The foundations to Mahamudra include the usual foundations of the four thoughts (the ordinary foundations) and ngondro (the uncommon foundations and also some superior foundations, which are called the four conditions.

These four superior foundations are unique to Mahamudra practice. They are unlike the ngondro, in that they are not separate practices that need to be done separately. They are four things you need to understand and keep in mind about the environment or circumstances surrounding the practice of meditation. If you understand these four things, which are called the four conditions for practice, then you will greatly enhance your practice of both the Shamatha and the Vipashyana aspects of Mahamudra.

     1. The Causal Condition

The first of the four conditions is revulsion. Revulsion here is called the causal condition, because it is the fundamental condition that must be present for meditation to occur. Essentially, revulsion here means that recollection of the fact that, having been born as human beings, we must make some appropriate use of this opportunity that we possess.24 Ideally of course, we would like to completely relinquish with our mind the things of this life and this world. But that may be an unrealistic ambition. We can, however, at least lessen our fixation on and our obsession with the things of this life by recognizing that, while indeed we have mundane responsibilities that we need to fulfil, nevertheless, the practice of dharma is of the greatest importance. Through recognizing the importance of the practice of dharma and the relative unimportance of the things of this life, one begins to cultivate revulsion. In general, of course, one cultivates revulsion through the meditations on the four general preliminaries already discussed. Among these four, that which is especially important in this context is the recollection of impermanence. The recollection of impermanence, which encourages one to practice to begin with, and the resulting revulsion it generates, are the causal condition, the first of the four conditions.

If, from the beginning, you can recollect impermanence easily, of course this is excellent. But when people start to meditate upon impermanence, they often find that it saddens them so much that they regard it as an unpleasant thing to think about. Nevertheless, impermanence and even the sadness that it inspires are of great benefit. According to the Buddha, there are three principal benefits to meditation on impermanence. The initial benefit is that impermanence, or the recollection of impermanence, is the condition that inspires one to practice dharma in the first place. It is through some understanding of impermanence that one is initially inspired to begin to practice, to enter the door of dharma. You might ask, “Having entered the door of dharma, does one then abandon the recollection of impermanence?” One does not, because subsequently, impermanence is that which encourages diligence. If one does not continue to recollect impermanence, then in spite of one’s initial inspiration, one might lose heart, or one might lose interest in dharma. For example, people often come to me and say, “I like dharma, but I cannot make myself practice. What can I do to remedy this?” I always reply, “Meditate on impermanence!”

And finally, impermanence is said to be the companion that leads to fruition, which means that the continued recollection of impermanence during the path is what actually causes one to continue along the path and causes one to attain the result. At best, of course, the result is the supreme siddhi, but at least, through practice, one will generate a state of contentment with the way one has lived one’s life through having used it in the practice of dharma. In these ways, the recollection of impermanence is absolutely essential and is therefore called the causal condition for the practice of meditation. Therefore, continue to think about impermanence. Do not neglect the contemplation of impermanence, thinking that, because it is so depressing to think about, it is best to avoid it.

2: The Principal Condition

The second of the four conditions is called the principal condition. The principal condition refers to reliance upon the guru. The guru here refers to four different aspects of the guru. The first is the guru of the lineage, who is an individual or a person. The reason one needs to rely upon another person who can function as a teacher or guru, and who holds an authentic lineage, is that, whereas in the case of mundane activities there are no doubt some things that one can figure out on one’s own, but in the case of the samadhis of Shamatha and Vipashyana, which are beyond the conventions of this world, one definitely needs the authoritative instruction of an individual with experience of these things. Therefore, one needs to rely upon a personal teacher or root guru. This root guru must hold an unbroken lineage of practical experience passed from one experienced individual to another. In short, the basic instructions of meditation cannot be gained simply through reading books, or [by figuring it out by oneself, or from unqualified teachers without authentic lineage.]

