Empty in essence, expansive like space and free from the limits of conceptual elaboration, is the Dharmakaya.

With the nature of clarity, blazing brightly like the sun and ornamented with the signs and marks, is the Sambhogakaya.

The display of compassionate energy, manifesting in various ways out of compassion, is the Nirmanakaya.

At the feet of the Lama, inseparable from the three kayas, I make heartfelt prostrations, my body, speech and mind filled with devotion.

The rivers of the mind-direct, sign and aural transmissions,

All come together and converge in Jikme Lingpa,

His wisdom-mind treasure was the Heart-Essence of Nyingtik,

And it is to the recited words of its preliminary practices,

That I now compose this commentary.

Blessing the Speech

Firstly there is the blessing of the speech. The syllables OM, AH and HUNG are the essence of the enlightened body, speech and mind. They purify obscurations of speech and bless your own ordinary body, speech and mind with the enlightened body, speech and mind. Upon your tongue faculty is a bright syllable RAM, from which arises a fire, consuming all defilements and obscurations of speech. The fire transforms into a three-spoked vajra of red light. In its centre, or belly, are the vowel and consonant mantras, and around them is the Essence of Dependent Origination. The syllables are like a string of pearls. From them stream out five-coloured rays of light with countless offering substances at their tips, to the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions, thereby pleasing them. Then as the rays of light converge back, the letters of the vowel and consonant mantra and the Essence of Dependent Origination descend like rain and dissolve into your speech chakra, purifying all your obscurations of speech. And through this, all the blessings and siddhis of the vajra speech of the buddhas and bodhisattvas are obtained. If you recite the vowel and consonant mantras and the Essence of Dependent Origination seven times, or three times, at dawn before anything else, it is said that the power of your speech will be multiplied one hundred million times.

THE ACTUAL NGÖNDRO

1. The Ordinary Preliminaries

Within the actual preliminary practice, there are the ordinary (outer) and extraordinary (inner) preliminaries. The ordinary (outer) preliminaries are reflections on: the difficulty of gaining the freedoms and endowments; death and impermanence; the karmic principles of cause and effect; the defects of samsara; and how to follow a spiritual teacher.

a. The Difficulty of Gaining the Freedoms and Endowments

This first section consists of an invocation of the master’s wisdom mind, and recognition of the freedoms and endowments.

i. Invocation of the Master’s Wisdom Mind

Firstly, as you recite “O lama, care for me!” three times, pray one-pointedly with an uncontrived faith that is vivid, eager and confident. Vivid faith comes from thinking of the qualities of the master and the Three Jewels. It is a very vivid and joyful state similar to the way a small child feels when seeing its mother. Eager faith is the eager wish to abandon negative actions having reflected on their faults; and the eager wish to undertake positive actions having considered the benefits they bring. It is similar to the yearning thatsomeone suffering from extreme thirst has for water. Confident faith is a confidence in the qualities of the master and the Three Jewels, which cannot be shaken by temporary circumstances or events, and a trust in the laws of cause and effect strong enough to survive the worst kind of circumstances such as illness. This is the kind of faith one should have.

If you don’t have this kind of faith, and you just mouth the words “O lama!” and call out, you won’t receive any blessings. It says in the sutras:

The pure Dharma will not arise in those without faith,

Just as fresh shoots will not grow from burnt seeds.

So, giving an example to illustrate this kind of faith, the text says, “The blossoming lotus of devotion at the centre of my heart.” When you go to sleep at night, consider that the lama descends from the top of your head [to your heart] and then fall asleep with your mind indivisibly united with the master’s wisdom mind.

Then, as soon as you get up, early in the morning, recite, “O lama, care for me!” three times, with the three kinds of faith described above. Like a lotus flower blossoming in the sunlight, the eight-petalled lotus at your heart unfurls its petals through the strength of your faith. Pray to your only constant refuge in this life and the next, your lama, whose supreme compassion for you is such that he rises out of the state of great bliss and simplicity of the dharmakaya, in his “form body”. Pray with these words :“Please look upon me with compassion! I have accumulated negative karma and harmful actions in the past, and now, as a result, I am plagued by turbulent emotions, which are so strong that I suffer terrible misfortune in my Dharma practice that hinders my progress on the path. To protect me from the enemy of disturbing emotions, rise up through the central channel to the space above the chakra of great bliss at the crown of my head, upon a lotus, and sun and moon disc seats. Remain there as the jewel ornament and lord of my buddha family until I attain enlightenment, I pray!”

The method for guarding the mind from the disturbing emotions is described in the Bodhicharyavatara:

If, with the rope of mindfulness,

You bind firm the elephant of the mind,

You will let go of every fear,

And find virtue close at hand.

Your mind is like an elephant or a wild horse. The mindfulness of focusing on virtuous states of mind like faith, or devotion, is like a rope or a tethering post. And the awareness, which discerns whether or not mind remains in that virtuous state, is like a shepherd. So, as a guard to ensure that you are never distracted from mindfulness and awareness, you invoke the lama, by praying: “Rise up out of compassion from the expanse of the dharmakaya, so that my mind does not become distracted from what is virtuous. And look upon me with your eyes of wisdom, I pray!”