Palyul: About the Four Foundations

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New to Buddhism
The Four Thoughts
The Three Doors
The Sangha
Refuge

Four Foundations/Ngondro:
Introduction
Mandala Offering

Practices:
21 Praises to Tara

Lineage:
Guru Rinpoche
Nyingma
The Palyul Lineage
Monastic Vows

Ngöndro is a collection of practices known as "The Four Foundations." These practices form the fundamental ground for all Tibetan Buddhist practice and for higher Dzogchen practice. His Holiness Penor Rinpoche gave the Nam Chö Ngöndro teachings and practice for the first time in India in 1980 to Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, Choktrul Rinpoche, Gyankhang Tulku, and three or four other tulkus. Also present were the only three Palyul khenpos living in India at that time, Khenchen Pema Sherab, Khenchen Namdrol, and Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso. During the one-month retreats offered at the monastery and upstate New York Retreat Center, His Holiness Penor practices the short Daily Practice version of the Ngöndro with the assembly of retreatants every day. Ngöndro is so powerful a practice that His Holiness has been known to allow students who are elderly who have not completed Tsa Lung Tummo practice but who have a very strong foundation in Ngöndro to recieve Dzogchen teachings. In any case, all that is contained and learned in Ngöndro is contained in the so-called "higher" practices.

As the foundation of the teachings of the Buddha Dharma, Ngondrö consists of contemplation, insight, purification, offering and devotion practices. First are what is known as the outer preliminaries which turn the mind towards the practice through contemplating the preciousness of human birth, impermanence, suffering, how cause and effect ("karma") work, and so on. Anyone Buddhist or not can practice the outer preliminaries. Second, are the inner preliminaries. This includes Refuge and Bodhicitta (loving-kindness practice), the Mandala Offering, Vajrasattva Purification, and Guru Yoga. Traditionally the student needs to complete 100,000 repetitions of each part of these preliminaries although the master may require more or less as the master judges from the student's capacity.