Preliminaries (sngon 'gro).

The general outer preliminaries are the Four Mind Changings: reflections on precious human body, impermanence and death, cause and effect of karma, and the shortcomings of samsaric existence.

The special inner preliminaries are the Four Times Hundred Thousand Practices of refuge and bodhichitta, Vajrasattva recitation, mandala offering, and guru yoga.

For detailed explanations, see The Great Gate (Rangjung Yeshe Publications) and The Words of My Perfect Teacher (Shambhala Publications).

Purpose

When it comes to realizing our innate nature, the four mind-changings are conducive circumstances. These four general reflections are helpful to make us more sincerely interested in actually practicing the Dharma. In particular, they are the way to turn our mind toward the essential truth, to what really matters.

The four mind-changings are not complicated to understand; small children can learn the four mind-changings. What we need is to personally take them to heart. Unless a wild horse has been tamed, you cannot ride it. It would be dangerous and harmful for the rider. In the same way, unless we have really taken to heart these four mind-changings, it is very difficult to make genuine progress in Dharma practice. The person who has not really reflected on the four mind-changings is like someone trying to ride a wild horse.

When you want to garden, isn’t it true that you first need to prepare the soil? You have to remove stones and pieces of wood and soften up the hard lumps of earth. After that the soil can be receptive and ready for the seeds you will plant and water. Otherwise, you can throw seeds on the ground, but without the right conditions, they won’t sprout. Even if they do, they won’t produce a good plant. The four mind-changings require us to think about something that is very real. They are a practical way of loosening up the hardness of our tight minds. The way to know when the four mind-changings have really taken effect is when our attachment to things as being concrete and permanent has diminished, and our selfishness, arrogance and conceit have decreased.

It is very easy to reflect on these four mind-changings; you don’t have to be a great philosopher and think deeply. They are simple and direct. All of us need to remind ourselves often of these simple truths. When we really take to heart and assimilate the truths of the four mind-changings, automatically we become genuine practitioners. We have already been moved to some extent, all of us, otherwise we would not have any interest in the Dharma. To turn one’s mind to the Dharma, to direct oneself toward practice, to tame and soften oneself is not as easy as simply hearing teachings on the four mind-changings, because they are quite uncomplicated. We need to take them to heart and assimilate them within our stream of being.

Through these four ways of changing direction, we become more soft. Our rigid attitude gets loosened up. This is vital in order to practice the Dharma. It is through this that we open up to understanding what kind of shortcomings we have, and we become interested in changing them, in actually practicing, and in training in the Dharma. It is easy enough to understand the details of these four mind-changings, but to take them to heart requires some pushing; it requires some effort. Therefore, we need to remind ourselves, again and again, to consider these four facts.

Most of you have probably heard the teachings connected to the four mind-changings quite a few times. It is entirely possible that if now you have to hear them one more time you will sit and be quite bored! Nevertheless, the point is not to merely comprehend. Comprehending is very simple; just by hearing these teachings we can understand them.

All the levels of instruction in Buddhist practice are beneficial, reasonable, and meaningful, and, when applied, they work. That goes for the common and the extraordinary preliminaries at the beginning, all the way up to, and including, the practices of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. All are equally beneficial; all are equally reasonable. In other words, they are meant to work, and they do work.

The extraordinary preliminaries, the ngöndro, involve with purifying obscurations. They also involve how to perfect the accumulations in a way that is very simple, does not require much effort and is extremely effective. They are renowned as the four times, or sometimes, five times hundred thousand preliminaries. The preliminary practices consist of refuge and bodhichitta, Vajrasattva meditation, mandala offering, and guru yoga. The purification of obscurations is the way to remove unfavorable circumstances. Perfecting the accumulations is a way to provide favorable circumstances, conducive conditions.

Traditionally there is a way to focus on ngöndro practice where you don’t do anything else. You set aside all other activities with the thought, “Now I will just do ngöndro for a couple of months.” It is also totally okay to do preliminary practice in daily life. However, we are often busy. Sometimes we are very busy; other times we merely make excuses and are lazy. If this is the case it can take many years to finish the preliminary practices. If you are really focused, you can complete the ngöndro in a few months. For that reason, retreat is important. But even if you are not able to stay in retreat, you can still do ngöndro practice.

When in retreat, practice is divided into certain periods, with a beginning and an end, a fixed time. Some people do six sessions a day, but you should do at least four sessions a day, two before noon and two after. The length of these practice sessions is an individual matter.

The ngöndro is called the preliminary practice, but honestly, it contains the main part of training itself. There is always a point in each of these practices when we try to dispense with all concepts and remain in the natural state. It is this way with refuge and with Vajrasattva practice. At the end of the session, after unifying with the state of Vajrasattva, we remain free of any fixation. Also, when offering the innermost mandala offering, that is the offering of releasing all concepts. Training in the natural state of mind is the guru yoga practice as well. Practicing ngöndro creates the circumstances to actualize this state of realization that is innately present, pure and perfect. Many practitioners have done so in the past by these means. We are simply following in their footsteps; we are becoming one more practitioner who becomes realized through the preliminaries.

-----Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, excerpts from The Great Gate