Short explanation of practicing Ngøndro or preliminaries.

Short explanation of practicing Ngøndro or preliminaries. Excerpts of Minling Dorsem teaching by: Khenchen Thubten Ôser Rinpoche, to Lama Sherab (1999).

Because of the law of karma, we are reborn in Samsara, either in the higher realms or the lower realms. Whether we are born as a human being or some God or what ever, still we are in Samsara and we constantly suffer. Of course when we are born in the lower realms we suffer immensely. So the fact is that in Samsara, wherever we are born we constantly experience suffering, suffering of the suffering, suffering upon suffering. So, this is a vicious circle of suffering, it’s called the cycle of existence and this is being caused by karma, so in Samsara there is not even a

single moment of true happiness, we should therefore feel revulsion for being in Samsara. So, we have the four thoughts of turning the mind away from Samsara; 
 the difficulty of obtaining the precious human birth, the death, impermanence and the law of causality, or the law of karma and the defects of Samsara. 
 When we have reflected upon these four, then we enter into the next stage, which is taking refuge and generating Bodhicitta. 
 After this purification with the recitation of the hundred-syllable mantra, the offering of mandala and then the Guru Yoga.

It is said that to enter into Dharma; the door is refuge and to enter into refuge it’s door is faith and of faith there are three; 
 The first is «clear faith», the second is «desire faith» and the third is «conviction faith». 
 It is said that the first one, the clear faith is easy to arise and also easy to lose. The first one arises for instance when we see a Lama or a monk, or when we read a book about a holy being or what ever, we can automatically feel a great faith. 
 This faith is clear faith, but we can very easily loose it. The second faith is desire

faith; the desire faith is when we want happiness and we don’t want to suffer, this is desire faith. When we want it and know that we can get it by practicing wholesome deeds through body, speech and mind and that the suffering comes from doing unwholesome deeds through the three doors of body, speech and mind. 
 This is desire faith. The desire to be free, to have happiness and the desire to not have any suffering and know what to practice, makes the faith of desire. The most important of them all is the faith of conviction, which is having a firm belief and faith in

the law of karma. When we have developed this faith, it is hardly going to disappear, so this is the strongest and most important faith of the three. 
 In the last one we also have the faith in the Buddha who has taught the Dharma. 
 Buddha is someone whom is free from all obstructions and therefore we can rely on a Buddha, so then if we have full faith in «him or her», we can take refuge in him. 
 Then because of his compassion, which is immeasurable, he will guide us. Because of our faith in him, we will have faith in his teaching, through practicing his teaching we will get rid of suffering.

In addition, in having faith in his teaching, we will have faith in the Sangha that holds his teaching. Therefore, with the three jewels, we generate faith and if we have thorough faith, the faith of conviction in them, then we will be liberated and this is also developing trust. 
 In ordinary life we can have faith in someone who is stable, a person that can be trusted,

that we can rely on. Just as we can rely on someone, one can have total faith in the three jewels, so this faith is the one that leads us to take refuge. So, a person that has taken refuge should generate the mind towards enlightenment and before generating the mind of enlightenment one should train the mind by practicing the “Four immeasurables”. The four immeasurable’s are: The immeasurable compassion, the immeasurable love, the immeasurable sympathetic joy and the immeasurable equanimity. 
 In the aspiration-prayer for the four immeasurables it says: May

all the sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness; this is the immeasurable love. May all be free from sorrow, and the causes of sorrow, this is the immeasurable compassion. May all never be separated from the sacred happiness which is sorrow-less, this is the immeasurable joy. May all live in equanimity, without too much attachment and to much aversion and live believing in the equality of all that lives, this is immeasurable equanimity.

