How To Be Enlightened In One Life Time
(…information will only be of benefit when you make these thoughts your own…)

This is from “Rainbow Painting” by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche.
THE TRUE FOUNDATION. Page 132

“Let me tell you another essential point: until you have truly taken to heart and assimilated their truth within your being, continue to train in the general and specific preliminaries. These are the reflections on the ‘four mind-changes’ – the precious human body, on impermanence and morality, on the consequences of karmic actions, and on the negative characteristics of samsaric existence. The specific preliminaries are: taking refuge and making prostrations, generating bodhichitta, Vajrasattva recitations, mandala-offerings and guru yoga. It is common to all schools of Tibetan Buddhism to begin with these.

If we truly take the four mind-changes to heart, and reflect sincerely on the suffering of the six classes of beings, we will not find it difficult to do these preliminary practices. Otherwise we might think it was okay to just lay back and have a good time eating and drinking, with an attitude like, “Why bother to do exhausting things such as prostrations and mandala offerings?” In reality, these preliminaries are the foundation for attaining complete enlightenment. When you sincerely understand that, you can see the reason for this ‘work’.

However much you hear about the difficulties of obtaining human body and the value of renunciation, the will to be free, such information will only benefit when you make these thoughts your own. Right now you have the freedom to do so. Make no mistake; these four reflections are the very basis for the path of enlightenment. To build a house you need a stable foundation; if the foundation is good then a hundred-storied tower can be built on top of it. If you want to become enlightened in this very body and life, you need to bring about a deep shift in attitude, a shift that can take place by reflecting on these four mind-changes. On the other hand, if you only want to enjoy life’s pleasures, you’ll find Dharma practice to be extremely tiring. You will lose interest in it eventually if you think these four thoughts are unimportant. In fact you will not have any lasting interest in a spiritual path until you take them into your stream of being.

For example you hear talk about the view, about the teachings of Madyamika, Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Through these, you can attain enlightenment in one body and one lifetime; such precious teachings do exist. But it is a mistake not to take the four mind-changes as your foundation. To rely only on teachings about the view is like trying to arrive somewhere that can only be reached by flying, when you only have the capacity for walking. If we do not have the proper foundation there is no way to progress….”

Note from Tony:

Not everyone undertakes the specific preliminaries (the ngondro); this is mainly for engaging in the Varjrayana deity practices of Guru Yoga, which are a strong back-up if we are not firm in the view. The four mind-changes however, are essential for keeping us on the straight and narrow: the rare-to -obtain human body, the impermanence of this body and all things created, the result of all actions which never go unnoticed, and the frivolous pass-times we fixate upon in the collective confusion.

We need constant reminders that we want to be free, but this has to come from the depth of our heart. We don’t have to ‘do’ anything but recognise, and take that recognition to heart.

It is our raison d’être – the most important reason or purpose for someone or something’s existence.

We do need to be aware of all the distractions in life that keep us diverted – “Oh! By the way – Japan beat South Africa 34 to 32…” 😀 D D – and not fixate upon these.