VAJRADHARA BUDDHA MAHAMUDRA NGONDRO TEACHING TAUGHT BY VENERABLE SONAM TENZIN RINPOCHE

VAJRADHARA BUDDHA MAHAMUDRA NGONDRO TEACHING TAUGHT BY VENERABLE SONAM TENZIN RINPOCHE

HOMAGE TO OUR PRECIOUS GURU : VENERABLE SONAM TENZIN RINPOCHE

CONTENT 1) Generating Bodhicitta Mind 2) Importance of Four Ordinary Foundations 3) Precious Human Life 4) Impermanence 5) Karma Cause and Effect 6) Samara Suffering 7) Conclusion

1. GENERATING BODHICITTA MIND Good afternoon everyone. I am very happy to see many students here to receive Ngondro teaching because Ngondro is extremely important in dharma practice. When we are learning dharma, the most importance is generating bodhicitta mind. All of you come here to learn Ngondro and the purpose should not be just for yourselves. We are here learning Ngondro to bring benefits to all the sentient beings. All sentient beings are like our mother. You can observe your mother in this life. How much she cares of us, how much she loves us, how much she concentrates on us. You should think this way: I wish to take the mother sentient beings to the enlightenment. That s the reason I practise four ordinary foundations and four extraordinary foundations. Why do we need to generate bodhicitta mind? Because generating bodhicitta mind and without generating bodhicitta mind when we practise Dharma brings different result. I can give you an example: with bodhicitta mind, it is like lighting a candle in a dark room, the brightness can spread to the whole area. Without generating bodhicitta mind, it is like when you light up a candle covered by a cup, it only benefits a small area. Generating bodhicitta mind and without generating bodhicitta mind can make such difference. That s the reason why generating bodhicitta mind is extremely important to whatever thing we do. When we do Dharma practice, when we do charity, whatever we do, if we can have bodhicitta mind, then everything is pure, everything is beneficial to ourselves and all sentient beings. So, with bodhicitta mind, you will start receiving the teaching of the four ordinary foundations.

2. IMPORTANCE OF FOUR ORDINARY FOUNDATIONS The four ordinary foundations are essential. The foundations are called as Ngondro. Ngon means beginning while Dro means practice. In the Sadhana, there are four ordinary foundations and four extraordinary foundations. Why should we practise four ordinary foundations? Why do we call them as foundations? I explain in an ordinary way: For example, when we want to build up a building, we need a nice land and an engineer. Then, we make structure so we can build up the building. Then, only we can build up a building of 90 or 100 levels. Similarly, when we practise dharma, we also need foundation. You can notice that there are many practitioners who are not very persistent in their practice. Sometimes, they only practise Dharma occasionally. So, it is paramount that we learn four ordinary foundations and extraordinary foundations. Even some practitioners who have been practising dharma for 20 years, 30 years or 40 years, they do not obtain much benefits. Consequently, they will give up and would rather turn into Christians. When people turn out to be like this, it s not dharma s fault, it is due to the insufficient foundation practice. When we have enough foundation practice, no matter physical, mental, external, internal or secret obstacles, no matter what obstacles come, we can analyse and understand them so we will not give up Dharma easily or turn out to be the followers of other religions. That s the reason that it is very important to practise four ordinary and extraordinary foundations. Foundation is vital. There are four ordinary and extraordinary foundations. If we have foundations, we can easily handle many situations. Without foundations, not only dharma, for example if you study anything without foundations, you are unable

