NGONDRO

Although we do a hundred thousand prostrations and the same number of recitations of each of the five ngondro sections, practicing the ngondro is not simply a question of counting up numbers.

The real point of these preliminaries is to appreciate that this human life offers a rare opportunity for one to achieve liberation, to realize the urgency of doing so, to generate a strong conviction that the ordinary samsaric condition produces only suffering, and to realize that suffering comes about through karma, and is the effect of negative actions.

When we have a genuine understanding of these four points, the main point of ngondro has been realized. You should not merely think about them, but experience them in your very being. The correct practice of the preliminaries is to make this experience part of yourself.

- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche - The Excellent Path To Enlightenment - Shambhala Publications

Signs that the Common Preliminary Practices Have Penetrated the Mind

If you can devote your body unstintingly to the practice,
That is a sign of taking to heart the preciousness of the freedoms and advantages.

If you can view gold and dirt with equanimity and see them as equal,
That is a sign of having realized the illusory nature of transient things.

If you can regard the phenomena of samsara as your enemies,
That is a sign of crossing over the ocean of suffering.

If you can pay meticulous attention to your actions and their effects, adopting virtue and abandoning non-virtue,
That is a sign of finding the swift path that ascends the staircase to liberation.

If you can purify the negativity, defilements and habitual tendencies of your body, speech and mind,
That is a sign of closing the door to rebirth in samsara’s lower realms.

If you can keep the Three Jewels in your mind, so that they are never separate from it,
That is a sign of being hooked by the compassion of the supreme refuge.

If you know how to integrate emptiness and compassion in your mindstream,
That is a sign of bringing phenomena into the essence of awakening.

If you can meditate on how all beings have been your parents,
That is a sign of the arising of the sun and moon of the great vehicle.

If you can dispel the obscurations of the darkness of ignorance,
That is a sign of the dawning of clear light within immaculate space.

If you can carry the two accumulations onto the path continuously,
That is a sign of the maturing of the fruition of kāyas and wisdoms.

If you can see all that appears and exists arising in total purity as the lama,
That is a sign of reaching the pinnacle of Dzogchen yoga.

If you can recognize the vajra kāya of all-penetrating pure awareness,
That is a sign of transference into the timeless space of primordial purity.

If you can recognize the unity of the three kāyas in pure awareness,
That is a sign of the ripening of the fruition, which is Samantabhadra.

This brief summary of the signs showing that the common preliminary practices have penetrated the mind Was written in response to repeated requests from the assembly of my students, By the old beggar called Dündul. Through this merit may all beings be matured and liberated!

| Translated by Adam Pearcey, 2005.
Nyala Pema Dündul