However, while relying upon the root guru, the personal guru who holds the lineage, one comes also to rely upon the second guru, which is the dictates of the sugatas, or the teachings of the Buddha [and other realized beings]. While one bases one’s practice upon the oral instructions of one’s root guru, one augments this by studying the teachings of the Buddha, the commentaries on his teachings by the great mahasiddhas, and the texts of instruction of the lineage of practice and accomplishment. Through augmenting the oral instructions of one’s guru in this way, one clarifies and reinforces them by relying upon the written teachings of other Buddhas and bodhisattvas. It is therefore important to actively pursue the study of dharma texts. In this connection, people often ask, ”Which of the many books that there are should we read?” You should principally study texts that talk about the practice of meditation, especially those that come from a lineage of experiential instruction and unbroken transmission of experience. Through doing this you will both clarify the instructions that you have previously received, so that things that you may not have understood will become clear to you, and also you will remind yourself of aspects of the teachings or instructions that you may have forgotten. Therefore, the second type of guru is the dictates of the sugatas.

With regard to this type of study, which is reliance upon the second aspect of the guru, if one studies out of mere curiosity, the desire to know more and more about dharma, then this is, in general, okay, but it is not really the appropriate approach to study for a meditator. In general, the way in which a practitioner should study is to search for instructions that will remedy specific problems one is experiencing with meditation. If one’s meditation is afflicted by lack of clarity, one should look for and study that which will enhance the clarity of one’s meditation. If one’s meditation is afflicted by lack of stability, one should look for and study that which will enhance the stability of one’s meditation. If one feels that one lacks faith and devotion, one should look for and study methods that will help to generate further faith and devotion. If one feels that one lacks adequate revulsion, one should look for and study that which will generate further revulsion. You study in order to improve your practice, not in order to acquire knowledge that you can then repeat to others, or use as a basis for debate with others. In short, if you study in order to learn more about how to practice properly, then there will be great benefit in it. That is the proper reliance upon the second aspect of the guru, which is the dictates of the sugatas.

The third aspect of the guru is the guru of dharmata or absolute truth. This is what one comes to realize through relying upon the first two aspects of the guru. Through the oral instructions of one’s personal guru and the information one acquires from the guru, which are the teachings of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, one comes to be able to realize the nature of things or dharmata. This nature of things, which can be realized and which is to be realized, is this third aspect of the guru. In general, it can be called dharmata, the nature of all things, or in the specific context of Mahamudra, the nature of the mind itself. In any case, this which is to be realized is the third aspect of the guru, the absolute guru of dharmata.

The fourth guru is the sign guru of appearances or experiences, which is the arising of what appears to you as signs or indications of dharma. By appearances or experiences we mean, first of all, those things which appear to us as external objects — visible forms, sounds, smells, tastes and tactile sensations — all of which are, in absolute truth, emptiness, but which nevertheless appear unimpededly as relative truths. By appearances and experiences we also mean the thoughts that arise in your mind: thoughts of pleasure and displeasure, of suffering and joy, and so on. This unimpeded variety of internal thoughts and external appearances is what is referred to as appearances or experience. Appearances in themselves, because they demonstrate the nature of things, are always a sign or an indication of that nature, and are therefore called the sign guru of appearances.

Of course, if you fixate on appearances, then these appearances become a condition that casts you further into samsara. But if you look at them in a different way, without fixation, then appearances themselves become the guru, because the impermanence of appearances is a reminder of impermanence. And the emptiness of appearances is an indication of emptiness. Appearances and their change and their variety can inspire devotion and so on. It is not the case that appearances in and of themselves teach you dharma per se; they rather demonstrate it, or embody it. Therefore, if you understand appearances, if you recognize them to be as they are, then they are always signs of dharma, signs of the illusory nature of appearances, signs of the dreamlike nature of things, and so on. Therefore, the recognition of appearances is the fourth guru, the sign guru of appearances.

The reliance upon these four aspects of the guru is the second condition, the principal condition.

     3. The Focal Condition

The third condition is called the focal condition and refers to that on which you are focusing, to that which you are attempting to realize through your practice of meditation. It refers to the object of the Shamatha and Vipashyana meditations of Mahamudra. Here, however, the object of meditation is not produced through speculative analysis, or any philosophical system, rather it is completely divorced from any adherence to an intellectual stance or position. Here the object of meditation is the direct recognition of the nature of things, just as they are, which is therefore far superior to and very different in characteristics from the ascertainment of things through analysis. That nature of things is the focal condition, or the object of the Mahamudra meditations of Shamatha and Vipashyana.

