The following outline is from the book The Great Path of Awakening: The Classic Guide to Lojong (Mahayana Mind Training) by Jamgon Kongtrul, and translated by Ken McLeod.
The Groundwork: Instruction on What Supports the Dharma
- First, do the groundwork.
The Actual Practice: Training in Bodhicitta
Ultimate Bodhicitta
2. Look at all experience as a dream.
3. Examine the nature of unborn awareness.
4. Let even the remedy release naturally.
5. The essence of the path: rest in the basis of all experience.
6. In daily life, be a child of illusion.
Relative Bodhicitta
7. Train in taking and sending alternately.
Put them on the breath.
8. Three objects, three poisons, three seeds of virtue.
9. Use reminders in everything you do.
10. Begin the sequence of taking with you.
The Transformation of Adversity into the Path of Awakening
11. When misfortune fills the world and its inhabitants,
Make adversity the path of awakening.
Relative Bodhicitta
12. Drive all blame into one.
13. Be grateful to everyone.
Ultimate Bodhicitta
14. The ultimate protection is emptiness;
Know what arises as confusion to be the four aspects of being.
Special Practices
15. The best way is to use the four practices.
16. Work with whatever you encounter, immediately.
The Utilisation of the Practice in One’s Whole Life
What to do During One’s Life
17. A summary of the essential instructions: Train in the five forces.
What to do at Death
18. The mahayana instructions for how to die
Are the five forces. Posture is important.
The Extent of Proficiency in Mind Training
19. All instructions have one aim.
20. Two testimonies: rely on the important one.
21. A joyous state of mind is a constant support.
22. Proficiency means you do it even when distracted.
Commitments of Mind Training
23. Always train in three basic principles.
24. Change your intention, but behave naturally.
25. Don’t talk about others’ shortcomings.
26. Don’t dwell on others’ problems.
27. Work on your strongest reactions first.
28. Give up any hope for results.
29. Give up poisoned food.
30. Don’t rely on a sense of duty.
31. Don’t lash out.
32. Don’t wait in ambush.
33. Don’t go for the throat.
34. Don’t put an ox’s load on a cow.
35. Don’t be competitive.
36. Don’t make practice a sham.
37. Don’t turn a god into a demon.
38. Don’t look to profit from sorrow.
Guidelines for Mind Training
39. Use one practice for everything.
40. Use one remedy for everything.
41. Two things to do: one at the beginning, one at the end.
42. Whatever happens, good or bad, be patient.
43. Keep these two, even if your life is at risk.
44. Learn to meet three challenges.
45. Foster three key elements.
46. Take care to prevent three kinds of damage.
47. Engage all three faculties.
48. Train on every object without preference.
49. Training must be broad and deep.
Always work on what makes you boil.
50. Don’t depend on extraneous conditions.
51. Practice what’s important now.
52. Don’t get things wrong.
53. Don’t switch on and off.
54. Train wholeheartedly.
55. Find freedom by probing and testing.
56. Don’t boast.
57. Don’t be hypersensitive.
58. Don’t be impulsive.
59. Don’t expect thanks.
Concluding Verses
As the five kinds of decay spread,
This practice changes them into the way of awakening,
This instruction, the essence of elixir,
Is a transmission from Serlingpa.
The awakening of the karmic energy of previous training
Aroused intense interest in me.
Therefore, I ignored suffering and criticism
And sought instruction for subduing ego-clinging.
Now, when I die, I’ll have no regrets.
Source: Based on Kongtrul, Jamgon. The Great Path of Awakening: The Classic Guide to Lojong, a Tibetan Buddhist Practice for Cultivating the Heart of Compassion. Translated by Ken McLeod. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, 2005.
First, train in the preliminaries.
The preliminaries are also known as the four reminders. In your daily life, try to:
(1) Maintain an awareness of the preciousness of human life.
(2) Be aware of the reality that life ends; death comes for everyone.
(3) Recall that whatever you do, whether virtuous or not, has a result; what goes around comes around.
(4) Contemplate that as long as you are too focused on self-importance and too caught up in thinking about how you are good or bad, you will suffer. Obsessing about getting what you want and avoiding what you don’t want does not result in happiness.
(Pema Chodron, The Compassion Book: Teachings for Awakening the Heart)