Geshe Chekawa’s (1102–1176) seven-point mental training begins right at the beginning, with the preliminaries. These antecedents are the unsatisfying nature of precious human life, karma and rebirth, impermanence and death, and samsara (the cycle of birth and death) as experienced by our ordinary, conceptual mind. Everyone who has completed the tantric background, or the gardenhe knows that we must first think these thoughts to acknowledge our good circumstances and motivate us. Commonly known as “the four thoughts that turn the mind towards dharma”.
First, the train in the heat
The slogan of this point is simple: First, train in the preliminaries. These previews are important because they encourage us. So often, as we move along our path, a problem or something more exciting comes up, and then our path and practice become diluted. We lose interest; we lose inspiration. This means that we must develop a strong sense of purpose. Why bother practicing? We have to remind ourselves again and again what it is, because no matter what tradition we belong to, there is always the understanding that this is samsara: it is like a prison and we are all trapped. We must escape the prison of samsara, either by leaving it behind or transforming it: Realizing that samsara and nirvana refer to the mind from the beginning, and understanding things as they really are, samsara is transformed into nirvana. So there’s really nothing to run away from. However, as long as we are enraptured in the prison house, we must simply call it empty words. These previews remind us that we are both in prison and have a chance to escape.
There are various ways to practice the four thoughts that turn the mind. It is possible to integrate reflections as part of a wider practice. For example, our nuns at Dongyu Gatsal Ling Monastery recite some verses related to the preliminaries every morning before meditation, which helps to give them proper motivation for the practice. We can sit down to these musings one by one and dive deeply into each of them one by one. Again, the point of each is to remind us that our circumstances are incredibly unique and precious, and we should make the most of them while we can.
The value of human life
The first of the antecedents is the generation of gratitude for being able to attain a precious human body and mind. Most readers probably already know this, but it’s worth reminding. We should immediately start our dharma practice, thinking, “Well, we are not lucky to have this opportunity!” Even in today’s world we see so clearly that most people do not have a dharma path. They may be very wealthy and have everything on the outside, but inside they feel so empty because their lives have no meaning beyond acquiring more and more. We all know that. Or perhaps they are born into a situation where they do not have the opportunity to practice the dharma. In many countries even today there is no opportunity to study the dharma. Especially for women, educational and social opportunities are not available even in India.
Literacy means being able to pick up a book, read it, and understand it. I think a lot of people don’t realize how rare this is. Even among our nuns, some may be able to read the words but not understand their meaning. This is also why it is so important for nuns to study, as traditionally they did not. With education, we can pick up a book and, if it’s not about an arcane subject like quantum physics, we can understand what it’s saying. This is a huge advantage.
We can learn, then we can think. We can keep two or three different views in our heads and think them through. Buddha said that first we hear or read, then we go and think about it. Do the things we have learned make sense? What is the real meaning of this? what’s the point Then, if we agree, we can practice and incorporate it into our lives.
A valuable human birth basically means that we have all the advantages and so on, but the bottom line is that we have the freedom to find and practice the spiritual path. Basically, we should desire the dharma because we can be in a Buddhist country and have teachers who speak our language and still not care. This is very common nowadays as you know. Instead, there is an external belief based on culture. People say “om mani padme hung” and go around, but the real interest in practicing the dharma and using it in everyday life is simply not there. Sincere faith is quite rare these days.
So, if these reasons and conditions come together, don’t lose the chance. We ourselves have created these reasons and conditions for encountering the dharma in this and previous lives. This is no accident; the situation did not arise out of nowhere. However, if in this life we do not make good use of the opportunity to develop ourselves according to our abilities, who knows where we will go next time? The opportunity to practice dharma may not come again. Therefore, the first and most important consideration is the value of human birth. We must not waste this life and die with regrets.
Death and Permanence
The second trailer is a meditation on death and impermanence. Everything changes from moment to moment and we don’t know how much time is left in this life. Just because we are young doesn’t mean we won’t die tomorrow – especially on Indian roads. People who are still young, healthy and fit can have a heart attack; they may have an accident. Anything can happen – we just don’t know. We cannot say with confidence how long we will live. Maybe we do, maybe we don’t. Everything is temporary, but one thing is certain in life, and that is death. This is the only thing we have in common: absolutely 100 percent of us will die.
The Buddha said that if we could do only one meditation, it should be meditation on impermanence and death. This is not to make us miserable, but to help us realize how precious this human life is while we have it. It reminds us that we won’t live forever, so it’s better to practice now.
Karma and rebirth
The third trailer is karma and rebirth. Continue reading this text at this moment looongand you are a member of a small part of society, of all the beings in the world who read this. You have somehow created the reasons and conditions for reading this dharma text. This is seen as the result of your past actions or karmas. You may think that you have made the decision, but in reality you are guided by your own actions from your past lives and this life. It all came together so that at this point you had the desire and opportunity to pick up this book and start reading.
So much of what happens to us, especially the basic things that happen to us, is the result of causes and conditions that we ourselves have created. How we respond to these situations creates more causes and conditions as we continually shape our future. Moment by moment, we devour the past and create the future. All this is constantly unfolding.
Moment by moment, we devour the past and create the future. All this is constantly unfolding.
Most of the events in our lives are not arbitrary, not just coincidences, but part of our individual pattern that we are currently experiencing. That’s why it’s very important that whatever happens to us – this is part of the fun again – we don’t judge it as good or bad. We need to think, “How can I respond to this situation with compassion and intelligence in a way that opens up future opportunities?” Many things that happen to us are only good or bad according to our narrow, egoistic ideas. It often happens that the things we consider unfortunate turn out to be the best possible thing. Likewise, the things we think are great don’t necessarily lead to much. Therefore, we should not judge things based on whether they are comfortable or uncomfortable for our ego; instead, ask yourself, “What can I learn from this? What will this teach me?”
Suffering of Samsara
The fourth of the previews is the difficult state of samsara. It doesn’t matter if it looks like a god’s realm or the hell realm we live in, it’s still part of the prison. We are still trapped. It is not our external circumstances that trap us, but our own internal error and ego-grasping. And as long as we maintain this basic ignorance of how things really are, we will suffer. We suffer because everything is temporary, yet we want it to be safe and stable. We just don’t know what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen, how it’s going to happen, and yet our ego wants everything to be safe and orderly and go the way the ego says things should go. Ego equals ignorance, so why do we endlessly pursue ignorance?
Again and again, the dharma tries to help us break even for a moment to see things as they really are and not as our ordinary, deluded, conceptual mind thinks.
♦
From Change your mind, change your life © 2026, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc. Boulder, CO. www.shambhala.com