Basically that we have equal concern for all living beings, this is the immeasurable equanimity. If we train on these four immeasurables, then we will truly generate the mind of enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. These four immeasurables are very important, because without these our Dharma might be a cause for suffering. It could develop in a way in which we trough our practice of Dharma, we might find

faults with others. Then our Dharma turns out to be a “turned eye”, a bad eye instead of being a mirror where we can find our own faults. If we do that it is said that our Dharma is true and it will lead we onto the right path. 
 So, if we know a lot and if we use that to look outwards to find faults with others, that is not the purpose with the four immeasurables. With the four immeasurables we look inwards and we apply them inwards on our mind, it is very important to train on the four immeasurables before we try to generate the mind of enlightenment. It is not

enough just to utter the four immeasurables and say that we will bring all sentient beings to enlightenment, this will not work, we will have to use the four immeasurable’s to train our mind and when we train on them, we start with the equanimity and thereafter the other three and then we truly generate the mind of enlightenment or the Bodhicitta. Bodhicitta are usually presented as two, the «relative» and the «ultimate»

Bodhicitta. In the relative Bodhicitta one has the aspiration and then we have the application Bodhicitta. That means that we have the desire to help the sentient beings, to liberate them from suffering and bring them to the state of complete happiness. When it arises in our mind this is the aspiration, and the application is when we practice through body, speech and mind. With our body we can do prostrations or circleambulating, with our speech we can recite mantras and with our mind we generate faith and compassion. We generate faith to the three jewels and compassion

for all the sentient beings. Applying these is what is known as “Application Bodhicitta”. Then the “Ultimate Bodhicitta” is the realization that whatever has been done or dedicated and whatever has been performed, has no true inherent existence. Which is related to emptiness, so whatever wholesome deed we have done, the root one, the main wholesome deed, would be if we have applied the understanding of emptiness?

The root of any practice is refuge and Bodhicitta, without which even if we practice with the wisdom of emptiness, it will not lead we to enlightenment. 
 So in the “Ultimate Bodhicitta” we have the eight actions that we perform, with the skillful means and then we apply the wisdom of emptiness. Then it becomes a complete practice and will become the main root cause for attaining enlightenment. Whatever practice we

do, the main thing is taking refuge and generating the mind of enlightenment (Bodhicitta). So whatever practice we do, it should include these two. So having gone for Refuge and Bodhicitta, it is time to start gathering the accumulations and purify the obscurations and this is done by reciting the hundred-syllable mantra. In which we have to apply the «Four powers». The first power, is «The power of support». For example white Vajrasattva in union with consort, which we visualize on the top of the crown of our head, right hand holding a Vajra and left hand

holding a bell at the heart and in the form of Sambhogakaya. 
 At the heart we have to visualize a moon-disc upon which is a Hung surrounded by the hundred-syllable mantra. This visualization of Vajrasattva is the outer support and the inner support, is the wish that all sentient beings should be free from all obscurations and suffering. “The second power” is the power of regret, here we consider that from beginningless time we have accumulated so much negative karma, so if we don’t purify this negative karma then surely in the next life we will be born into the

lower realms. 
 So all the negative deeds and actions that we have done, we regret with help of the great support. Then one pointedly we make the confession. “The third power”, is the power of pledge or promise, whatever negative deeds we have done with our body, speech and mind, we now give the promise that we will not do these again even at the cost of our life. This is the third power. “The forth power”, is the power of action as an antidote, it is the practice of Vajrasattva along with the flow of nectar or Bodhicitta. Here we have to visualize Vajrasattva, in whose heart there is a moon-disc and on top of that a white Hung, surrounded by the mantra. Our mind should be totally free and full of devotion and the speech reciting the hundred-syllable mantra. By the power of which the nectar of Bodhicitta from the mantra, which is encircling the

central syllable Hung, from which there flows down immeasurable amounts white nectar of great bliss and rays of light. It flows from the bodies of the YabYum deities and emerges from the point of their union. Then it flows out on the lotus and winds down around the stem of the lotus, it enters our head through the fontanel. It purifies all our negative deeds and obscurations, like in a great flood it’s being washed away, just like rocks, trees and debris are being flooded away in the surge of a great flood. The power of Bodhicitta completely cleans and purifies all our obscurations and all the negative deeds that we have accumulated in our countless past lives. We should feel as if this is happening and in our mind we should have complete devotion and faith, and with the speech we should recite the hundred-syllable mantra. When the nectar of