With regard to this focal condition, the nature of things is presented differently in the various vehicles or aspects of dharma. For example, in the common vehicle it is basically presented as selflessness, in particular the selflessness of persons, the lack of inherent existence of persons. The benefit of this presentation is obvious. Since the root of all disturbing emotions is fixation on a personal self, then the discovery, through rigorous analysis, that there is no personal self produces some liberation from this fixation, because one has recognized that this fixation is based upon a fundamental mistake and is therefore unnecessary. For that reason then, the egolessness of persons is presented. In other contexts and other vehicles it is presented that the nature of things is the emptiness of all things without exception, and through coming to understand that emptiness, one comes to gradually free oneself from fixation, not only on this falsely imputed personal self, but also on falsely imputed external things as well. Here, however, in this uncommon or special tradition of practical instruction, we concern ourselves only with the nature of the mind.

We do so, first, because the root of all of our pleasure and pain is not external things in and of themselves, but the mind that generates these attitudes or experiences. Therefore, resolution — coming to a definitive understanding — of the nature of one’s mind is of foremost importance. We concern ourselves only with the nature of mind, secondly, because the nature of the mind is very easy to view and can be viewed directly by anyone. It does not need to be speculated upon or figured out through analysis. There is no need to generate expectations about what the nature of the mind is, based upon an adherence to a specific tradition, and there is no need to fabricate some kind of understanding of the mind’s nature through analysis. The nature of mind can be directly recognized. Therefore, the focal condition in this context of Mahamudra is the direct recognition of the mind’s nature, just as it is, without any kind of adherence to any intellectually contrived view.

The focal condition is essentially the object or concern or focus of the meditation itself, which one focuses on through the methods of both Shamatha and Vipashyana. Initially, one uses the Shamatha technique to calm the mind to the point where its nature can be easily viewed or discerned. Then one uses the two aspects of Vipashyana — viewing [or looking at] the mind, and identifying or pointing out the mind’s nature — in order to gradually come to a decisive recognition of that nature.

     4. The Immediate Condition

The fourth condition is called the immediate or direct condition. This is the direct circumstance that is the immediate or direct cause of, or condition for, meditation. This is the absence of fixation on meditation and the contents of meditation experience, which means being without great hope for or anxiety about progress in one’s meditation, the clarity of one’s meditative state, and so on. It is to apply oneself in a stable way with continuous exertion to the practice of meditation without any specific hope for acquiring a certain result. It is being without the thought, “I am meditating. This meditative state is unclear. I must make it clear. Oh, this is not empty. I must somehow cause it to appear to be empty, because I expect it to be empty,” and so on. Being without such fabrication, such kinds of hope and anxiety, is this fourth condition.

The attitude that one’s meditation must become good and that one must have pleasant experiences will tend to corrupt one’s practice of meditation. You need to take the attitude that, if meditation experiences of whatever kind occur, that is fine; if they do not, that is also fine. If you do not take that kind of uncompromising attitude towards experiences that arise, then whenever a particularly pleasant or particularly lucid experience of meditation occurs, you will make a big deal out of it. In fact, you will, in your memory of it, exaggerate it. Therefore, fixating on this exaggerated memory of that pleasant or lucid meditation experience, naturally, in your next session, you will be disappointed, because what you are fixating on is, in fact, an exaggeration of what occurred. That disappointment will have repercussions that will gradually corrupt your practice. Therefore, in your practice you simply need to rest in the nature of whatever arises; whether your meditation experience is pleasant or unpleasant, is lucid or torpid — it makes no difference. In any case, simply observe the nature of whatever arises. That is the fourth condition, the immediate or direct condition.

These four conditions are not separate meditation practices. It is not the case that you begin a session thinking, “I am now going to meditate on the focal condition;” or “I am now going to meditate on the principal condition,” and so on. These are things about the basic environment or circumstances of meditation practice in general, however, that need to be understood and kept in mind. Through an understanding and recollection of these four conditions, then if you lack exertion, you will develop exertion; if your meditation lacks lucidity, it will develop lucidity. These four conditions are equally important for somebody beginning the practice of meditation and for someone who is already experienced with the practice of meditation. All practitioners really need to rely upon and recollect these four conditions. However, while these four conditions need to be kept in mind, they are not separate practices that are cultivated separately from the main practice.