APPENDIX 3

Outline of The Complete Foundation (Delam)

I. The Mode of Relying on a Spiritual Master, the Foundation of the Path

A. Activities during the session

1. Preliminary activities

2. Activities during main session

a) Reliance through thought

b) Reliance through action

(1) Cultivating faith, the root factor

(2) Cultivating respect through recollecting kindness

3. Concluding activities

B. Activities during between-session periods

II. The Stages of Training the Mind Based on Such a Reliance

A. Persuading to take the essence of fully endowed human existence

1. Activities during the session

a) Preliminaries

b) The main session

(1) Reflecting on the great value of leisure and fortune

(2) Reflecting on its rarity

c) The concluding activities

B. The manner in which to actually take the essence

1. Training the mind in the stages of path common to the practitioners of initial capacity

a) Activities during the session

(1) Preliminaries

(2) The main session

(a) Meditation on death-awareness

(b) Reflecting on the sufferings of lower realms

(c) Taking refuge in the Three Jewels

(d) Generating conviction in the karmic law

(3) The concluding activities

b) Activities during between-session periods

2. Training the mind in the stages of path common to those of middle capacity

a) Generating the aspiration to achieve liberation

(1) Activities during the session

(a) Preliminaries

(b) The main session

i) Reflecting on the sufferings of cyclic existence in general

ii) Reflecting on the specific sufferings of individual realms

(c) The concluding activities

(2) Activities during between-session periods

b) Presentation of the nature of the paths leading to liberation

(1) Activities during the session

(a) Preliminaries

(b) The main session

(c) The concluding activities

(2) Activities during between-session periods

3. Training the mind in the stages of path common to those of great capacity

a) The mode of cultivating bodhicitta

(1) The actual generation of the mind

(a) Generating bodhicitta through the instruction of seven-point cause and effect

i) Meditation on equanimity

Preliminaries

The main session

The concluding activities

ii) The seven-points

Recognition of all beings as having been one’s mother

Recollection of their kindness

Repaying the kindness

Loving kindness

Great compassion

Superior attitude

Bodhicitta

(b) Generating bodhicitta through the instruction on equality and exchange of oneself with others

i) Activities during the session

Preliminaries

The main session

The concluding activities

ii) Activities during between-session periods

(2) Reinforcing the generated altruistic mind through ceremony

(a) Activities during the session

i) Preliminaries

ii) The main session

The way in which the vows are received

How to protect the vows from degeneration

iii) The concluding activites

(b) Activities during between-session periods

b) The mode of engaging in the deeds following the generation of the altruistic mind

(1) Training in the bodhisattva deeds in general

(a) Activities during the session

i) Preliminaries

ii) The main session

Generosity

Morality

Patience

Joyous effort

Concentration

Wisdom

The four ripening factors

iii) The concluding activities

(b) Activities during between-session periods

(2) Training in the last two perfections in particular

(a) Training in calm-abiding, the essence of concentration

i) Activities during the session

Preliminaries

The main session

The concluding activities

ii) Activities during between-session periods

(b) Training in special insight, the essence of wisdom

i) Activities during the session

Preliminaries

The main session meditations

On the selflessness of persons

On the selflessness of phenomena

On non-inherent existence of compounded phenomena

On non-inherent existence of uncompounded phenomena

The concluding activities

ii) Activities during between-session periods