One should really train and transform the mind because that is the sole purpose of ngöndro. It should make the mind very conducive, pliable and receptive to the meditation instructions that one will receive after ngöndro. For instance, when one contemplates on the preciousness and rareness of human body or the state of being a human being, one should really be able to convince oneself that this is a very precious opportunity that will help one to breakthrough this cycle of existence and reach enlightenment. In the same way, the meditation of impermanence should instil the sense of urgency that one must immediately embark on the spiritual journey because this precious human state is very transient and precarious.

It’s really the impact these practices have on one’s mind, which is the most important aspect of ngöndro practice, not numbers, duration of practice or the hardships one goes through. If after doing ngöndro practices many times, one still remains very spiritually insensitive and unreceptive person who is still attached to the world, then the purpose of ngöndro is lost.

The ngöndro practice, as put in the Kagyü teachings, helps one in four steps: to turn one’s mind from the worldly affairs towards dharma, to make dharma practice an effective path, to dispel any misconceptions and obstacles on the path and to see all misconceptions and obstacles as a bare experience as innate wisdom.

Karma Phuntsho is the Director of Shejun Agency for Bhutan’s Cultural Documentation and Research, founder of the Loden Foundation and the author of The History of Bhutan. The piece was initially published in Bhutan’s national newspaper Kuensel in a series called Why We Do What We Do.