| Philosophy and Religion / The twenty-eight categories of yogic precepts. |
Gampopa (Dvagpo-Lharje)
VII. The Ten Things To Be Practised
(1) One should acquire practical knowledge of the Path by treading it, and not be as are the multitude [who profess, but do not practice, religion].
(2) By quitting one’s own country and dwelling in foreign lands one should acquire practical knowledge of non-attachment.1
(3) Having chosen a religious preceptor, separate thyself from egotism and follow his teachings implicitly.
(4) Having acquired mental discipline by hearing and meditating upon religious teachings, boast not of thine attainment, but apply it to the realization of truth.
(5) Spiritual knowledge having dawned in oneself, neglect it not through slothfulness, but cultivate it with ceaseless vigilance.
(6) Once having experienced spiritual illumination, commune with it in solitude, relinquishing the worldly activities of the multitude.
(7) Having acquired practical knowledge of spiritual things and made the Great Renunciation, permit not the body, speech, or mind to become unruly, but observe the three vows, of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
(8) Having resolved to attain the Highest Goal, abandon selfishness and devote thyself to the service of others.
(9) Having entered upon the mystic Mantrayānic Pathway, permit not the body, the speech or the mind to remain unsanctified, but practice the threefold maṇḍala.2
(10) During the period of youth, frequent not those who cannot direct thee spiritually, but acquire practical knowledge painstakingly at the feet of a learned and pious guru.
These are The Ten Things To Be Practised.
Footnotes
1. This implies non-attachment to all worldly possessions, to home and kin, as to the tyranny of social intercourse and custom, which commonly cause the attached to fritter life away in what Milarepa calls the worthless doings of this world. As Milarepa so wisely teaches, ‘All worldly pursuits have but the one unavoidable and inevitable end, which is sorrow: acquisitions end in dispersion; buildings in destruction; meetings in separation; births in death.’ (See Tibet’s Great Yogi Milarepa).
All Great Sages, in every land and generation, have traversed the Garden of Human Existence, have plucked and eaten of the glamorous vari-coloured fruits of the Tree of Life growing in the midst thereof, and, as a result, have attained world-disillusionment, whereby man first sees that Divine Vision which alone can give him imperishable contentment both now and in the hour of his death.
Ecclesiastes, the Jewish Sage, who was once ‘king over Israel in Jerusalem’, in language very much like that of Milarepa, tells us, ‘I have seen all the works that are under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.’ (Ecclesiastes i.14.)
2. A maṇḍala is a symbolical geometrical diagram wherein deities are invoked. The threefold maṇḍala is dedicated to the spiritual forces (often personified as Tantric deities) presiding over, or manifesting through, the body, the speech, and the mind of man, as in Kuṇḍalinī Yoga.
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