Ngöndro: An Important Starting Point for Buddhist Practice

http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/ng-ndro-an-important-starting-point-for-buddhist-practice 

The Tibetan term Ngöndro (pronounced ‘no-gon-dro’ and known in Sanskrit as pūrvaka) refers to the preliminary, preparatory or foundational practices common to all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Ngöndro precedes the next level of practices of generation and completion. Literally translating, Ngön means ‘before’, and dro means ‘going’. So, Ngöndro means ‘before going or starting’ or ‘before setting out’. 

Ngak’chang Rinpoche says: “Before setting out on a journey, we have to know something about our intended destination and something about the route we propose to take. We have to look at the routes that are available to us, which means we have to make some inquiries. If we’re beyond journeys, that is to say, if we have the realization that our destination is exactly where we are, then whether we journey or not is irrelevant. We could wander, or we could remain in one place, it wouldn’t matter. Conversely, if we experience our world as decidedly unsatisfactory and if the quality of our experience still alternates energetically between happiness and sadness, the idea of taking the journey beyond dualistic fixations could be rather significant. But if we harbour ambitions for a destination, it makes that destination impossible to reach. The journey has to be the destination, if you really want to be a Tantrika. When the journey becomes the destination you discover that you’ve always been there.”

The point is that practicing Ngöndro might not change us at all. It is we who must change ourselves through the practice of Ngöndro. It ripens our mind stream and makes it flexible and adaptable towards dharma.  Ngöndro itself, like all Buddhist practices, will lead to realization of enlightenment – if one practices it properly.

Essentially Ngöndro consists of two preliminary practices; outer (common or ordinary) preliminaries and inner (special or extraordinary) preliminaries. Again, the outer has two parts; the outer-outer and the outer-inner. A brief of all these three is given below.

Before beginning to know of these practices one should know the origin of Ngöndro and the ancient secret history of its oral transmission and mind transmission treasures. It is expected that participants maintain this secrecy during and even after the retreat refraining from sharing its contents even casually with non-practitioners. Doing so is considered a violation on the path and attracts extremely bad karma.

       A. Outer preliminaries:

         To begin with the outer-outer of the common preliminaries explain to us the following: 

1.   Qualities of the teacher (Lama) and disciple
2.   How to rely on the Lama
3.   Behaviour or attitude while receiving teaching. 

        Then come the outer-inner of the common preliminaries which consist of a series of deep reflections on the following four topics:

1. Freedoms and advantages of precious human rebirth
2. Omnipresent truth of impermanence and change
3. Infallible working of the law of karma
4. All pervasive suffering of living beings within samsara

The above four contemplations are sometimes referred to as "The Four Reminders" or "The Four Mind-changers” or "The Four Thoughts” or “The Four Reflections”. These are not to be considered specific to Buddhism or Buddhists alone but upon examination one realizes that they are the reality of the world we live in! 

       B. Inner preliminaries

The special or extraordinary preliminaries consist of:

1. Taking of refuge in the three roots in conjunction with the performance of prostrations (purifying pride)
2. Cultivation of bodhichitta (purifying jealousy)
3. Recitations of Vajrasattva's hundred-syllable mantra (purifying hatred/aversion)
4. Mandala offerings (purifying attachment)
5. Guru yoga practices (purifying delusion)
6. Phowa (transfer of consciousness)

Ngöndro concludes with 100,000 repetitions of each of the above practices from 1 to 5 above. 

Suggested Reading: "Not For Happiness": Dzongzar Jamyang Khyentse  (Rinpoche)