to understand anything. Why do we call them as foundation? I will give you some illustrations. For instance, you cannot directly go to the university, you have to go through the kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and then after that you can go to the university. Similarly, when we practise dharma, we need to understand all the foundations. Now, we will practise the four ordinary foundations, after that it comes the four extraordinary foundations. We should purify our body, speech and mind by practising the first three ordinary foundations so that during the practice of the fourth extraordinary foundation which is the guru yoga, we can receive blessing. After that, even when we practise other dharma or Mahamudra meditation, we can realise them easily and it is very beneficial to us. Without having these foundations, it will be very difficult to understand the dharma and get good result. 3. PRECIOUS HUMAN LIFE Now, let s look at page 6 of the Sadhana. When we start practising the 4 ordinary foundations, we should firstly understand the precious human life. After reading the four sentences, we can start meditating. The meaning of the first line is as following: it is very difficult to get a wish-fulfilling jewel. When we get the wishfulfilling jewel, whatever we homage or wish can be fulfilled. However, it is more difficult to obtain a precious human life than the wish-fulfilling jewel. How do we get the precious human lives? For many lives, many eons of human lives, due to the accumulation of merit, we get the good result of becoming a human. Are we qualified to be a human? If we are, it means for many lives, we have accumulated merit and this is the cause of good result. We have these precious human lives and if we practise very diligently, we will be able to achieve enlightenment. Such a good

opportunity is in our hand, we should not simply waste our precious human lives. How can we make it meaningful? Practise dharma. We have to practise diligently without wasting our lives, not even one hour, one minute or one second. There are many ways to make our lives meaningful for example meditation, visualisation, recitation, prostrations. Why should we think so? Because there are only a few people know how precious to get human life. We can think of the three lower realms and compare them to the human realm. We have to think: how many sentient beings in the six realms can really practise dharma, frankly speaking, not many. Only human beings have the capabilities to listen to the dharma and let the dharma to enter into our mind. If we are reborn into three realms, we don t have the opportunity to learn dharma, we don t even can hear a single word. Luckily, we are not born into the three realms. So, we have to know how precious the human life compare to the other realms is. Some animals are extremely intelligent but they are unable to understand dharma, no matter how much you try to explain or how hard you try to teach them that we can liberate to the Amitabha pure land, they can t understand it, not even a single word. So for the human beings, we are very smart, we understand it, we appreciate and we can practise dharma to make our lives more meaningful. Without understanding the precious human life, it is very difficult to have the devotion to maintain diligence of dharma practice. Nowadays, the people who have money and position are reluctant to practise dharma, they would rather enjoy their lives. We should not think like that because we do not know when will the next impermanence comes. Before impermanence comes, day by day, month by month, year by year, we have to prepare for our death. We know all of us are born from

mother womb and we all die. That s the reason it brings to the second part of the preliminary practice, which is the impermanence. 4. IMPERMANENCE Now we understand how precious this body, this human life is. Secondly, we should know that even though we have this precious human life, it is not permanent. Buddha says, Nothing lasts forever. Nothing is unchangeable, everything is changeable. This leads to the second part. The external world, up to the universe, everything is magical. Even now, we can see the cloud and sky is changing every day and even every minute. Nowadays, some cold area becomes hot, some hot area becomes cold. Impermanence also includes all the enlightened beings, like Buddha Shakyamuni. Buddha was born in Nepal and eventually entered parinirvana. So, even all the enlightened beings, Vajra bodies, when they are reborn from the mother s womb, they will finally enter the parinirvana. Our bodies are very similar to the water bubble. Without mother s care, we might die immediately. All the Buddhas, bodhisattvas and the enlightened beings talk about the impermanence, especially Shantideva. He said, I cannot really guarantee if I m going to die today. So, we don t know when will the impermanence comes, when will we die. That is how much our bodies are impermanent. Some Kadampa lamas say: our lives are much like candle on the roof. We don t know the direction of wind. However, unfortunately, we don t really realise that. We always do some preparations, thinking that we have long lives, never think that we are going to die. Whatever preparations that we do, building house and so on, we always think that things last long, but in reality, they don t. In Kuala Lumpur, many buildings are

