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 wish-

fulfilling 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.