholars disagree and write different accounts about what has happened. There is a particular reason for saying that Guru Rinpoche stayed fifty-five and a half years in Tibet. After finishing Samye Monastery, Padmasambhava and Khenpo Shantarakshita said that they were ready to go back to India. King Trisong Deutsen asked them to stay until his death for the sake of the Tibetan people. Both teachers agreed, and Padmasambhava stayed for an additional five years after Trisong Deutsen’s death to help the king’s sons continue the Buddhist tradition.

On the day of his departure from Tibet, Padmasambhava’s students and the current king and courtiers went with him to a mountain pass named Gungthang Lathog on the border of Tibet and Nepal. He stopped at the

mountain pass and said that no one should follow him further. All the people became very emotional, and as he began giving his final teaching he levitated and continued teaching from the sky. A horse appeared in the air and he mounted the horse and rode off in the western direction. Guru Padmasambhava did not die in the way that we normally think of death, rather he was able to transmute all the gross elements of his body into

wisdom light. This is called attaining the rainbow body, and it is a state of wisdom beyond birth and death. When he left, Padmasambhava said he was going to a country filled with cannibals whom he would teach to be bodhisattvas. Yeshe Tsogyal later reported that he reached his destination. Many great meditators have reported visiting him there in the land called the Glorious Copper-Colored Mountain. We cannot tell the exact

geographic location of this land; it is similar to the kingdom of Shambhala in that way. According to Buddhist cosmology there are four major continents and eight subcontinents. The Copper-Colored Mountain is one of the subcontinents. The histories say that he returned to Tibet many times to see Yeshe Tsogyal and to give teachings to later great masters. All the great tertons have had the experience of meeting Guru Padmasambhava in dreams, in visions, or in person. In their biographies they report going at least once to the Copper- Colored Mountain, where they obtained instructions and then returned and revealed the teachings they received to others.

Guru Padmasambhava hid many terma, or treasure teachings, in different parts of Tibet for the sake of future generations. Among the terma he included many predictions about the future of our world. Some of the predictions are about Tibet only and some are about other areas of the world. He predicted what would happen from generation to generation and how many of the problems could be solved. For many centuries these

teachings have been very beneficial because his predictions are so accurate. Some people in the West have heard one of his clearest predictions: “When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the dharma will go to the land of the red man.”

Not all of the texts composed by Guru Padmasambhava are terma. Some of them are kama , the oral transmission written down in regular books. A few of his kama texts are The Garland of Pith Instructions on the View , a commentary on the Guhyagarbha Tantra called The Blazing Light of the Sun and Moon, and another tantric commentary, The Ornament of the Cemetery Cuckoo . Another text, which discusses working with wild feminine spirits, is How to Balance the Activities of the Mamos .