Philosophy and Religion / The twenty-eight categories of yogic precepts.

Gampopa (Dvagpo-Lharje)

XXII. The Ten Necessary Things

(1) At the very outset [of one’s religious career] one should have so profound an aversion for the continuous succession of deaths and births [to which all who have not attained Enlightenment are subject] that one will wish to flee from it even as a stag fleet from captivity.

(2) The next necessary thing is perseverance so great that one regretteth not losing of one’s life [in the quest for Enlightenment], like a husbandman who tilleth his fields and regretteth not the tilling even though he die on the morrow.

(3) The third necessary thing is joyfulness of mind like that of a man who hath accomplished a great deed of far-reaching influence.

(4) Again, one should comprehend that, as with a man dangerously wounded by an arrow, there is not a moment of time to be wasted.

(5) One needeth ability to fix the mind on a single thought even a doth a mother who hath lost her only son.

(6) Another necessary thing is to understand that there is no need of doing anything,¹ even as a cowherd whose cattle have been driven off by enemies understandeth that he can do nothing to recover them.

(7) It is primarily requisite for one to hunger after the Doctrine even as a hungry man hungereth after good food.

(8) One needeth to be as confident of one’s mental ability as doth a strong man of his physical ability to hold fast to a precious gem which he hath found.

(9) One must expose the fallacy of dualism as one doth the falsity of a liar.

(10) One must have confidence in the Thatness [as being the Sole Refuge] even as an exhausted crow far from land hath confidence in the mast of the ship upon which it resteth.

These are The Ten Necessary Things.

Footnotes

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