still here but the builders are no longer here, this is because our lives will not last longer than those buildings. 80 or 90 years old is already a very rare case nowadays. Why should we contemplate about impermanence? Without thinking impermanence, it is very unlikely that we will practise dharma. We will always exclude something due to laziness. Therefore, we should practise impermanence. Shantideva says, When we breathe in and out, it is amazing! When evening we go to bed and we still can wake up in the next morning, it is amazing! This has illustrated how well Shantideva thinks about impermanence. Thus, before impermanence comes, we have to practise dharma very diligently. We can also think: how many people who are younger than us have already passed away; how many people who are older than us have already passed away; how many people who have same age with us have already passed away. If we contemplate it very seriously, the impermanence is actually shown very profoundly. Without realising ourselves, friends and some relatives die, we will think that these incidents are just like history but not something that will happen on us. That s the reason we are still stuck in the samsara. If we have the renunciation towards samsara, we will practise dharma very diligently. Then, we are no longer stuck in the samsara. 5. KARMA CAUSE AND EFFECT Firstly, precious human life, secondly, impermanence. Thirdly, it is the karma cause and effect. A lot of people talk about karma, however, the people who really understand or believe how karma works are very rare. Whatever we do, say or show action has its own karma effect. Last time, when I was in America giving meditation teaching, a little boy asked me, Many people talk about karma, what you think?

Then, he continued, Many people don t know how karma works, but I understand it precisely. Then, I asked him, How does it work? He said, Karma is like playing basketball, when you hit a ball towards a wall, the ball will come back to you. Therefore, whatever you create, good or bad, it comes back to you, and it is not going to be shared by your father, mother or your family. It is very true, he can understand it very deeply. Unfortunately, not many people understand it. Sometimes when you see people fall down on a slippery road, you will say, Oh, this is your karma! Poor karma. You talk about karma without understanding it! However, everything is related to karma. When we put barley seed into ground, barley plants will come out; when we put rice into ground, barley will not be grown there. Whatever we create, the negative karma will make us suffer; whatever we create, the positive karma can bring us good result, happiness, and good health. If we create negative karma, we are reborn into the three realms, even after that, we are reborn into human realm, we will be suffering physically, mentally or financially. When we undergo the 10 virtue actions, it will result in the rebirth in precious human life and eventually leads to enlightenment. Whoever engages in negative thoughts, those thoughts create negative karma. If we undergo 10 virtue actions every day, in future, we are reborn into the precious human life and possess good qualities. We can not only hear the karma effects, but also see the karma effects clearly. In this earth, if we just talk about human beings, you can notice some people live in luxurious conditions and have successful lives due to the duty of positive karma in the past lives. Some people who are not rich but not really having difficult lives, they did not create much negative karma and they did something good in the past lives. That s why they have a stable life. There is another

kind of people: No matter how hard they try, everything fails. They have unsuccessful lives, they always fall sick and have family as well as financial problem. This is not others fault, this is not the Earth s fault. Due to the duty of the negative karma, this can result in very difficult conditions. Every karma cause and effect can be seen very clearly. That s why Buddhas and bodhisattvas say that the karma is as indestructible and determined as Vajra. Even if we create a very small karma, it can turn out to be a very big result. That s why we have to purify our karma. 6. SAMSARA SUFFERING After we understand the karma cause and effect, it comes to the fourth part, which is the suffering of samsara. Kye Ma means sadly. Why do we feel sad? Because there are so much sufferings, three types and four types of sufferings. We always think that we are the most intelligent beings. However, we put the effort in the wrong place, in the ordinary way. From 18 years old, for 40 or 50 years, if that much of effort is put into dharma, then we are very profound practitioners. However, we do not. We put the effort in the ordinary ways like family, ordinary education, ordinary work and meanwhile, we create so much negative karma for instance, cheating, lying and all the bad things. All the effort which is put into the ordinary lives, it might be beneficial to our living but it is not beneficial to our death. We create so much negative karma and that s why we are reborn in the samsara. All the efforts are meaningless. So, what things we can do to make our lives more meaningful? Only if we practise dharma very diligently and understand dharma very precisely. From the beginning, so many lifetimes, we are reborn and dead, all the things we do are really meaningless. From now on, we cannot believe the ordinary things. In contrast, we

