Practical question on ngondro

[DGA]

DGA- carpet burn?

Remember how I was saying that I covered the carpet with a rectangle of upholstery fabric? It's not the easiest thing on the hands, but there's no injury. No carpet burn. I also practiced with a friend who simply covered her carpet with a polyester bedsheet, which was also workable but it moved around a lot more, got knotted up, twisted, and so on.

Better to just follow the KISS rule: Keep It Simple, Sweetheart.

Enjoy your practice!

[Reibeam]

I have a board, it's 7 Feet long and 3 feet wide. A friend of mine made it for me and it's beautiful. It's made from solid 150 year old Douglas fir (it's stupid heavy too). It's elevated 4 inches off the ground on 4x4s, but I stand on top it so I don't get some kind of advantage. Maybe one day I'll wear a hole in it I also don't use gloves, but that can be a problem if you get sweaty hands. You do need something for your knees though.

All this speed demon prostration talk is disturbing....

Killing yourself is not the point (I used to be catholic masochist), but neither is prostrating in the most comfortable and convienent way either. People often use the excuse that they saw a Tibetan do it so it must be okay to blast out prostrations on some kind of spring board.

What's the difference between westerners and Tibetans busting out 100 in 15 minutes vs really concentrating on what thier doing and maybe doing 100 in 60 minutes? I am not sure or qualified to judge, but you do 100,000 so you can do one right. I am 250 lbs and I can do 100 prostrations in 20 minutes.....it means nothing other than I will get done sooner and be no more enlightened. However, I am not saying just do one a day, like was said before start out slow and work your way up.

DGA's points are all really good. The point of reciting all this jargon and throwing yourself at the ground is not to punish yourself but to recognized your real nature, by prostrating you are paying respect to the guru and lineage and vowing to discover your real nature which is inseparable from the guru for the sake of all sentient beings. It should be a joyful, purifying and focused activity. Doing prostrations is a form of guru yoga, as are all the other parts of the ngondro.

Good luck and my all the blessing of the Buddha's create good circumstances for your practice.

Now this guy knows how to prostrate:

phpBB [video]

[Fortyeightvows]

Just to add this:
http://youtu.be/V65cMDNCz-w
This is from a monastic examination. At 1:35 is prostration

[TaTa]

Im young and skinny but i have had mayor low back pains so my lama advice me to use a table. Its really helpfull, not just because its a little bit eseaier but because i have a carpet and a small rom (actually a retreat hut) and i just through the table on the carpet and my hands can slide. I use to sucks to slide better and electronic counter. I really enjoy de practice but it took me a while to learn how to not get too dull or agitated with my practice. Mingyur rinpoche book on ngondro was REALLY, REALLY helpfull.

[kalden yungdrung]

Im young and skinny but i have had mayor low back pains so my lama advice me to use a table. Its really helpfull, not just because its a little bit eseaier but because i have a carpet and a small rom (actually a retreat hut) and i just through the table on the carpet and my hands can slide. I use to sucks to slide better and electronic counter. I really enjoy de practice but it took me a while to learn how to not get too dull or agitated with my practice. Mingyur rinpoche book on ngondro was REALLY, REALLY helpfull.

Tashi delek TT.

Ngondro is mostly a thing which is made on size.

Then it should not be based on unnecessary pain, and we should not say , that pain does belong to the practice because of karma.

If yes then it will be a painful experience and that can't be the case.

Regarding your back be careful, do not spoil it, you only have one spine in this live.

in case of doubts consult also your doctor. I guess you have maybe a job?

Mutsug.marro
KY

[TaTa]

Im young and skinny but i have had mayor low back pains so my lama advice me to use a table. Its really helpfull, not just because its a little bit eseaier but because i have a carpet and a small rom (actually a retreat hut) and i just through the table on the carpet and my hands can slide. I use to sucks to slide better and electronic counter. I really enjoy de practice but it took me a while to learn how to not get too dull or agitated with my practice. Mingyur rinpoche book on ngondro was REALLY, REALLY helpfull.

