Lay the ground: the four thoughts, devotion and a teacher

Reflect on the four thoughts that turn the mind toward practice, and look for a qualified teacher for the preliminaries and the pointing-out instruction.

Why it works

Every manual here opens with preliminaries. The Ninth Karmapa lists the uncommon ones — refuge and bodhicitta, Vajrasattva purification, maṇḍala offering and guru yoga — and the common ones: death and impermanence, karma, the shortcomings of saṃsāra and the precious human body — and later says that whether the main practice develops depends on guru yoga. Jamgön Kongtrul sums all preliminaries up as renunciation and stresses devotion to the guru; Khenpo Gangshar advises not getting lost in long liturgies but pondering the essential points again and again. The decisive introduction, the pointing-out instruction, is given by a teacher to a student — the Moonlight’s published description presents Mahāmudrā instruction as traditionally passed orally from teacher to disciple. The four thoughts reorder what matters so that practice is sustained; devotion is the trust the tradition sees as the condition for recognition.

How to do it

1. Take one of the four thoughts each day: the rare opportunity of this human life, impermanence and death, the cause and effect of actions, and the unsatisfactoriness of cyclic existence.
2. Reflect on it calmly for a few minutes, and notice what it changes about what you want to do with the day.
3. For ngöndro — the uncommon preliminaries of refuge and bodhicitta, Vajrasattva, maṇḍala offering and guru yoga — seek a qualified teacher in a Kagyu or Gelug lineage; these are received with instruction, not improvised from a book.
4. Pointing-out instruction is given in person by a teacher; this page describes it and does not attempt it.
5. Take time to get to know a teacher and community before committing; the trust the tradition asks for is meant to be well founded.

Evidence

The order of preliminaries is from the first part of the Ninth Karmapa’s manual and the dependence of the main practice on guru yoga from its section on enhancing practice; the Dalai Lama’s Gelug-Kagyu commentary states that tantra-level Mahāmudrā follows the preliminaries and empowerment from a qualified master; Kongtrul’s and Khenpo Gangshar’s short texts give the emphasis on renunciation, devotion and returning to the essential points. These are traditional frameworks, not studied practices. (anecdotal)

Some manuals present the death contemplation very intensely. If thoughts of death feel heavy or intrusive, stop and seek support; if they pull you toward harming yourself, contact a crisis line or emergency services.

Sources

• Wangchug Dorje, Ninth Karmapa. Mahamudra: Eliminating the Darkness of Ignorance, Part 1: Before Beginning Mahamudra Practice. Trans. Alexander Berzin (1977, rev. 2008). Study Buddhism.
• Wangchug Dorje, Ninth Karmapa. Mahamudra: Eliminating the Darkness of Ignorance, Part 4: Enhancing Mahamudra Meditation (the four yogas, each lesser, middling and great). Trans. Alexander Berzin (1977, rev. 2008). Study Buddhism.
• H. H. the Dalai Lama & Berzin, A. (1997). The Gelug/Kagyü Tradition of Mahamudra. Ithaca: Snow Lion — chapter “The Differences between the Sutra and Tantra Levels of Mahamudra” (discourse on the Fourth Panchen Lama’s root text and autocommentary), Study Buddhism.
• Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé. Mahāmudrā — Preliminaries, Main Part & Conclusion. Trans. Adam Pearcey (2015). Lotsawa House.
• Khenpo Gangshar Wangpo. From the Mahāmudrā Preliminary Practices: Continuous Integration with Ground, Path, and Fruition. Trans. Sean Price (2019). Lotsawa House.

Common mistake

Treating the preliminaries as a hurdle to rush before the “real” practice. Khenpo Gangshar’s advice is the reverse: keep returning to their essential points until they are part of your experience.

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