Lamrim Meditation Outline

Lamrim Meditation Outline

Essential Daily Practice Advice
Date of Advice:
October 2013
Date Posted:
June 2014

A student wrote to Rinpoche explaining his daily practice and asking if he should be doing anything different.

If you still have time, read some of the lam-rim every day, such as Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Read a little each day, depending on how much time you have. You can read it slowly and that still becomes meditation. Anything that you don’t understand, write it down in a notebook and at a later time ask an older student who has studied the lam-rim well, or ask Geshe-la. So, read the lam-rim from beginning to end three times. This is called effortful meditation.

Then do effortless meditation on guru devotion. Try to have the realizations by training the mind and by following the outline, no matter how many weeks or month or years it takes, until you see from your side every guru that you have a Dharma connection with as the Buddha and every buddha is all the gurus. If you see every guru is all the buddhas, without effort, all the time, for weeks, months and years, then that is the realization. So each day do some amount of meditation on guru devotion. In the same day, you can do the meditation renouncing this life, so continue like this, one-by-one, until you have realizations.

Next is meditation on the gradual path of the middle capable being—seeing the suffering of human beings, devas, sura and asura beings; then there is suffering of samsara, the twelve links, the evolution of samsara, all those. Carry on meditating until you see samsara as a prison, like being in the center of a fire, until you have no interest and don’t want to be there even for a minute or a second. You need a stable realization that lasts for weeks, months and years, then after that, you need realization on bodhicitta. Use whichever method is more effective for you—exchanging oneself for others or the seven techniques—so train in both, sometimes using one method and sometimes using the other. Do it like that or you can do more, based on whichever one is more effective for you.

Next is emptiness. You also need to do some meditation on emptiness every day, even for five minutes or for however much time you want—short or long. You can do this by reciting the Heart Sutra or any verses on emptiness and thinking about the meaning. Even use this verse from The King of Logic: “The dependent arising: The I is not truly existing one.” So meditate on that, try to recognize that and then see that is the false I; that is empty.

Meditate on dependent arising and on the Prasangika view—the subtle dependent arising on the valid base, the aggregates. Gathered on that, the mind has a valid mind, merely imputed on the I, existing extremely subtly. It is unbelievably, unbelievably, unbelievably subtle, existing in mere name, merely labeled by the mind, therefore it does not exist at all from its own side. Meditate like that. [Excerpted from advice given in October 2013; see here for full advice.]

 

Lamrim Meditation
Date Posted:
November 2013

Advice given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche outlining how to meditate on the lamrim, the graduated path to enlightenment. Please note: The length of time advised by Rinpoche for meditation on each lamrim topic varies for each individual.

For effortful realizations, first read a lamrim text, such as the Lamrim Chenmo, the Middle-Length Lamrim or Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, completely. Lama Tsongkhapa’s Middle-Length Lamrim is the same as studying the Lamrim Chenmo. The Middle-Length Lamrim is very good, and then shorter than that is Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, which is simpler. Then smaller than that is Essence of Refined Gold and The Happy Path.

You have to study one lamrim text from beginning to end, and you can write down in a notebook anything that you don’t know or understand and then at a later time ask an older student who has studied the lamrim very well, or ask a geshe and check up like that. Then you can discuss any questions you have, and sometimes you can ask me. If I know then I will answer.

Then you need to practice effortful meditation, which leads into effortless meditation and experience. Of course, while practicing effortful meditation, realizations can happen at that time.

Meditate on the lamrim outlines for the number of months I have indicated:1

  • Guru devotion: one to three months
  • The graduated path of the lower capable being: one to eleven months
  • The graduated path of the middle capable being: two to nine months
  • The graduated path of the higher capable being:
    • Bodhicitta: one to seven months
    • Emptiness: one to eleven months

Guru yoga meditation is the root of the path, so you need to gain a stable realization of this, seeing all the gurus as a buddha and all the buddhas as the guru. Keep going until there’s no separation, from the bottom of your heart.

