Summary of Weeks 1 to 6

Graphic Summary

Related Diagrams

• Weeks 1-6 Topics (full-size)

Verbal Summary (with links)

• Teachings
  • Can transform our minds if we prepare by:
    • Cultivating the six recognitions
    • Avoiding the three pots
  • Should have three distinct characteristics
    • Taught by the Buddha
    • Clean of any errors
    • Realized by the great masters
  • Can be categorized by how they fit into:
    • The stages of the path
    • The three principal aspects of the path
• Teachers
  • Spiritual mentors should have certain qualities
  • Know the advantages of relying on a qualified teacher
  • Have an appropriate relationship with your teacher
  • Students need to have certain qualities too
• The Three Principal Aspects of the Path (the concept)
  • Renunciation
  • Bodhicitta
  • Wisdom (correct view)
• The Three Principal Aspects of the Path (the text)
  • Verse 1 (contains the pledge to compose)
  • Verse 2 (encourages the reader to study and practice)
  • Verse 3 (examines the reasons to develop renunciation)
    • The unsatisfactory nature of cyclic existence
    • We must end ignorance, craving, and grasping
  • Verse 4 (tells us how to develop renunciation for this life and future lives)
    • The eight worldly concerns (and their antidotes, the ten innermost jewels of the Kadampa)
    • The importance of practicing the Dharma
      • Create positive karma in order to attain a good rebirth
      • Create the causes for liberation and enlightenment
      • Practice thought training moment by moment
    • Precious human life
      • The eight freedoms and ten fortunes
      • The importance of our precious human life
      • The rarity and difficulty of attaining a precious human life
  • See also: Some "Nuggets" from the Teachings on Verses 3 and 4
• Analytical Meditation
  • Think deeply about the Dharma
  • Apply it to our own lives
  • Check: Is it logical, realistic, beneficial?
  • See also: How to Do Analytical Meditation
• Glance Meditation
  • Short, succinct thinking about the points of a particular meditation, in their proper order
  • Plants seeds of the various realizations on our mindstream
  • Helps us to remember the points and to understand how they fit together
  • Then we can go into the topics more extensively with analytical meditation
• Other topics from weeks 1-6:
  • The Four Immeasurables
  • The Seven-Limb Prayer
  • The Mandala Offering