should believe in dharma and practise dharma very diligently and wish to free from suffering. We should think that way. So, these are the four ordinary foundations. Why do we say samsara is full of suffering? The six realms, especially the three realms, when you compare them to the precious human lives, you can see how much difference there are. Although we can t see through the hell realms, we can imagine and see the animal realm. For example, the sea animals. Humans catch them and then put them into containers. They have no chance to breathe and eat. When they bring the sea animals to the seafood restaurant, people think the food is very delicious and fresh. Then, they order the seafood. The chef put the sea animals into hot water or boiling oil so they can cook. If we have this experience, you can imagine how much we can take that, how can we bear the suffering? That s the reason why Buddha says the samsara is full of suffering. Moreover, we can observe the wild animal. When we watch the National Geographic, we can see that within 24 hours, the animals are eating, chasing and haunting each other. They cannot even swallow water peacefully because they are afraid of being hunted. When they are eating fresh grass, they are also constantly worried. That kind of life, how unbearable it is! That s the reason Buddha calls it samsara. Even in the precious human life, we also have so much suffering. When we are reborn from the mother s womb, even though we cannot really remember that moment, mother and child are very close to death. Without mother, we cannot survive. There are so much sufferings. We are constantly suffering until we are grown up. When we grow up, we experience sickness suffering. Sometimes you can see someone says, If I have a great chance to free from the sickness, I can visit my friends and family, I can eat this and that. There are so much sufferings until that person feels that the days and nights are so

long. When we are getting older, it is even worse. When we are not able to hear, to see a great distance and cannot walk smoothly, there are so much suffering. Milarepa says, When we are old, we can feel that hundreds of kilos of salt are carried at our back as we sit down, we feel that our feet are pulled out from the ground when we stand. We can notice, whoever lies in the hospital, especially those who don t have dharma mind, don t listen to the dharma or have no experience in dharma practice, when they are sick and die, there are so much suffering. It is not like water being dropped onto the ground or light being switched off. It s not that easy! All channels in our bodies will break down each time when our breath stops. We will have that experience very strongly. That s the reason why people s teeth can nearly cut the tongue and lips and all the dirty things come out. It is because of the nervousness to death. That s the suffering of the samsara. So, would we like to rebirth into the samsara again and again? If we are reborn in the precious human lives and we practise dharma very diligently, we can end the samsara. We have precious human lives. There are many masters who practise dharma, especially the four ordinary foundations. So, we should strengthen our devotion to practise dharma by having a strong feeling of escaping from the samsara. 7. CONCLUSION That s the reason we should understand the four ordinary foundations. Without good understanding, we cannot realise the precious human life, impermanence, karma cause and effect and the suffering of samsara. Some of us cannot understand how much sufering and exists of samsara. Therefore, we should practise four ordinary foundations. When we practise this four ordinary foundations

during morning or evening, we can contemplate about each of the ordinary foundations and meditate 7 minutes. You can think or read from book and meditate. We should practise four ordinary foundations, firstly, the precious human life, secondly, impermanence, thirdly, karma cause and effect, fourthly, the suffering of samsara, or else, your dharma practice will be very unstable. Why? Because we don t understand the four ordinary foundations very precisely. If we practise four ordinary foundations, no matter physical, mental or financial, all these will be in good condition. I can tell you a story, it is a true story in America. I do not make it up. In 2010, the economy in America is very bad, one lama has two disciples, and both of them are businessmen. When the economy is in crisis, the businesses of that two men are affected also and they even went bankrupt. One of the lama students is a very profound practitioner. He always take dharma seriously. On the other hand, another disciple did not practise very diligently, he is not a very profound practitioner. During bankruptcy, they are very depressed, especially the one who did not take dharma very seriously. He has many negative thoughts in his mind and even tried to commit suicide many times. However, many people tried to stop him and he did not suicide successfully. The practitioner who practise dharma very diligently is more optimistic. Buddha says, Everything is impermanent, everything is changeable, and nothing is unchangeable. The disciple said, Now I can realise impermanence, the failure does not matter. No matter how much wealth I have built up, I will eventually leave this life with empty hands. Now, I can truly know Buddha s teaching. Despite the hardship that he faced, he can still be happy and smile. Otherwise, if one does not understand impermanence, he or she will commit suicide and do the negative things.

That is the part of four ordinary foundations. We should apply what we learned here into our daily lives. Now, we will talk about the four extraordinary foundations. Page 13.