Tashi delek TT.

Ngondro is mostly a thing which is made on size.

Then it should not be based on unnecessary pain, and we should not say , that pain does belong to the practice because of karma.

If yes then it will be a painful experience and that can't be the case.

Regarding your back be careful, do not spoil it, you only have one spine in this live.

in case of doubts consult also your doctor. I guess you have maybe a job?

Mutsug.marro
KY

With time i learnd about my body and my limits, it took some time but now i feel a lot more confindent.

Luckily my job is to live and take care of a retreat center wich involves some physicall effort but its not the hardest thing in the world

[Tsultrim T.]

physical supports

Oven mitts. Not kidding.

This! I went through three pairs! Finally reinforced them with durable plastic bags from Nepal. They worked on boards, hardwood floors, stone and carpet.

I did my prostrations when I was younger, about 22-24 and averaged about 540 a day, split into 2 sessions. I wouldn't do more as I lost a lot of weight and started to have severe joint pain to the point where I couldn't continue. A few weeks I did 1000+ per day and it was too much personally. The best advice is keep doing some every day no matter what. Keeps the momentum going and the blessing stream flowing.

[Ayu]

I know people, who just do their 35 per day without counting at all.

I would like to add to this topic: in my case severe back problems arouse in the beginning, seemingly the prostrations were the cause. But with some tricks I continued the practice, anyhow without perfection - and my backproblems improved. Looking back on the phases of this practice it feels like I was digging myself through a big mountain of karmic hindrances. The physical hindrances improved and mentally I learned a lot about patience and motivation.

[Terma]

I have a board, it's 7 Feet long and 3 feet wide. A friend of mine made it for me and it's beautiful. It's made from solid 150 year old Douglas fir (it's stupid heavy too). It's elevated 4 inches off the ground on 4x4s, but I stand on top it so I don't get some kind of advantage. Maybe one day I'll wear a hole in it I also don't use gloves, but that can be a problem if you get sweaty hands. You do need something for your knees though.

All this speed demon prostration talk is disturbing....

Killing yourself is not the point (I used to be catholic masochist), but neither is prostrating in the most comfortable and convienent way either. People often use the excuse that they saw a Tibetan do it so it must be okay to blast out prostrations on some kind of spring board.

What's the difference between westerners and Tibetans busting out 100 in 15 minutes vs really concentrating on what thier doing and maybe doing 100 in 60 minutes? I am not sure or qualified to judge, but you do 100,000 so you can do one right. I am 250 lbs and I can do 100 prostrations in 20 minutes.....it means nothing other than I will get done sooner and be no more enlightened. However, I am not saying just do one a day, like was said before start out slow and work your way up.

DGA's points are all really good. The point of reciting all this jargon and throwing yourself at the ground is not to punish yourself but to recognized your real nature, by prostrating you are paying respect to the guru and lineage and vowing to discover your real nature which is inseparable from the guru for the sake of all sentient beings. It should be a joyful, purifying and focused activity. Doing prostrations is a form of guru yoga, as are all the other parts of the ngondro.

Great post.

I am still going through the the prostration portion of ngondro. A lot of the reason is laziness, which I can rectify. A small part is the various injuries I have picked up along the way forcing me to stop for a period and then start again slowly. I have realized that this is not something I am going to blow through very quickly, with the physical nature of the practice combined with time restrictions because of work and family life I am comfortable that it will be a "slow and steady" kind of thing instead. When I became somewhat comfortable with this, I began having more pure thoughts like "even if I do very little today and it takes me a long time to complete these prostrations, if I continue to gain more respect for the lineage and feel a closer connection to my Guru through doing the practice, then I will be quite pleased. This thought or approach really helped me to sink deeper into the practice, and not concern myself with speed or numbers.