The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche has carefully designed a graduated and complete Buddhist practice path that members of Nalandabodhi follow as their main journey of meditation. Under his direction, senior students are trained as Practice Instructors (PIs) who work with Ponlop Rinpoche's newer students, serving as guides and friends both in local Nalandabodhi centers and with the larger worldwide membership.
Meditation instruction is available at all Nalandabodhi centers, and anyone seeking basic meditation instruction is welcome to study with us. "Fresh Heart: a Meditation Course for the Curious" is a five-session class designed to introduce those new to the practice of meditation to basic techniques designed to facilitate a calm body and cultivate a steady mind. This is also an opportunity to meet some of the Practice Instructors and become familiar with a local center.
What follows is a brief outline overview of the practice path for the beginning Nalandabodhi student. More detailed information on the practices listed below is provided to Nalandabodhi members by their Practice Instructors and by the teachers of Nalandabodhi.
The Nalandabodhi Practice Path begins with a basic resting meditation practice called calm-abiding or shamatha. While shamatha meditation is common to several spiritual traditions and has many techniques, all forms of shamatha are designed to help calm the mind and bring forth its natural qualities of spaciousness, clarity, and attentiveness. These qualities are necessary for working with the meditation practices that build upon the foundation of shamatha. Practice Instructors work with newer students to determine which technique is most beneficial and at what point to introduce another shamatha practice. After students have gained some familiarity and experience with calm-abiding for some months, they begin working with vipashyana, or "clear insight," meditation, the next key stage of the Practice Path. Like shamatha, vipashyana can also take on many forms and techniques. However, at this stage of the Practice Path, vipashyana involves the practice of analytical meditation: relying on the foundation of a calm and settled mind, the student can begin to investigate or analyze the true nature of the mind and its world. In the practice of analytical meditation, the meditator harnesses and further develops the more active, inquisitive, and penetrating qualities of the mind in order to identity and gradually transform one's mistaken beliefs concerning the nature of experience and the world. Through alternating calm-abiding with analytical meditation, the meditator gains newfound certainty and confidence in emptiness (Skt. shunyata), the spacious and open, ultimate nature of reality, and in dependent arising, the inextricable connection between the actions we perform and the quality of life we experience. Through this certainty, students gain the ability to lead a life that is of genuine and increasing benefit to themselves and others. At this stage of the Practice Path, PIs encourage students to participate in longer meditation practice periods, to join the intensive weekend sittings at the Nalandabodhi center, or to go on group practice retreats.
In Nalandabodhi, meditation is considered to be both a solitary endeavor and a group activity. PIs and their instructees, as well as the entire community, are encouraged to gather regularly for practice sessions so that all may develop wisdom and compassion through realizing mind's nature.
During this first phase of practice, students may decide to become Buddhists by taking refuge in the "three jewels": the Buddha, the dharma (the teachings of the Buddha and the Buddha's tradition), and the sangha, or community of practitioners. For answers to some Frequently Asked Questions, click here.
After a year of focus on shamatha-vipashyana practice, the Nalandabodhi path broadens to include the practices of mind training (lojong in Tibetan). Students at this stage of the path rely on instructions from the Indian and Tibetan traditions of Buddhadharma to train in the qualities of loving kindness, compassion, and bodhichitta, the heart of awakening. For example, the "Seven Points of Mind Training" is a classical Buddhist system that employs slogans that practitioners memorize and use to reverse habitual patterns of self-centricity and to nourish our ability to cherish others as much as we cherish ourselves. Another method called tonglen, or "sending and taking," utilizes the rhythm of breathing to take in the suffering of beings and send out care, love, and wishes for happiness to them. The heart-opening practices of mind training, combined with the settled mind of shamatha and the bold insights of vipashyana, soften the student's heart and bring about the recognition of fundamental compassion, inherent in everyone despite the confusion that often keeps it dormant.
Next, Nalandabodhi students continue along the path of contemplation by reflecting upon the "four reminders," thoughts that enliven our practice and inspire us to continue along the path of liberation: The precious human birth Death and impermanence Karma, cause and effect The shortcomings of samsara (confused, cyclic existence) Through repeated reflection, we deepen our conviction that our freedom to hear and practice the Buddhist teachings is not only rare, but also fleeting. We elicit a feeling of urgency, which in turn helps us seize the precious opportunity we find ourselves in (having the freedom and tools to practice the dharma) to take steps in the direction of freeing our mind from confusion and negative habitual patterns. At the same time, we also cultivate a sympathetic heart, recognizing our commonality with all beings who suffer due to similar confusion. Upon completion of a two-week contemplation of each of the four reminders, students discuss the personal significance of each reminder with their Practice Instructors. This discussion generally takes the form of an essay written by the student and sent to the PI.
The Mind Training section of the practice path is brought to fruition by taking the bodhisattva vow: an aspiration and commitment to work continuously to help all beings become free from suffering and realize their deepest potential, complete and perfect awakening.
Following the mind trainings, and in consultation with one's PI, a Nalandabodhi student may request to begin ngondro, the series of preliminary practices unique to the Vajrayana tradition. These practices prepare the student to enter into the profound practice paths of Vajrayana, Mahamudra, and Dzogchen under the guidance of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, who presents these stainless traditions based upon authentic transmissions that have been passed down from master to student throughout the centuries in India, Tibet, and, now, the Western hemisphere.