Keep going step-by-step, following the lamrim outlines for the path of the three capable beings. If you do not gain the realizations, practice the meditations again and again until you generate renunciation of this life and future lives, and bodhicitta. In order to have realizations of the lamrim, you also need to practice purification and collect merits by receiving the blessings of your guru.

Then do effortless meditation, no matter how many weeks, months or years it takes. Continue until you have stable realizations of guru devotion, until you see the one guru as all the buddhas from your side and one buddha is all the gurus, that you received Dharma connection from. You see that one hundred percent and you are able to see that for a long time, without effort.

If possible, each day also do a little bit of meditation on the graduated path of the lower capable being, the different levels. Meditate on the perfect human rebirth until you see from your side how precious this human body is, more precious than a wish-granting jewel, than skies of wish-granting jewels. This human body is most precious. Continue until you feel this—how it is most precious—for months and years without effort, and go on like that relating to each meditation. After that, meditate on its usefulness, how it is difficult to find again, etc. Then impermanence and death, which has the nine-round meditation, then the sufferings of the lower realms, refuge and karma.

After you have these realizations you can train the mind in the graduated path of the middle capable being, particularly the sufferings of the deva and human realms, the general sufferings, the six and twelve types and the twelve links, until you see that samsara is like being in the center of a fire or like being in prison, it’s so unbelievable. Then without effort you will have renunciation, wanting to be free from samsara, every second without effort.

Then meditate on bodhicitta until the thought to achieve enlightenment arises day and night without effort, and every person that you see, you want to achieve enlightenment for them.

After generating bodhicitta, put more emphasis on tantra—the generation and completion stages. You can do more meditation on the generation stage—try to train mind in that, while also doing a little completion stage to leave imprints.

You should meditate on emptiness every day by reading the Heart Sutra, the Four-Point Analysis or even one verse or one stanza on emptiness.

So you realize the real I—what appears, what you trust in—is false. Recognize it as false and then see it as empty, after that see it is totally empty, it does not exist. From the beginning by training the mind in that, you see this as a result. What you realize first is ultimate truth and through that you realize the truth for the all-obscuring mind—that the I exists in mere name. You realize that as result, the I is merely labeled by the mind, so you see, I exists in mere name and because it exists in mere name that’s why it is empty, so unified emptiness and dependent arising. When you realize that, you have completed the understanding of emptiness.

Continue in that, by training the mind in that, you achieve great insight meditation, emptiness with the realization of shinä, calm abiding, deriving rapturous ecstasy of body and mind. By training the mind in that, it leads to the direct perception of emptiness, which ceases the seed of delusion, then there is no delusion and karma, no suffering, and we achieve nirvana, we achieve the ultimate nature of the mind, free from delusion and karma.

With the support of bodhicitta we develop the ultimate wisdom. By developing ultimate wisdom, the direct perception of emptiness, with the supporting method, bodhicitta and so forth, then we can achieve full enlightenment. We are able to cease the subtle obscurations and complete the mind in all the realizations, and then become a perfect guide, to do perfect works for sentient beings.

After actualizing bodhicitta, put more emphasis on tantra—the generation and completion stages. You can do more meditation on the generation stage—try to train mind in that—while also doing a little completion stage, just to leave imprints.

Notes

1 The length of time advised by Rinpoche varies for each individual. [Return to text]

The Purpose of Becoming a Monk
Date of Advice:
August 2013
Date Posted:
November 2013

A student asked Rinpoche about ordination and practices. Rinpoche responded with the following advice.

Start with guru devotion and meditate on that for however many months, years or even lifetimes it takes, however long it takes to get the realization. Then do the same with the path of the lower capable being, meditating for however long it takes to get the realization. Then the path of the middle capable being and the path of the higher capable being. It’s up to you how many meditations you do each day—it can be three, two or one. After this, do the effortless meditation. [Excerpted from advice given in August 2013; see here for full advice.]