Course Summary (Weeks 1 to 12)

Graphic Summary

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• Course Summary (Weeks 1-12) (full-size)
• Detailed Course Summary (Weeks 1-12) (full-size)

Verbal Summary (with links)

• Renunciation is the first of the Three Principal Aspects of the Path
  • The three principal aspects are:
    • Renunciation (determination to be free)
    • Bodhicitta (altruistic intention to become enlightened for the benefit of all sentient beings)
    • Wisdom (correct view of reality, of emptiness, the lack of inherent existence)
• WHY develop renunciation?
  • Verse 3 of the text The Three Principal Aspects of the Path tells us why to develop renunciation:

    For you embodied beings bound by the craving for existence, without the pure determination to be free (or renunciation) from the ocean of cyclic existence there is no way for you to pacify the attractions to its pleasurable effects. Thus from the outset seek to generate the determination to be free.

  • Cyclic existence is, by nature, unsatisfactory, because we are "embodied beings bound by the craving for existence."
  • We cannot "pacify the attractions to its pleasurable effects" until we end craving, grasping, and ignorance (the root causes of suffering or unsatisfactory conditions).
  • To do so, we must first "generate the determination to be free."
• HOW do we develop renunciation?
  • Verse 4 of the text The Three Principal Aspects of the Path tells us how to develop renunciation:

    By contemplating the leisure and endowment so difficult to find, and the fleeting nature of your life, reverse the clinging to this life. By repeatedly contemplating the infallible effects of karma and the miseries of cyclic existence, reverse the clinging to future lives.

  • We work to overcome the Eight Worldly Concerns. In order to do so, we apply the antidote of the Ten Innermost Jewels of the Kadampa.
  • We must clearly see the importance of practicing the Dharma.
  • We come to fully appreciate our precious human life, which includes recognizing:
    • the Eight Freedoms and Ten Fortunes
    • the value and importance of our precious human life
    • the rarity and difficulty of attaining a precious human life
  • We contemplate impermanence and death to help us remember not to waste precious time; this includes:
    • considering the disadvantages of not contemplating death
    • considering the advantages of contemplating death
    • doing the Nine-Point Death Meditation
    • doing the Imagining Our Own Death meditation
  • We examine how karma keeps us bound in cyclic existence by familiarizing ourselves with:
    • the four general characteristics of karma
    • the ten destructive actions
    • the ten constructive actions
    • the four results of karma
    • the factors that make karma heavy or light
  • We recognize the sufferings of cyclic existence by considering:
    • the uselessness of trying to "fix" samsara
    • the six sufferings of cyclic existence
    • the eight sufferings of human beings
    • the three kinds of suffering
    • the Four Noble Truths
• WHEN have we developed renunciation?
  • Verse 5 of the text The Three Principal Aspects of the Path tells us how to know when we've developed renunciation:

    By contemplating in this way, do not generate even for an instant the wish for the pleasures of cyclic existence. When you have, day and night unceasingly, the mind aspiring for liberation, you have generated the determination to be free.