Do you practise meditation because you want to feel good? Or to help you relax and be happy? Then frankly, according to Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, you are far better off having a full-body massage than trying to practise the Dharma.
Khyentse shows that genuine spiritual practice, not least the Ngondro preliminaries, will not bring the kind of comfort and ease most worldly people crave. Quite the opposite, in fact. But if your ultimate goal is enlightenment, Ngondro practice is a must, and Not for Happiness your perfect guide, containing everything an aspiring practitioner needs to start to practise, including advice about:
- developing"renunciation mind"
- discipline, meditation and wisdom
- using your imagination in visualization practice
- why you need a guru
Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, Shambhala Publications, Paperback, 240 pages, $17.95
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse (Khyentse Norbu) is a Tibetan Buddhist Lama who travels and teaches internationally and is also an award-winning filmmaker. He is the abbot of several monasteries in Asia and the spiritual director of meditation centres in Vancouver, San Francisco, Sydney, Hong Kong and Taipei. He is also head of the Buddhist organization Siddharta's Intent.
Contents: Not for HAPPINESS: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse
|
|
|
|
Preface
|
ix
|
Introduction
|
1
|
|
|
PART ONE. WHY WE DO NGONDRO PRACTICE
|
|
1. What Is Dharma Good For?
|
13
|
2. The Casual and the Resultant Paths
|
33
|
3. Introduction to Ngondro Practice
|
41
|
4. Your Spiritual Warm-Up
|
51
|
5. Using Your Imagination
|
71
|
6. Why Do We Need a Guru?
|
81
|
|
|
PART TWO. THE NGONDRO
|
|
7. Taking Refuge
|
95
|
8. Arousing Bodhicitta
|
111
|
9. The Practice of Purification by Meditating on the Guru as Vajrasattva
|
137
|
10. Mandala Offering
|
151
|
11. Kusali Practice
|
173
|
12. Guru Yoga
|
177
|
13. Abhisheka and the Four Empowerments in Guru Yoga
|
191
|
14. Practice Advice
|
203
|
|
|
Acknowledgments
|
214
|
Notes
|
217
|
Index
|
220
|
|