To What Aim

“Since, out of all the various paths, it is the Mahayana that you have now taken up, all practices–the ten positive actions, the four boundless qualities, the six transcendent perfections, the four concentrations, the four formless states, sustained calm and profound insight-should be done with perfect Buddhahood as your sole aim, and with the three supreme methods: giving rise to bodhicitta as preparation, remaining free of conceptualization during the actual meditation and closing with prayers of dedication.”

…

Arouse bodicitta of great liberation of Buddhahood , contemplate the characteristics of a Buddha:

The four boundless qualities:

1. love
2. compassion
3. sympathetic joy
4. impartiality/equanimity 

The 6 perfections (paramitas):

1. generosity
2. discipline
3. patience
4. diligence
5. meditation
6. wisdom (prajna)

The 10 powers:

1. the power of knowing what is true and what is not
2. the power of knowing karmic causality at work in the lives of all beings throughout past, present, and future
3. the power of knowing all stages of concentration, emancipation, and meditation
4. the power of knowing the conditions of life of all people
5. the power of discerning all people’s levels of understanding
6. the power of discerning the superiority or inferiority of all people’s capacity
7. the power of knowing the effects of all people’s actions
8. the power of remembering past lifetimes
9. the power of knowing when each person will be born and will die, and in what realm that person will be reborn
10. the power of eradicating all illusions

The 4 fearlessnesses:

1. fearlessness in asserting their own perfect realization
2. fearlessness in asserting their own perfect abandonment
3. fearlessness for the sake of others in revealing the path to liberation
4. fearlessness for the sake of others in revealing potential hindrances on the path

The 18 unshared qualities:

• (1-10) the 10 powers
• (11-14) the 4 fearlessnesses
• (15-17) the three close-mindfulnesses
  1. to avoid attachment towards those who listen respectfully
  2. to avoid hatred towards those who do not listen respectfully
  3. to avoid indifference towards those who do neither
• (18) great compassion.

The 4 awarenesses:

1. awareness of the body as transient, compounded form
2. awareness of feelings as conditioned, reactive responses
3. awareness of mind as habituated, temporary moods
4. awareness of phenomena as constructed mental states.

Selections from: “Words of My Perfect Teacher” by Patrol Rinpoche and “The 100-Day Ngondro Retreat” by His Eminence Lopon Natsok Zugchen