Second is about doing a Preliminary Ngöndro. You have to understand that the prostration, Vajrasattva, mandala, all these are not “preliminary”. Everything is preliminary. You understand? So every practice that we do is a preliminary. There’s no such practice that we do without a prayer to the Three Jewels, therefore even a four sentence is a preliminary.
Preliminary does not mean you have to recite 100,000 each, you know? There’s no such bodhisattva or great master who said “I read this 100,000 times so therefore I got enlightened”. None of them became enlightened based on the accumulation of numbers. They became enlightened by having a sense of awareness of their own distraction and having a sense of clarity of what they are observing in their mind, and what is influencing into their mind, and what is the method to overcome. Then using the Dharma as a method to overcome, and to practice, that makes them great master and enlightened being, you know?
So therefore preliminary practice should not be seen only in, you know, “100,000 of this, 100,000 of that” but we should see any form of practice as a preliminary, because everything has a preliminary. So keep your mindset more vast, I think that is very important.
I used to have a mindset like you, you know? Very fixated, very militaristic mindset. Very “I have to do this, I have to finish that”. It’s good in the beginning, but eventually you get exhausted, you get tired of it, and then you start to understand, the more biography you read, you start to understand what is the real meaning of the Dharma practice, you know? So that’s that.
Read the biography of great different masters. Not necessarily so much into a tantric yogi path, but just a genuine history of a great different masters. I think that is very important.
Kalu Rinpoche
FB Livestream – 7 February 2022 (22’12”)
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