Bodhicitta is running through our body and cleaning away our negative deeds, then the ground underneath us opens up to the Lord of Death which is nine levels down. His mouth and arms are open and all the owners of our karmic debts are all there to get their share. The power of our recitation and the nectar of Bodhicitta purify the negative deeds and the “Lord of Death” and the karmic owners are all satisfied and all their desires are fulfilled. Then, being satisfied, the “Lord of Death” closes his mouth and brings his arms down and the ground closes again. Then we feel that all our old negative karma is completely purified. So this is the power of action as an antidote. The most special practice for purification of obscurations and negative deeds, is the practice of Vajrasattva and the hundred-syllable mantra. But without accumulating merits we will not have a good result, so it is also very important to accumulate merit.

The 3 supremest way of gathering the accumulations, is trough mandala offering. 
 The mandala is offered in three ways, to the three bodies, Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya. The way to offer the Nirmanakaya Mandala is that we offer the one billion universes. Known as the thousand-threefold universe. The four continents with Mount Meru in the centre and the realms of the Brahma heavens above it make up one world.

One thousand of those worlds make up what is called; 
 «a first order intermediate universe of one thousand worlds». 
 Taking such a universe consisting of a thousand worlds, each with four continents, and multiplying it a thousand times, we get what is called «a second-order intermediate universe of one thousand times one thousand worlds, or a universe of a million worlds». Taking such a million-fold universe and

again multiplying that a thousand times gives us “A third-order great universal systems of one thousand million worlds», or a cosmos of a billion universes. So, to offer all these to the Three Jewels and the Lama, is the offering of the Nirmanakaya. The Nirmanakaya offering is not only to offer all the universes, Filled with the “Seven Precious Gems”, all the wealth of Gods and men. Our body, our possessions, our merits and even all their causes all together. We offer to the Nirmanakaya the field of merit, which is the Lama, the Three Jewels. Then we have the

Sambhogakaya offering, in that offering we offer all the perfects of the Gods and Goddesses, making perfect offerings of the sensual pleasures and without any impurities. Perfect with the five certainties and the «Mandala of the five Buddha» families. And in the Dharmakaya offering, we offer all appearance and existence, which is pure from the very beginning – the youthful vase body, Ornamented by the play of Dharmata and

unceasing compassion, we offer the space where all clinging to the perception of Kayas and Tigles is self-liberated. With this offering, may we enjoy the freedom of the Dharmakaya Reality. After mandala we do the Guru Yoga. In this Guru Yoga first we have to visualize the deity, which here is Guru Rinpoche, inseparable with our lama. Then we have to invoke the wisdom deity. After invocation we recite the mantra in order to

receive the accomplishment.This is done by recitation of the “Benzra Guru Mantra”. After the recitation we request the lama or Guru Rinpoche to bestow us the accomplishment. 
 This is done at the stage where we visualize the light-rays emitting from the three points of Guru Rinpoche and dissolving into our body, speech and mind. Finally we receive the accomplishments. At the end we dissolve into Guru Rinpoche. At that time our

mind becomes one with Guru Rinpoche who is inseparable with our Guru. 
 So first we visualize the mandala of Guru Rinpoche, then we offer the seven-branch offering and do the prayers and then thirdly we invite the wisdom deity. 
 Fourthly, we receive the accomplishment. This is done

when we recite the “! Guru 4 Rinpoche etc». At this stage we recite the Benzra Guru mantra and receive the accomplishment. And then with prayer we request Guru Rinpoche to give the accomplishment and receive the empowerment and accomplishment. After this our body, speech and mind becomes one with Guru Rinpoche. So with the Guru Yoga we receive the four empowerments and the two accomplishments, the ordinary and the extraordinary accomplishments.
 This is a short explanation how to practice the preliminaries, especially before we start a retreat, but it can also be used as a reference how to practice them in general. 
 ©Lama Sherab