Groundwork for Mahayana Mind-Training

 The first instruction in Mind-Training in Seven Points is:

Do groundwork first.

Tibetan instructions such as "Do groundwork first" can be deceptively concise. 

The Tibetan word for groundwork is ngon 'gro (pron. ngöndro) and in this text it is in the plural — do the different kinds of groundwork first.

In the context of Mahayana mind-training, there are three kinds of groundwork.

• General groundwork for spiritual practice, that is, practices that change your worldview,
• Specific groundwork for Mahayana mind-training, that is, practices that connect you with loving kindness and compassion, and
• Practice-session ground work, that is, what to do to bring emotional energy into practice.

General Groundwork for Spiritual Practice

What follows is a different approach to the general groundwork, that is, the four thoughts that turn the mind. 

Starting on pg. 58 in Wake Up to Your Life, I distinguish four aspects of any practice: purpose, method, effects, and result. Over the years, I have come to appreciate that a great deal of teaching, both oral and written, consists of descriptions of results that are meant to encourage and inspire. However, many people take these descriptions as practice instructions, i.e., method. This confusion is understandable, and it is unfortunate. 

Practice that is based on taking a description of a result as a method of practice is rarely effective. I know far too many people who, unaware of this distinction, have tried to do so for years or even decades without experiencing any result from their efforts. Many of them just came to the conclusion that they don't have the karma to practice effectively. This is very sad. 

I make a point of this distinction because when people do understand clearly what is method and what is result, their practice suddenly becomes effective and they find themselves able to understand and experience matters that they just could not do so before. 

In this spirit, here is a way to develop and deepen your motivation for practice by starting with your own yearning. Please let me know what you think.

Ask yourself, "Why do I practice?" or "Why do I practice mind-training?" If your answer is in words, go deeper. For instance, your answer might be "to attain buddhahood" or "to be able to help others" or "to be free of suffering." Whatever your answer, question it. Why do you want to attain buddhahood? Why do you want to be able to help others? Why do you want to be free of suffering? Go through these steps several times. For every answer you come up with, question it with "Why this?" Keep going until you cannot come up with any words. At that point, you will probably have a visceral feeling that you cannot put into words. 

That feeling, the one you feel viscerally but cannot name, is why you practice. 

Listen to it. Listen to it with your mind, with your heart, and with your body. To listen, you have to grow quiet in mind, heart, and body. When you do, that visceral feeling gradually becomes clearer. It begins to speak to you, but usually not in words. Do this at the beginning of every practice session.

Little by little, you may find that how you view life and practice changes. You may see that you are deeply fortunate to have the opportunity, the time, the inclination, and the wherewithal to spend part of your day practicing. Not many people do. The time you spend listening to yourself deeply becomes very precious.

Over time, and it may be a few days or a few months, as you continue to listen, you may come to appreciate that spiritual practice really is not just vitally important to you. It puts you in touch with something that is more meaningful to you than anything conventional life can offer. You see that everything conventional life can offer is transient, subject to change. Bit by bit, you make practice part of your life. As time passes, it becomes the core of your life, and you are able to practice consistently without struggle.

As your listening grows deeper, you may see that your struggles in life come from you. You cannot control what arises in life, but you might be able to do something about how you react or respond to the ups and downs. It is your life, and you alone are responsible for how you act. This is an inescapable fact, and it changes how you approach your life.

As you continue down this road, other understandings may arise. You see more and more clearly the difference between reacting and responding to the ups and downs of life, and you see that whenever you are carried away by your own feelings, things don't go so well. You begin to seek a different way of living, a way in which you are not ruled by your emotional reactions, a way in which you can see things clearly and not fall into confusion.

This is one way to lay a foundation for spiritual practice — by listening deeply to what your heart tells you about why you practice.

Specific Groundwork for Mahayana Mind Training

The specific groundwork is loving kindness and compassion. Taking and sending enhances and deepens those qualities, but it does not generate them. You have to develop a relationship with these two qualities first in order to do taking and sending. 

The loving kindness and compassion here are not ordinary loving kindness or ordinary compassion. They are spiritually motivated, that is, they arise from touching the pain of the world and the universality of the human condition. They are cultivated without regard to social or cultural contexts and their aim is the wish that every being go beyond the conceptual mind, know and experience the groundlessness of experience, and thus touch the peace and freedom that lies at the very core of our being.

There are many ways to cultivate loving kindness and compassion and equanimity and joy, that is, the four immeasurables.. For a power approach to the four immeasurables, see Chapter 7 in Wake Up to Your Life. For an ecstatic approach, see The Four Immeasurables—Practice.

Groundwork for Practice Sessions

As for the groundwork for a practice session, heartfelt prayer is one of the best ways to start. Again, touch into the unnameable feeling of why you practice. Feeling it viscerally, however it is in your body, reach out to what you want to know. Express that longing in a short prayer, and repeat it slowly, perhaps synchronizing it with your breathing. Pray for about 1/3 of your regular practice session.

One prayer that speaks to many people is:

Buddhas and bodhisattvas,

Wherever you may be,

Please help me to find a way.

Whatever your prayer, pray for what is beyond your current capabilities, understanding, or experience. In prayer, you are reaching out to what you do not know. With your reaching out, you start to form a relationship with what you are praying for. Through that relationship, through your own yearning, energy from that higher level of understanding and experience begins to flow into you. In reaching out this way, you raise the level of energy in your system, and that higher level of energy brings non-reactive emotional energy into your formal practice. It makes a difference.