What are the Preliminary Teachings?
What are the Preliminary Teachings?
"Focus on preliminary teachings for now and leave the chakra for later. They are not important yet." Grigoris
I am new to Buddhist practice, although I had already developed a meditation practice, and I have read a number of books by Buddhist authors. I want to structure my learning as best I can and I would love to know what are considered the "Preliminary Teachings."
Thank you in advance.
I am new to Buddhist practice, although I had already developed a meditation practice, and I have read a number of books by Buddhist authors. I want to structure my learning as best I can and I would love to know what are considered the "Preliminary Teachings."
Thank you in advance.
- Jangchup Donden
- Posts: 419
- Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 5:44 am
Re: What are the Preliminary Teachings?
I'd say the four thoughts that turn the mind to dharma, and teachings on bodhichitta.Bandi wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 12:56 am "Focus on preliminary teachings for now and leave the chakra for later. They are not important yet." Grigoris
I am new to Buddhist practice, although I had already developed a meditation practice, and I have read a number of books by Buddhist authors. I want to structure my learning as best I can and I would love to know what are considered the "Preliminary Teachings."
Thank you in advance.
Without renunciation for this life, and without bodhichitta the rest of the path is pointless.
Re: What are the Preliminary Teachings?
Seconded.Jangchup Donden wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 2:30 amI'd say the four thoughts that turn the mind to dharma, and teachings on bodhichitta.Bandi wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 12:56 am "Focus on preliminary teachings for now and leave the chakra for later. They are not important yet." Grigoris
I am new to Buddhist practice, although I had already developed a meditation practice, and I have read a number of books by Buddhist authors. I want to structure my learning as best I can and I would love to know what are considered the "Preliminary Teachings."
Thank you in advance.
Without renunciation for this life, and without bodhichitta the rest of the path is pointless.
The four thoughts and bodhicitta are absolutely essential and the key to all other practices.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
Re: What are the Preliminary Teachings?
Really, and truly... love and bodhicitta are the beginning and the result in a sense of ultimate bodhicitta. Impermanence, karma etc alsoBandi wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 12:56 am "Focus on preliminary teachings for now and leave the chakra for later. They are not important yet." Grigoris
I am new to Buddhist practice, although I had already developed a meditation practice, and I have read a number of books by Buddhist authors. I want to structure my learning as best I can and I would love to know what are considered the "Preliminary Teachings."
Thank you in advance.
Vajra fangs deliver vajra venom to your Mara body.
- Losal Samten
- Posts: 1591
- Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2014 4:05 pm
Re: What are the Preliminary Teachings?
Taranatha's Essence of Ambrosia clearly lays out in sequential and clear steps first how to develop a virtuous worldly mind, then building upon that how to develop the proper Hinayana mind of renunciation towards samsara, and then how to develop the Mahayana mind of twofold bodhicitta in order to benefit both oneself and others.Bandi wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 12:56 am "Focus on preliminary teachings for now and leave the chakra for later. They are not important yet." Grigoris
I am new to Buddhist practice, although I had already developed a meditation practice, and I have read a number of books by Buddhist authors. I want to structure my learning as best I can and I would love to know what are considered the "Preliminary Teachings."
Thank you in advance.
I can't think of a better preparatory Mahayana book, as it lays out its series of reasoning and contemplations both succinctly and completely.
Lacking mindfulness, we commit every wrong. - Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche
འ༔ ཨ༔ ཧ༔ ཤ༔ ས༔ མ༔
ཨོཾ་ཧ་ནུ་པྷ་ཤ་བྷ་ར་ཧེ་ཡེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།།
ཨཱོཾ་མ་ཏྲི་མུ་ཡེ་སལེ་འདུ།།
འ༔ ཨ༔ ཧ༔ ཤ༔ ས༔ མ༔
ཨོཾ་ཧ་ནུ་པྷ་ཤ་བྷ་ར་ཧེ་ཡེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།།
ཨཱོཾ་མ་ཏྲི་མུ་ཡེ་སལེ་འདུ།།
Re: What are the Preliminary Teachings?
