This is Lesson 14 from A Comprehensive Commentary on the Words of My Perfect Teacher, formally opening the teaching on the sequence of preliminary practices and introducing the first chapter on the difficulty of finding the freedoms and advantages.
The lesson opens with the story of Atisha secretly entrusting the entire ngondro sequence to Dromtönpa rather than the secret mantras — because no other disciple was worthy of it — and Geshe Chengawa's declaration that even a bare conviction about the stages of the path is worth more than five psychic powers and eight siddhis attained countless times without liberation. The teacher then introduces the eight states without freedom one by one, drawing on both Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist sources. Each state — from the hell realms to being born deaf or mentally deficient — is brought alive with contemporary illustrations: a practitioner slipping into a blank stupor at home likened to a long-lived god, families shaming their newly ordained children as examples of border countries, and nihilists who cannot distinguish the Three Jewels from precious stones as examples of wrong view.
The lesson closes with a call to self-discipline: however busy our lives, we can always find half an hour to practice.
Practice Guide
To practice the meditation related to this teaching, please refer to:
