Take refuge and generate bodhicitta in the ngöndro sequence, with instruction
Go for refuge to the Three Jewels and generate the bodhicitta intention as the first of the inner preliminaries, in the way your lineage teacher gives it.
Por que funciona
Jigme Lingpa’s inner preliminary opens with “Taking Refuge” and then “Generation of Bodhicitta,” and the Common and Uncommon Ngöndro treats the refuge verses as recited a set number of times in the outer ritual. The refuge and bodhicitta part frames everything after it: the practices that follow are offered to, and done by, a practitioner whose motivation has been turned toward others. Tricycle’s essay on prostration puts the teacher at the head of the refuge, calling the guru “a living manifestation of awakened mind.” The refuge has a ritual and visualised form, and the wording and visualisation are specific to each lineage.
Como fazer
- Ask a teacher of your lineage for the refuge and bodhicitta verses and their visualisation, and learn them with their instruction.
- Before reciting, sit with your back straight and rest for a moment on the intention to turn toward the Three Jewels.
- Recite the verses at the pace the teacher gave you, keeping a steady, unhurried voice.
- After each recitation, pause and let the bodhicitta intention, the wish to benefit others, stand as the frame for the next practice.
- Keep a note of the verses and the count your teacher agreed, so the next session begins from the same place.
Evidência
The order of the inner preliminaries, starting with refuge and bodhicitta, is taken from the table of headings in Jigme Lingpa’s Common and Uncommon Ngöndro. Tricycle’s prostration essay describes refuge as opening with the teacher. No study has tested refuge or bodhicitta as a meditation practice in this form. (mechanistic)
Refuge and bodhicitta are the most widely shared of the inner preliminaries, but their verses, numbers and visualisation differ between lineages. The page describes the structure; the words and the practice itself should be given by a teacher of your lineage.
Fontes
- Jigme Lingpa. Common and Uncommon Ngöndro, trans. Rigpa Translations and Adam Pearcey, lightly modified by Han Kop for the Longchen Nyingtik Project (2026). Lotsawa House.
- Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, essay “Bowing” on the ngöndro prostrations. Tricycle magazine.
- Ngöndro, Wikipedia. Used for two statements only: that a ngöndro is usually completed before advanced tantric practice from a qualified teacher, and the common name “hundred-syllable mantra” for Vajrasattva. Its inner-preliminary list is tagged citation-needed and is not relied on.
Erro comum
Learning the verses from a printed page or a video and reciting them as a stand-alone prayer. The refuge in the ngöndro is part of a sequence with instruction behind it; without that, it becomes a verse, not a practice.
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Mais práticas para Ngöndro: The Tibetan Preliminary Practices
- Open a ngöndro session with the four verses that turn the mind
Begin each session with one short verse for each of the four thoughts, letting each one turn attention from the day’s concerns toward the purpose of the practice.
- Keep the count: the hundred-thousand accumulation and how it is set
Understand why the inner ngöndro is counted in sets of 100,000 repetitions, how many texts leave the number open, and how to agree a count with your teacher.
- How to do ngöndro prostrations, and the strain they can put on the body
Understand the purpose of the full bodily prostration in the ngöndro, and how to adapt it to your body under a teacher’s guidance rather than pushing through pain.
- Vajrasattva purification: recite the hundred-syllable mantra with a teacher’s instruction
Recite the Vajrasattva purification practice that the ngöndro places among the inner preliminaries, in the way your teacher gives it, and then rest in the meditation that follows.
- Offer the world as a maṇḍala: the three bodies of the Buddha
Offer the whole of what you hold, in the form of a maṇḍala, as the ngöndro teaches, and let attachment loosen as you give.
- Guru yoga in the ngöndro: devotion to a teacher, received in a lineage
Learn the guru yoga that closes the inner preliminaries, with devotion to your own lineage teacher, and keep it in proportion to the rest of your life.
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- Bodhicitta: The Awakening Mind and How It Is Cultivated
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