Thank you all for your replies. By four thoughts, are you referring to the Four Noble Truths?
Re: What are the Preliminary Teachings?
The Four Thought that Turn the Mind
1) the difficulty of finding the freedoms and advantages of this precious human life
2) the impermanence of life,
which turn the mind away from the concerns of this life;
and the reflections on
3) the defects of samsara, and on
4) karma: cause and effect),
which turn the mind away from our attitudes and conduct with respect to future lives.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
- conebeckham
- Posts: 5718
- Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 11:49 pm
- Location: Bay Area, CA, USA
Re: What are the Preliminary Teachings?
Before "subtle body" practices, you should have learned, and engaged in, the trainings common to the so-called Hinayana and Mahayana paths.
These include: Reflection on the four thoughts, taking refuge in the three Jewels and three roots; developing altruistic intention (Bodhicitta) which includes the four immeasurables--Compassion, love, establishing others in bliss, and equanimity; making the Bodhisattva Vow part of your mental stream; Understanding Emptiness to some degree; purification practices such as Vajrasattva; Gathering the accumulation of Merit, which includes offering practices, such as mandala offerings and Seven Limbed practice, which includes praises, confession, etc.; Guru Yogas; and the Creation Stage of appropriate Yidam deities.
Taranatha's book, "Essence of Ambrosia," is a great guide, as is Gampopa's Jewel Ornament, Atisha's Graduated Path, Jigme Lingpa's "Words of My Perfect Teacher," and Tsong Khapa's LamRim Chenmo. What you read and follow may depend on your particular teacher's lineage affiliation, but all of these are worthwhile.
These include: Reflection on the four thoughts, taking refuge in the three Jewels and three roots; developing altruistic intention (Bodhicitta) which includes the four immeasurables--Compassion, love, establishing others in bliss, and equanimity; making the Bodhisattva Vow part of your mental stream; Understanding Emptiness to some degree; purification practices such as Vajrasattva; Gathering the accumulation of Merit, which includes offering practices, such as mandala offerings and Seven Limbed practice, which includes praises, confession, etc.; Guru Yogas; and the Creation Stage of appropriate Yidam deities.
Taranatha's book, "Essence of Ambrosia," is a great guide, as is Gampopa's Jewel Ornament, Atisha's Graduated Path, Jigme Lingpa's "Words of My Perfect Teacher," and Tsong Khapa's LamRim Chenmo. What you read and follow may depend on your particular teacher's lineage affiliation, but all of these are worthwhile.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།
"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།
"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
Re: What are the Preliminary Teachings?
Words is Patrul
Vajra fangs deliver vajra venom to your Mara body.
Re: What are the Preliminary Teachings?
Patrul was a tulku of Jigme Lingpa and Im sure Cone is well aware of this.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
Re: What are the Preliminary Teachings?
Prob just slip up
Vajra fangs deliver vajra venom to your Mara body.
Re: What are the Preliminary Teachings?
Thank you for the reading list. I'll be studying these books next.conebeckham wrote: ↑Tue Dec 11, 2018 6:39 pm Before "subtle body" practices, you should have learned, and engaged in, the trainings common to the so-called Hinayana and Mahayana paths.
Taranatha's book, "Essence of Ambrosia," is a great guide, as is Gampopa's Jewel Ornament, Atisha's Graduated Path, Jigme Lingpa's "Words of My Perfect Teacher," and Tsong Khapa's LamRim Chenmo. What you read and follow may depend on your particular teacher's lineage affiliation, but all of these are worthwhile.
- conebeckham
- Posts: 5718
- Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 11:49 pm
- Location: Bay Area, CA, USA
Re: What are the Preliminary Teachings?
Definitely a slip up!Crazywisdom wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 9:21 amProb just slip up
Good to keep my honest, and proper" though--thanks guys!
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།
"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།
"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
Re: What are the Preliminary Teachings?
conebeckham wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 6:31 pmDefinitely a slip up!
Good to keep my honest, and proper" though--thanks guys!
Vajra fangs deliver vajra venom to your Mara body.