Eight Worldly Dharmas
- Pleasure and pain, praise and blame, loss and gain, ill-repute and good name
Three Sufferings The suffering of…
- Suffering (the suffering of the headache itself)
- Change (the suffering of the fact that you didn’t have a headache and now you do)
- Transitory composite (the suffering of being a being that gets headaches, the vessel)
Memorize 9.1.1 to 9.3.2 - what you say as you prostrate, the refuge aspect of the practice
Visualize the Refuge Tree (Vajriogini is in the center of the yidams)
sikong = phrase in a pecha
Mahakala is the protector center
You want to connect the refuge prayer to the visualization.
The reason we do ngöndro is to purify negative karma and obscurations for the benefit of all beings. We are burning karma by experiencing discomfort in our practice. The practice should be done with joyful effort.
During the dissolution, you can simply visualize Vajradhara dissolving into you as you start. You should work toward visualizing the dissolving of…
- The protectors into the yidams
- The yidams into the buddhas
- The buddhas into the dharma
- The dharma into the sangha (bodhisattvas)
- The sangha into the gurus
- The gurus into Vajradhara
- And Vajradhara into you.
Once you have the order, you can visualize each member of each section dissolving into the main figure.
The first part of ngöndro is the refuge/bodhicitta part (prostrations). You will work toward 111,111 prostrations. You count the prostrations, not the amount of times you say the refuge prayers.